Poll: Worker Outrage Over House GOP Plan

House Republicans have pitched a budget that critics said would badly weaken the Department of Labor's ability to enforce many of its workforce rules.

According to the Huffington Post, the budget plan blocks the department from moving forward with its Injury and Illness Prevention Program, and goes after a rule intended to cut down on the number of deaths and injuries of construction workers who labor on rooftops.

Also from the Huffington Post:

The budget plan would also eliminate the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, which provides money to train hard-to-reach laborers, such as migrant workers, who toil in high-hazard industries. At the same time, the plan would spike a Labor Department rule that would boost wages for low-paid temporary guest workers who are here on visas. The rule has been strongly opposed by the seafood, forestry and hospitality industries, which have launched a well-funded lawsuit to fight it.

Local political analysts and union leaders were infuriated by the House bill, adding that it has no chance of becoming law.

"But it shows you that the Republicans have no sense of what happened before we had these laws as a safety net for workers," said Christopher Hahn, a Democratic strategist on Long Island who regularly appears on Fox News. "It's just another attempt by them to weaken labor laws. It's interesting, they often accuse Democrats of engaging in class warfare, but that's exactly what this is."

John Durso, the head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, said that he wasn't surprised by the latest vote, because Republicans have attacked labor for years. He also said that "it's typical of their lack of concern, and their lack of understanding of what working men and women in this country do to survive. It's ludicrious.

"How many people have to fall off scaffolding, develop black lung or not have a mother or father because of the lack of protections? How many?" Durso added. 

In a statement, Rep. Denny Rehlberg, R-Mont., the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, said the regulations cost too much and weren't effective.

He said the bill lifts people from "stifling government regulatory burdens that replace productivity with paperwork.  By spending tax dollars strategically, we can balance critical funding for programs that actually help people and families with the real need to rein in government over-spending."

From Rehlberg's statement:

The proposed legislation supports job creation and economic recovery.  It strategically achieves this balance both by funding critical job-supporting priorities like education and biomedical research while fostering a pro-job environment by reducing and eliminating harmful and unnecessary federal regulations.  Included in these provisions are measures to prevent the implementation of the president’s health care law, which has been found unconstitutional in multiple courts.