Congress Must Decide on DHS Funding

 

When lawmakers return next week, the top issues, especially for Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY), will be how to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.  The department's funding expires on Friday, Feb. 27.

Congressional leaders will have five days to deal with the House DHS funding bill that includes policy riders to bar spending on implementing President Obama's actions on deferring the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants.  A court challenge to the deportation policy could provide a rationale for breaking the appropriations stalemate.

 

DHS administers the FIRE Act, which provides federal funds to fire departments to purchase fire fighting equipment and training.  A shut down would freeze spending funds to over 2,000 FIRE Act applicants.

 

Update on Highway Trust Fund Reauthorization

 

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster is working on a bill to seek funding from Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Shuster has yet to outline a timeline for producing the bill.

In the Senate, Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe will work on the highway portion of the bill, and Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch will address the funding.

 

PROPOSALS: President Obama floated a $478 billion, six-year surface transportation package in his fiscal 2016 budget plan partly funded by encouraging companies to bring foreign profits home, where they can be taxed.  Obama would impose a lower one-time 14 percent repatriation tax on overseas profits of U.S. companies -- in lieu of the current 35 percent rate.

Various members of Congress are now floating proposals to reduce the repatriation tax from 6.5 - 8.75 percent, with all tax proceeds directed to transportation funding.

Dave Reichert (R-WA), chairman of the House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee, commented that taxing overseas profits at a lower rate than the 35 percent tax rate on corporate profits wouldn't be viable. All revenue measures must begin at the Ways and Means Committee. 

 

OSHA Launches its 2015 National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction

 

On February 18, OSHA announced its 2015 stand-down to prevent construction falls.  OSHA is asking all employers and other organizations, such as labor unions, to hold events during this two-week period.

 

Construction Safety Week

 

40 national and global construction firms from the Construction Industry Safety Initiative (CISI) jointly created Construction Safety Week (CSW). The CEOs from these companies are part of the Incident and Injury Free CEO (IIF) Forum.

 

Participating construction companies will hold a stand-down each day of construction safety week, including global locations with active sites. Suggested themes for 2015 are listed below. 

 

Mon May 4          Fall Protection

Tue  May 5          Health and Wellness Programs

Wed May 6          Soft-Tissue Injuries (strains and sprains)

Thu  May 7          Hand Protection, or Head and Eye Protection

Fri    May 8          Celebrate and Recognize Positive Safety Accomplishments

 

Please visit the CSW website to view the list of participants. CSW representatives would like to encourage ISEA members to coordinate outreach activities for this campaign.  ISEA will provide more information about CSW as it becomes available.

 

Please contact Dan Glucksman at 703-525-1695 or at dglucksman@safetyequipment.org for more information on any of these items.