Elaine Chao Must Withdraw 'Secret Rule'
This morning, the Washington Post exposed the Bush administration's latest ploy that could radically change the way health and safety regulations are issued. This secret regulation is a clear attempt by the Bush administration and the business community to fundamentally weaken the scientific process for enacting new regulations that protect American workers.
Today, Senator Kennedy and I demanded that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao withdraw this rule immediately and turn over all communications with outside special interests and other documents relating to proposed rule. You can read the letter here.
As we state in our letter, it is disturbing that the Department of Labor is moving this proposal over the objections of career staff in the relevant health and safety agencies. Such career staff have the objective, technical expertise and experience to fully understand the proposal's implications for workers.
The Bush administration will stop at nothing to rush through a secret rule that will tie the hands of health and safety experts when responding to our nation's critical health and safety threats.
But, that's really no surprise at all. For nearly eight years, this administration has consistently failed to respond in a meaningful way to the real health and safety threats workers face while on the job. We've seen it when it comes to failing to protect workers who handle a dangerous artificial butter flavoring, ensuring that underground miners are sufficiently protected, and making sure construction workers are able to return home safe after their shift.
Cross-posted at the EdLabor Journal.
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The 111th Congress is going to be very busy undoing all of the harm which RWR, GHWB & W have done. The 111th will have to renew & update New Deal legislation plus giving all American's gov't paid universal health care. Undoing Secty Chao's work is a high priority. The US Dept of Labor has been eviscerated & left so weak that it can't protect workers.
Chou was selected to weaken labor laws, union bust and further corporate ambitions. She has "never" fostered one regulation that would enhance the safety or welfare of the working class. K Street is doing everything it can to further corporate advantages prior to January, 2009. Most of our present financial ills have been orchestrated to stampede Congress into acting on behalf of big business. Off-shore drilling, Anwar, etc. are just the tip of the iceberg. And the marriage between Chou and whats-his-
Many of us have expected that the Bush Administration would attempt to expand its legacy of abuses beyond its term by "poisoning the well" before they leave. This is another example, as is the categorization of birth control as "abortifacients".
Every regulation, executive order, and proposal for legislation should be scoured for mis-intention. Also, since departments such as Labor, were created with specific legislative intent, it may be that "secret rules" and other such abuses violate the statutes which created them.
Congress needs to declare the Bush Administration ended before they can do any mor damage! Do you hear us Pelosi and Reid?
The Bush maladministration makes secret rules and is the foe of science. How many times must this executive branch show its disdain for the citizens and the Constitution until they are held accountable?
The fundamental nature of representative government and a Democratic Republic is that rule making is open and based on the best scientific data available. Everything about this proposal to change the labor laws goes against the idea of Democracry and instead has the serious and offensive taint of despotism, tyranny, or monarchy; three forms of governance all American citizens should rightly abhor.
Elaine Chao is married to U.S.Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), the current U.S. Senate Minority Leader.
I wish she would use his name like a normal conservative wife. The public could see how intertwined this administration is.
The company I worked for for 26 years fought the Union on almost every single safety measure. But when someone did get hurt the company always tried to lay all the blame at the feet of the hourly worker. The company falsified stuff from their own home office. We had to file grievances to get even simple safety things done in accordance with labor laws.
My thanks to Rep. Miller and Senator Kennedy for challenging Labor Sec. Chao on this egregious rule. I only hope that when she refuses to turn over the documents requested that the Congress has the necessary backbone to go to the mat on this. We need more than posturing on this we need the Congress to hold these people accountable because our lives depend upon it.
Oh please, you make it sound like our administration cares about our lives. They make it crystal clear exactly how much they worry about us. (Think Katrina, Afganistan, Iraq.)
Think ENRON, the raiding of the 401Ks and the offshore banking, the Electricity Robbery in California when Enron increased the electricity price by 2000% (yes 20 times), the fact we will never know how many people died from Katrina, and then total mess of Iraq and Afghanista
How much more damage can Bush/Cheney do? Obama is going to have to really clean house to put things right when he takes office. Thank God a few in Congress are still watching closely these brazen moves and calling them out on it. We'll see whether they pay any attention. Pelosi should never have taken impeachment off the table.
Elaine Chao took an oath to obey George W. Bush. She owes the American people nothing.
For not doing her job, she should be impeached.
SHOULD be.
There is no excuse for what is going on. Every single member of this Adminstration, with the exception of Gates, is not only deserving of impeachment, but the health of the nation demands it.
Dear Hopeless277,
You have an odd sense of the way our government works.....
mention the President or his office....
the laws of the United States.
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