Protecting America's Workers Act
Latest action · Feb 7, 2017 Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedFeb 7, 2017
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Protecting America's Workers Act
This bill amends the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHA) to increase the scope of the Act by applying its coverage to federal, state, and local government employees. However, the bill makes OSHA inapplicable to working conditions covered by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.
The bill revises requirements governing worker protection, including by:
- increasing protections for whistle-blowers as well as employees participating in or aiding inspections;
- directing employers to furnish a hazard-free place of employment to all individuals, not just employees;
- requiring the posting of employee rights concerning protection from retaliation;
- requiring site logs of employees' work-related injuries and illnesses, including those of employees of other employers and contractors;
- directing employers to report work-related deaths or hospitalizations;
- prohibiting employers from discouraging accurate record keeping and reporting of work-related injuries or illnesses;
- requiring the Department of Labor to investigate an incident in the workplace that results in the death of an employee or one that results in the hospitalization of two or more employees;
- establishing rights for victims, or representatives of victims, with respect to inspections or investigations of work-related bodily injuries or deaths;
- setting the permitted period for employers to correct serious, willful, or repeated violations while citations for the violations are being contested;
- increasing civil and criminal penalties for certain violations;
- expanding enforcement requirements relating to state occupational safety and health plans, including by allowing Labor concurrent enforcement authority in states where the state plans fail to meet minimum requirements; and
- expanding requirements for workplace health hazard evaluations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Cosponsors 36
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Feb 7, 2017 to Dec 20, 2018; 7 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-NH | Carol Shea-Porter | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-NV | Dina Titus | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-TX | Gene Green | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-MI | John Conyers, Jr. | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-WI | Mark Pocan | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-CA | Mark Takano | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-VA | Robert C. "Bobby" Scott | Original | Feb 7, 2017 |
| D-TX | Al Green | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-NC | Alma S. Adams | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-CA | Barbara Lee | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-IL | Janice D. Schakowsky | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-NY | Jerrold Nadler | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-CA | John Garamendi | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-MA | Katherine M. Clark | Feb 14, 2017 | |
| D-IN | Peter J. Visclosky | Feb 16, 2017 | |
| D-AZ | Raúl M. Grijalva | Feb 16, 2017 | |
| D-NY | Adriano Espaillat | Feb 28, 2017 | |
| D-FL | Debbie Wasserman Schultz | Feb 28, 2017 | |
| D-FL | Frederica S. Wilson | Feb 28, 2017 | |
| D-GA | John Lewis | Feb 28, 2017 | |
| D-DC | Eleanor Holmes Norton | Mar 1, 2017 | |
| D-CA | Mark DeSaulnier | Mar 7, 2017 | |
| D-OR | Suzanne Bonamici | Mar 7, 2017 | |
| D-NY | Hakeem S. Jeffries | Mar 9, 2017 | |
| D-NJ | Donald Norcross | Mar 17, 2017 | |
| D-MA | Stephen F. Lynch | Mar 22, 2017 | |
| D-NJ | Frank Pallone, Jr. | Feb 27, 2018 | |
| D-CA | Ro Khanna | Feb 27, 2018 | |
| D-IL | Raja Krishnamoorthi | Mar 1, 2018 | |
| D-WI | Gwen Moore | Mar 9, 2018 | |
| D-FL | Kathy Castor | Mar 9, 2018 | |
| D-CA | Anna G. Eshoo | May 9, 2018 | |
| D-NY | Brian Higgins | May 15, 2018 | |
| D-CA | Zoe Lofgren | May 15, 2018 | |
| D-NM | Michelle Lujan Grisham | Jun 5, 2018 | |
| D-NY | Joseph D. Morelle | Dec 20, 2018 |
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Education and Workforce Committee | Referred Feb 7, 2017 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Feb 7, 2017Introduced in House
- Feb 7, 2017Referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Constitutional authority
The sponsor’s statement, as printed in the Congressional Record, vol. 163, no. 21, February 7, 2017, page H1084.
Related bills 2
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| S 1000 | Protecting America's Workers Act | Related bill | May 1, 2017 |
| HR 2090 | Protecting America's Workers Act | Reintroduction of | Nov 16, 2015 |
Titles 2
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to expand coverage under the Act, to increase protections for whistleblowers, to increase penalties for high gravity violations, to adjust penalties for inflation, to provide rights for victims or their family members, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Protecting America's Workers Act
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Labor and Employment.
- Administrative law and regulatory procedures
- Administrative remedies
- Business records
- Civil actions and liability
- Congressional oversight
- Criminal procedure and sentencing
- Department of Labor
- Employment discrimination and employee rights
- Evidence and witnesses
- Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
- Government information and archives
- Government studies and investigations
- Inflation and prices
- Intergovernmental relations
- Judicial review and appeals
- Labor and Employment
- Labor-management relations
- Legal fees and court costs
- Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
- State and local government operations
- Wages and earnings
- Worker safety and health
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Feb 7, 2017Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
