NVFC Testifies Before House Committee on Education and the Workforce Regarding OSHA

July 30, 2024

The House of Representative’s Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing on July 24 titled “Safeguarding Workers and Employers from OSHA Overreach and Skewed Priorities.” Chief Tim Bradley, a National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) director from North Carolina, testified on the NVFC’s behalf.

In his testimony, Bradley stated that the NVFC appreciates the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) efforts to promote our mutual goal of ensuring firefighter safety by putting forth the proposed Emergency Response Standard. The NVFC believes the proposed standard contains many provisions that would serve the fire service well and protect the wellbeing of firefighters. However, if adopted as written, this proposed standard would be economically infeasible for volunteer fire departments to comply with and could cause many of these departments to shut down. The proposed standard could also compromise the safety and emergency response capabilities of many small communities, particularly those in rural areas.

Bradley further explained that in addition to its economic infeasibility, the proposed standard would be problematic due to a number of other factors including: the incorporation by reference of industry consensus standards, numerous ambiguities on how volunteers would be covered, the lack of personnel expertise and availability to facilitate implementation, and an unrealistic proposed timeline for implementation. For these reasons, the NVFC is asking OSHA to exempt volunteer firefighters from the proposed standard, as written, and work with the organization on a better way to ensure volunteer firefighter safety.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has oversight of the Department of Labor and OSHA. This hearing and the NVFC’s testimony will do a great deal to draw attention to the volunteer fire service’s concerns regarding the Emergency Response Standard and show that Congress is actively engaged in monitoring this proposed standard. Watch the hearing here and read the NVFC’s written testimony here.