Hillsdale Daily News: Guidance on family farm inspections revoked

WASHINGTON — Nearly a month after expressing concerns about the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) inspections of family farms, the Department of Labor announced Tuesday that the controversial guidance that allowed for this practice was revoked.

In a letter addressed to the House Education and the Workforce Committee, the DOL said it has worked with OSHA to explain the end of the guidance and will will also work with the Department of Agriculture to find a more suitable solution.

Congressman Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) who represents Hillsdale County and House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), released a joint statement acknowledging the end of the guidance.

"The department's family-farming guidance was flawed and legally suspect. We are pleased this misguided policy has been withdrawn, and the department has recognized the legitimate concerns of policymakers and family farmers," the statement read. "Ensuring a safe and healthy work environment is a goal we all share."

"However, that goal cannot be reached when federal agencies rewrite the law through executive fiat," the statement continued. "We hope the department will engage in a sincere dialogue with other federal agencies and concerned stakeholders to ensure our nation's farmers are protected."

As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Walberg said he was part of an effort to end OSHA's inspections because he, along with many other members of Congress felt the guidance instructing the inspections went against a law passed in 1978.

That law states: "None of the funds appropriated under this paragraph shall be obligated or expended to prescribe, issue,administer, or enforce any standard, rule regulation, or other under the Act which is applicable to any person who is engaged in a farming operation which does not maintain a temporary labor camp and employs 10 or fewer employees."

But by issuing a guidance, President Barack Obama was attempting to circumvent that law according to Walberg and other like-minded members of Congress.

"The Obama administration has repeatedly targeted farmers - the foundation of many communities across America and in my district — with new regulations, the latest assault coming in the form of the Department of Labor's attempt to boldly reinterpret a policy that has been in place since 1978 and supported by both Republican and Democrat administrations," Walberg said in a press release last month. "Federal law is abundantly clear that family farms are exempt from OSHA jurisdiction and this latest attack must stop immediately."

The guidance has also been removed from OSHA's website.

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