In addition to the requirements of the APA, federal  agencies typically must comply with requirements imposed by certain  other statutes and executive orders. The process OSHA uses to develop and issue standards is spelled out in  the OSH Act. Section 6(a) of the act directed the Secretary of  Labor (through OSHA) to adopt any national consensus standards or  established federal standards as safety and health standards within 2  years of the date the OSH Act went into effect, without following the  procedures set forth in section 6(b) or the APA.publication, the vast majority of these standards have not changed since  originally adopted, despite significant advances in technology, equipment,  and machinery over the past several decades. Once  OSHA initiates such an effort, an interdisciplinary team typically  composed of at least five staff focus on that issue. OSHA’s Standard- Setting Time Frames Vary Widely and Are Influenced by the Many Procedural Requirements and Other Factors

We analyzed the 58 significant health and safety standards OSHA issued  between 1981 and 2010 and found that the time frames for developing  and issuing them averaged about 93 months (7 years, 9 months), and  ranged from 15 months to about 19 years (see table 1). During this period, OSHA staff also worked to develop standards that  have not yet been finalized. The standard of judicial review that applies to OSHA standards if they are  challenged in court also affects OSHA’s time frames because it requires  more robust research and analysis than the standard that applies to many  other agencies’ regulations, according to some experts and agency  officials. OSHA uses enforcement and education as alternatives to issuing  emergency temporary standards to respond relatively quickly to urgent  workplace hazards. It its enforcement efforts to address  urgent hazards, OSHA uses the general duty clause of the OSH Act,  which requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized  hazards that are causing, or are likely to cause, death or serious physical   Under the general duty clause, OSHA has the  harm to their employees. Along with its enforcement and  standard-setting activities, OSHA also educates employers and workers  to promote voluntary protective measures against urgent hazards. OSHA’s education efforts include on-site consultations and publishing  health and safety information on urgent hazards. Other Regulatory Agencies’ Experiences Offer Limited Insight into OSHA’s Challenges

Although the rulemaking experiences of EPA and MSHA shed some light  on OSHA’s challenges, their statutory framework and resources differ too  markedly for them to be models for OSHA’s standard–setting process. For example, EPA is directed to regulate certain sources of specified air  pollutants and review its existing regulations within specific time frames  under section 112 of the Clean Air Act, which EPA officials told us gave  the agency clear requirements and statutory deadlines for regulating  hazardous air pollutants. Experts Suggested Many Ideas to Improve OSHA’s Standard-Setting Process, Including More Interagency Coordination and Statutory Deadlines

Agency officials and occupational safety and health experts shared their  understanding of the challenges facing OSHA and offered ideas for  improving the agency’s standard-setting process.involve substantial procedural changes that may be beyond the scope of  OSHA’s authority and require amending existing laws, including the OSH  Act. Improve coordination with other agencies: Experts and agency  officials noted that OSHA has not fully leveraged available expertise  at other federal agencies, especially NIOSH, in developing and  issuing its standards. They stated that collaborating with NIOSH on risk  assessments, and generally in a more systematic way, could reduce   the time it takes to develop a standard by several months, thus  facilitating OSHA’s standard-setting process. Concluding Remarks

The process for developing new and updated safety and health standards  for occupational hazards is a lengthy one and can result in periods when  there are insufficient protections for workers. In our report being released  today, we recommend that OSHA and NIOSH more consistently  collaborate on researching occupational hazards so that OSHA can more  effectively leverage NIOSH expertise in its standard-setting process. Both  agencies agreed with this recommendation.
Why GAO Did This Study

This testimony discusses the challenges the Department of Labors (Labor) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) faces in developing and issuing safety and health standards. Workplace safety and health standards are designed to help protect over 130 million public and private sector workers from hazards at more than 8 million worksites in the United States, and have been credited with helping prevent thousands of work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses. However, questions have been raised concerning whether the agencys approach to developing standards is overly cautious, resulting in too few standards being issued. Others counter that the process is intentionally deliberative to balance protections provided for workers with the compliance burden imposed on employers. Over the past 30 years, various presidential executive orders and federal laws have added new procedural requirements for regulatory agencies, resulting in multiple and sometimes lengthy steps OSHA and other agencies must follow.
The remarks today are based on findings from our report, which is being released today, entitled "Workplace Safety and Health: Multiple Challenges Lengthen OSHAs Standard Setting." For this report, we were asked to review: (1) the time taken by OSHA to develop and issue occupational safety and health standards and the key factors that affect these time frames, (2) alternatives to the typical standard-setting process that are available for OSHA to address urgent hazards, (3) whether rulemaking at other regulatory agencies offers insight into OSHAs challenges with setting standards, and (4) ideas that have been suggested by occupational safety and health experts for improving the process.

What GAO Found

In summary, we found that, between 1981 and 2010, the time it took OSHA to develop and issue safety and health standards ranged from 15 months to 19 years and averaged more than 7 years. Experts and agency officials cited several factors that contribute to the lengthy time frames for developing and issuing standards, including increased procedural requirements, shifting priorities, and a rigorous standard of judicial review. We also found that, in addition to using the typical standard-setting process, OSHA can address urgent hazards by issuing emergency temporary standards, although the agency has not used this authority since 1983 because of the difficulty it has faced in compiling the evidence necessary to meet the statutory requirements. Instead, OSHA focuses on enforcement activitiessuch as enforcing the general requirement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) that employers provide a workplace free from recognized hazardsand educating employers and workers about urgent hazards. Experiences of other federal agencies that regulate public or worker health hazards offered limited insight into the challenges OSHA faces in setting standards. For example, EPA officials pointed to certain requirements of the Clean Air Act to set and regularly review standards for specified air pollutants that have facilitated the agencys standard-setting efforts. In contrast, the OSH Act does not require OSHA to periodically review its standards. Also, MSHA officials noted that their standard-setting process benefits from both the in-house knowledge of its inspectors, who inspect every mine at least twice yearly, and a dedicated mine safety research group within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a federal research agency that makes recommendations on occupational safety and health. OSHA must instead rely on time-consuming site visits to obtain information on hazards and has not consistently coordinated with NIOSH to assess occupational hazards. Finally, experts and agency officials identified several ideas that could improve OSHAs standard-setting process. In our report being released today, we draw upon one of these ideas and recommend that OSHA and NIOSH more consistently collaborate on researching occupational hazards so that OSHA can more effectively leverage NIOSH expertise in its standard-setting process.