More Destructive Bureaucracy

In my own field, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering a proposed new rule that would greatly impact fire departments. While there is an alleged exemption for volunteer departments, the way the wording of the rule is structured it's not at all clear who (if anyone) would really be exempt. 

If you want to comment on the rule, you can do so here. I submitted a comment to the effect that any new rules are inappropriate at this time, as resources are strained across the board already by economic conditions and the effort to absorb migrants who impose costs but don't add to the tax base. I can't imagine a rule-making agency will be persuaded to stop making rules for a few years to let the economy catch up, but it's crazy to keep imposing regulatory costs on top of existing ones while the economy is struggling. 

They will doubtless do it anyway. It's a one-way ratchet. 

1 comment:

  1. I'm struck by this sentence:
    "Consequently, they do not address the full range of hazards currently facing emergency responders, nor do they reflect major changes in performance specifications for protective clothing and equipment or major improvements in safety and health practices that have already been accepted by the emergency response community and incorporated into industry consensus standards."
    Wait, so they're saying the local and industry standards have already be advanced by the firefighters and local and state agencies? Why then do they need to do this??

    Classic do-something-ism.

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