A former Obama administration official warned Congress on Wednesday that more people would die if the federal government did not adopt new regulations to protect workers from extreme heat.
Jordan Barab, who served until 2017 as the deputy assistant secretary at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said he wished the agency had done more to address extreme heat during his tenure. And he pushed back against criticism that safety regulations were bad for business.
“OSHA standards don’t kill jobs. They stop jobs from killing workers,” Barab told the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections.
The Republican-led panel had convened the hearing to drill into OSHA plans and regulations — notably a proposed rule that would put in place new workplace protections for extreme heat.
