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   Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise to call to the attention of my colleagues and the many people across this Nation the fact that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rushed to judgment and published a huge, extremely burdensome ergonomics rule. They had talked about this previously with bipartisan support. We had included in the Labor-HHS bill, as well as others, legislative vehicles stating that they should not go forward with this measure because of the burdens it imposed. I have in my hand the voluminous computer printout of the rule. I chair the small business committee, and I can just see the thrill and excitement with which a small business will view this rule coming down on their backs.

   I hope this body can take action to stop the implementation of this rule

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   In the last 7 years, the incidence of ergonomics injuries has gone down by a third--26 percent in carpal tunnel syndrome and 33 percent in tendonitis. It is in the interest of employers and employees to reduce to the greatest extent possible the very painful, time-consuming and profit-consuming impact of ergonomics injuries.

   Well, OSHA decided they had been working on this for a long time and they wanted to get something out the door before the Clinton administration left office. Our political friends said we have to have an ergonomics rule. This overrules State workers compensation laws and tells employees if they have an ergonomics injury, they can collect more workers comp than the State provides them. We are overruling State workers comp laws.

   It also tells employees that if you get an ergonomics injury--say you are in a bowling league on your own time, or you are crocheting in the evening and you come up with an ergonomics injury--if that is made worse by the job that you are doing, then your employer has had it. This ergonomics rule doesn't give any sound guidelines on how employers and employees working together can reduce ergonomics injuries. That is what we need from OSHA, not a punitive measure which says if somebody has an ergonomics injury, you are dead; your workers comp account is going to be held hostage and you are going to be subject to lawsuits.

   All this says is, that if the highway speed limit sign says don't drive too fast and you are driving down the road at what you think is a reasonable speed and a State trooper flags you over and says: You know what, you were going 40 miles an hour, and I think 35 miles an hour is a reasonable speed, so you are guilty. That is precisely what they propose to do with this ergonomics regulation, and it affects businesses of all sizes.

   I have talked to soft drink distributors who say: If we don't go out of business, we are going to have to buy equipment and get rid of employees to have machines doing the work. You can talk to people in the delivery business--express delivery or any other delivery business--and they know that no matter what they try to do, even if they continue to reduce the incidence of ergonomics injuries, any time there is an ergonomics injury, they are going to be held responsible even if they didn't initially cause it. Well, we have the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement and Fairness Act and we have lawsuits that are about to be filed by many organizations representing small business. I support those lawsuits. I hope this body can act to stop the implementation of this draconian rule.

   I yield the floor.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa now has 15 minutes.

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I understand I am recognized for up to 15 minutes.

   The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.

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