Two U.S. senators said Friday that they’re adding their names to a letter sent to the Department of Labor over concerns that a proposed rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration may negatively impact volunteer fire departments.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Angus King, I-Maine, announced that they’ve joined a growing call to revisit the proposed OSHA rule because it would put burdensome regulations on organizations that are staffed by volunteers and have limited resources.
The proposed rule, introduced by OSHA earlier this year, would require fire departments to furnish new reports, trainings, equipment and health services.
In a letter, Sens. Collins and King wrote that volunteer firefighters have raised concern over the proposed rule because they lack the finances and personnel necessary to comply.
“For many departments, implementation of this rule would render significant shares of their equipment noncompliant,” the senators said in a statement. “The financial burden associated with replacing that equipment and furnishing the reports, assessments, trainings and health services required by the rule would be prohibitive for volunteer departments, whose budgets are already strained.”
U.S. senators from Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Wyoming have also called on OSHA to consider revising the proposed rule because of its potential disparate impact to volunteer fire agencies.