of $750,000 is requested to bring funding for regulatory analyses to the level requested in fiscal year 1982 prior to the reductions required by the continuing resolution. Most other technical support functions in fiscal year 1983 will be carried on at a level commensurate with the level of inspection activity.

Compliance assistance. High priority will be assigned to training and development efforts to elevate the professionalism of Federal and State compliance officers. A program increase of $520,000 is requested to provide additional funding for the training of compliance personnel. At the same time, the agency will continue to encourage the voluntary cooperation of employers and employees in eliminating workplace hazards. A program increase of $5.1 million is requested to reimburse State agencies for making additional on-site consultation visits in response to an increasing volume of employer requests. If approved, a total of $27.8 million would be available in 90-10 matching funds to provide approximately 31,800 on-site consultation visits to an estimated 26,500 workplaces, one-fourth more than in 1982. In fiscal year 1983, $6.8 million is requested for "New Directions" training grants, the same as in fiscal year 1982, to help employer associations, labor unions, State colleges and universities, and other groups develop their own institutional capabilities for providing occupational safety and health training and related services. A program for assisting the occupational safety and health efforts of Federal agencies will also be fully implemented during fiscal year 1983.

Safety and health statistics.

The request allows a continuation of basic statistical activities. Data on work-related injuries and illnesses will be obtained from a nationwide sample that has been reduced to 280,000 employers. Efforts will continue to make expanded use of the agency's new Integrated Management Information System, or IMIS, for policy and operational problem definition, priority setting, planning, resource allocation, and for tracking progress.

Executive direction and administration. The budget request will allow this activity to continue to provide effective leadership, direction, and management of agency resources, including the systematic planning and evaluation of agency programs and performance. Studies of alternative enforcement and inspection targeting techniques, and of voluntary protection programs, will be continued in fiscal year 1983. Research will be conducted to improve the quality and coverage of scientific, economic, and industry-specific regulatory data available to OSHA, and to insure that these data are scientifically accurate and judgmentally sound. Such data will greatly assist the agency in its decisions and rulemakings, to ensure that they are objective and can be sustained in court, and to reduce the levels of controversy and the adversarial spirit that have characterized OSHA actions in the past.

During calendar year 1980, the last year for which published statistics are available, the incidence and severity of occupational injuries as measured by injuries involving lost workdays, dropped significantly. One work-related injury occurred for every twelve workers in the private economy during 1980, compared with a ratio of about one out of eleven in each of the four previous years. The incidence rate for injuries involving lost workdays declined from 4.2 per 100 full-time workers in 1979 to 3.9 in 1980, and the number of lost workdays per 100 full-time workers dropped from 66.2 to 63.7. Work-related deaths in units with eleven or more employees also fell, from 4,950 in 1979 to 4,400 in 1980.

These decreases are encouraging to all who have sought improved working conditions in past years. We are confident that this performance will continue to improve.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. Thank you for this opportunity to present our budget request to the Subcommittee. I will be pleased to respond to any questions.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Thorne G. Auchter was nominated by President Reagan to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He was confirmed by the Senate on March 17,

1981.

As head of OSHA Auchter is responsible for developing, promulgaand enforcing job safety and health programs for workers.

ting

Mr. Auchter worked for 20 years with the Auchter Company, a conFlorida. Prior to becoming executive

struction firm in Jacksonville

vice president in 1975, Auchter handled a variety of construction jobs in the company and held responsibilities in diverse areas inclu

ding safety and health matters.

He served on the Florida Task Force on Occupational Safety and Health in the early 1970's to study OSHA and determine whether the State of Florida should administer its own program under provisions

of the OSH Act.

Mr. Auchter is past director of the Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors: Vice Chairman of the Economic Development Council of the City of Jacksonville; Director of the University of North Florida Foundation; and a member of the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc.

Mr. Auchter attended the University of North Carolina and Jacksonville University where he received a B.A. in management in 1968.

QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY THE SUBCOMMITTEE

STUDIES OF BETTER WAYS TO ACHIEVE WORKPLACE SAFETY

Question: You indicate in your opening statement plans to continue in fiscal 1983 studies of alternative enforcement and inspection targeting techniques, as well as voluntary protection programs. What major studies are currently underway?

Answer: OSHA is currently analyzing over 200 comments from the public about the best way to implement voluntary protection programs. This analysis should be completed in FY 1982 with several pilot projects to test these new concepts planned for implementation in FY 1983. The agency is studying better ways to target resources to the workplace with the most serious hazards. These new studies will serve to refine the safety scheduling system in the manufacturing sector, as well as to develop systems for targeting health and construction inspections more effectively.

Question: What preliminary information is available about promising new approaches to increase workplace safety and health?

Answer: In 1980, OSHA did four studies on the usefulness of labor/management committees as a possible means of more frequent inspections of worksite. The agency has used those reports, especially in the construction industry, to set up labor/management committees on an area-wide basis in Denver, and has asked the New Directions grantees to focus on this topic.

OSHA is also making use of the data on occupational injuries collected through BLS's Supplemental Data System (SDS). This is a source of valuable information on the nature and causes of worker injuries that can be used to target agency resources more efficiently.

Question: How much is budgeted for studies and research in fiscal 1983, compared to fiscal 1982?

Answer: OSHA has budgeted $900,000 for studies and research in both FY 1982 and 1983.

