Copyright 2000 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.
St.
Louis Post-Dispatch
June 23, 2000, Friday, FIVE STAR LIFT EDITION
SECTION: NEWS, Pg. A5
LENGTH: 430 words
HEADLINE:
SENATE VOTES TO BLOCK RULES DESIGNED TO COMBAT STRESS INJURIES;
DRUG PLAN
FOR MEDICARE RECIPIENTS ALSO IS REJECTED
BYLINE:
Deirdre Shesgreen; Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
In two contentious votes Thursday, the Senate adopted an amendment
that would block federal regulations designed to combat certain workplace
injuries and killed a prescription drug plan for Medicare recipients.
The workplace amendment, offered by Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo.,
would stop for one year the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration from issuing rules requiring employers to protect
workers from repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and back
disorders.
Bond and other Republicans argued that
OSHA's ergonomics rules would be costly and confusing for
businesses. This is "OSHA's regulatory impulses running
rampant," Bond said during the debate. Small businesses, in particular, are
struck with "utter terror" at the prospect of having to comply with the rules,
Bond said.
But Democrats said the rules were crucial to protecting
America's work force.
"To think that over 600,000 workers in America
each year get injured because of (workplace stress) and don't have the kind of
protection they deserve from this government," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
The ergonomics amendment passed 57-41, with the region's senators voting
along party lines. It was attached to the annual spending bill for labor,
education and other programs.
The House included a similar block of the
ergonomics rules in its version of the spending bill. But one Democratic aide
said he expects President Bill Clinton's administration to object to the
ergonomics provision and to threaten to veto the bill.
Democrats stalled
debate on the ergonomics provision for hours Thursday afternoon and forced the
Senate to take up a prescription drug plan. The proposal, which was defeated
53-44, would have offered senior citizens a drug benefit as part of Medicare,
the federal program that provides health care to the elderly and disabled.
Several GOP senators and one Democrat said they didn't object to the
drug benefit, but voted against it because they didn't have enough time to read
and debate the proposal.
"In talking to people in my state, they want
this," said Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo. But, Ashcroft said, he hadn't been able to
get a copy of the bill to see how much it would cost or what benefits it would
provide.
Democrats dismissed such assertions, noting that the issue has
been at the center of public debate for more than a year and that the bill had
been read aloud earlier in the day by the Senate clerk.
The vote fell
largely along party lines; among the area's senators, only Peter Fitzgerald,
R-Ill., broke ranks.
LOAD-DATE: June 23, 2000
