Senate votes to kill worker safety rules for fed contractors

WASHINGTON — President Trump and congressional Republicans are poised to roll back a series of Obama-era worker safety regulations targeted by business groups, beginning with a vote by the Senate Monday night to kill a rule that required federal contractors to disclose and correct serious safety violations.

The Senate was set to vote Monday evening to eliminate the regulation, dubbed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. Finalized in August and blocked by a court order in October, the rule would limit the ability of companies with recent safety problems to complete for government contracts unless they agreed to remedies.

In a narrow vote that divided along party lines, the Senate voted 49-48 to eliminate the regulation, dubbed the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule. Finalized in August and blocked by a court order in October, the rule would limit the ability of companies with recent safety problems to complete for government contracts unless they agreed to remedies.

The measure to abolish it has already cleared the House. The next step after the Senate vote would be the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it.The measure to abolish it has already cleared the House. The next step after the Senate vote will be the White House, where Trump is expected to sign it.

A half-dozen other worker safety regulations are also in Republican crosshairs, with one headed to the Senate floor as soon as this week. Many are directed at companies with federal contracts. Such companies employ 1 in 5 American workers — meaning the effort could have wide-ranging effects.

"This is the opening salvo of the Republican's war on workers," said Deborah Berkowitz, who was a senior policy adviser at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when many of the regulations were crafted. "It sends a signal that Congress and the administration is listening to big business and their lobbyists and they are not standing up for the interests of the American workers."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other leading business groups have urged Congress and the Trump administration to eliminate the regulations, arguing that they discourage businesses from competing for government contracts, thereby reducing jobs.

"This is the same old playbook from the left that never changes," said Randy Johnson, the Chamber's senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits. "Any changes in employment laws proposed by the employer community is disingenuously described as an attack on workers. The left has never seen a regulation they don't like, no matter how many jobs it kills."

Hours before the Senate vote on the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a staff report that says that 66 of the federal government's 100 largest contractors have at some point violated federal wage and hour laws. Since 2015, the report says, more than a third of the 100 largest OSHA penalties have been imposed on federal contractors.