STATE PROGRAM ENFORCEMENT

Question: How are you planning to promote independence of State Plan Programs from Federal OSHA?

Answer: OSHA's ultimate goal is to develop a policy and management framework that will allow greater autonomy to states with effective programs and simultaneously integrate them into the overall OSHA program. Whenever possible, actions have been taken to increase federal/state cooperation by establishing a true partnership with the

states.

To this end, quarterly meetings are held with state designees to discuss on-going OSHA activities as well as any problems the states may be encountering. In addition, a Special Assistant for State Programs provides direct liaison with the state designees and provides them with immediate access to the Assistant Secretary.

Concurrent federal enforcement has been eliminated by reassigning federal compliance staff to non-plan states. Further, the agency has initiated an extensive revision of its state plan monitoring system. The number of federal monitors assigned to oversee state performance has been significantly reduced. Task groups were established to

develop criteria by which to measure state performance with a representative from each plan state participating. State participation in the agency's management information system is also planned as a part of the revised monitoring system. When states are fully integrated into the management information system, data from that system will be the principal monitoring tool.

OSHA has proposed language in the FY 1982 Supplemental and FY 1983 Department of Labor budget requests, that, if enacted, would allow the agency to grant final approval to eligible states. This would allow even more autonomy to the states.

Question: Do you have any records indicating comparative accident reductions in States with and without State Plans, respectively?

Answer: The BLS annual survey produces injury-illness incidence rates for OSHA recordable cases, lost workday cases, and lost workdays. The survey also produces estimates of the number of fatalities as well as the number of cases related to the above rates. OSHA uses these data to determine the level of hazards of the industry mix within a State to establish required compliance staffing (benchmark levels). These data are also used to establish the High Rate Industry list which forms the basis of OSHA's inspection scheduling system. While there are some statistics indicating comparative accident reductions in States with and without State plans, they are not sufficient to warrant conclusions on the relative effectiveness of the State vs. Federal program.

CONSULTATION SERVICES WITH EMPLOYERS

Question: How do accident rates compare between businesses that have participated in OSHA's on-site consultation program, and businesses that have not had on-site consultation?

Answer: To encourage employers to utilize consultation services, the program was designed to assure the confidentiality of participating employers. Regulations governing consultation stipulate that the identity of employers who utilize consultation services will not be released to OSHA. Consequently, comparative data of accident rates between businesses that have received consultation services and those that have not is unavailable.

Question: How long must a business requesting an on-site consultation now wait before the consultation can be carried out?

Answer: Priority scheduling is given to small high-hazard businesses. The backlog of requests and waiting periods vary slightly from state to state. However, most priority-scheduled businesses are served within one month of the request while less hazardous businesses have a longer waiting period. Overall, the program currently has approximately a six week backlog of work with the longest waiting period about two months. Planned revisions in the data collection system will provide more accurate and detailed information about waiting times.

Question: To what degree will the waiting period be reduced if Congress approves your requested $6.8 million increase for consultation services, for a total of $27.8 million?

Answer: If the $6.8 million is approved, the waiting period for requests will initially be reduced from the current level of approx

imately one month for priority-scheduled businesses. With increased funding, however, the agency anticipates a concomitant increase in the demand for consultation services. Consistent with previous program experience, this increased demand would tend to reestablish the current waiting period for consultation services.

REGULATORY ANALYSIS

Question: You are requesting a $750,000 increase for regulatory analysis, over the fiscal 1982 level of $3,644,000, to fund two additional studies. Specifically, what new regulatory analyses do you have in mind?

Answer: For all new proposed or final regulations, OSHA must satisfy formal requirements for regulatory impact analyses, environmental impact statements and regulatory flexibility statements. The resources needed to complete these studies, therefore, are linked directly to the number and the complexity of the agency's future rulemaking efforts. Current OSHA plans will require that new analyses be initiated for the development of either proposed or final safety standards covering diving operations, trenching and excavation, shafts, concrete and concrete shoring, single-piece wheel rims, oil and gas drilling, electrical safety, powered platforms, lockout/tagout, and grain handling facilities. The analyses for anticipated health standards will include carcinogen policy, arsenic, respirators, records access, laboratories, and engineering controls policy. Some of these studies will require a minimum of contracted effort. Others will demand extensive and comprehensive industry surveys, sometimes taking several years, to develop the industry profile and the economic and environmental impact data necesary to support OSHA standard setting.

Question: What kinds of regulatory analyses are currently being

conducted?

Answer: Projects that are now underway include studies to support new rules for cotton dust, tunneling, ethylene oxide, ethylene dibromide, lead, noise, radio frequency radiation, walking and working surfaces, ladders and scaffolds, and floor and wall openings. In addition, assistance for the analysis of final regulations is being provided for the hearing conservation and the marine terminal standards.

Question: What organizations are conducting these studies?

Answer: The consultants hired to provide assistance in the collection and categorization of the regulatory impact data are typically private sector multi-disciplinary firms that have demonstrated broad expertise in the technology and economics of the potentially impacted industries. For example, experienced chemical engineers, industrial hygienists, economists and other knowledgeable industry analysts compose the teams working on the various chemical substances under study.

SAFETY AND HEALTH STATISTICS

Question: What studies is OSHA undertaking to determine which standards are in greatest need of enforcement for accident-prevention purposes? To what extent could such studies, by indicating standards inspectors should focus on, speed up the efficiency of inspections and increase OSHA's effectiveness?