Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Interagency Task Force on Occupational Safety and Health

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies
I have frequently expressed my commitment to review and reform the Federal role in combatting safety and health hazards in the workplace. My aim is to improve the effectiveness of our efforts to protect the health and safety of American workers.

The Secretary of Labor, Ray Marshall, and the Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, Eula Bingham, have already moved vigorously to make our approach to occupational safety and health more sensible and effective. On May 19, 1977, the Labor Department announced a program to redirect the resources of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) away from trivial problems and toward more serious hazards to safety and health.

In another step towards common sense priorities, the Department of Labor announced on July 19 a program to reduce OSHA paperwork and streamline its record keeping requirements. The nation's 3.4 million small businesses will be exempt from filling out complicated job health and safety forms, and the paperwork for 1.5 million larger employers will be cut in half. Over the coming weeks, the Administration will take additional steps to reduce unnecessary burdens and allow OSHA to concentrate on the most serious hazards.

To complement these internal changes at OSHA, I have asked Ray Marshall and Bert Lance to head an interagency task force that will consider ways to strengthen the Federal role in protecting workplace safety and health. This task force will report to me with its first recommendations for action by April 30, 1978.

In addition to the Secretary of Labor and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, this interagency group on worker safety and health protection will include the Departments of Commerce, Health, Education and Welfare and the Council of Economic Advisers, the Domestic Policy Staff, and the Small Business Administration. From time to time, I expect other departments and agencies to participate actively.

I want to be sure that federal programs actually do reduce threats to the health and safety of American workers, and that they help employers make the necessary adjustments. The inquiry will concentrate upon:

• Exploration of incentives that might supplement workplace safety regulations. These might include improved education and information services, economic aid and tax incentives to help employers improve workplace safety, changes in workers' compensation and liability laws and deterrent penalty structures.

• Evaluation of the government-wide administration of Federal workplace safety and health activities. This will include investigation of duplication, overlap and gaps in Federal agency jurisdiction.

• Review of other ways to improve the safety and health efforts of all Federal agencies, including those programs that affect Federal employees, and the resources devoted to them.

As you know, improvement of Federal health and safety protection measures is a matter of intense concern to the American people. This effort will be part of our larger program of looking at innovative approaches to many regulatory issues. It will help shape our reform program in other regulatory areas and will, I am confident, be one of this Administration's most valuable accomplishments.

You may be asked to contribute time, resources, and staff to this effort. I know I can count on your assistance.

In order to inform all affected parties that this review is underway, I have directed that this memorandum be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER.

JIMMY CARTER