LANSING – Delaney McKinley, Director of Human Resource Policy for the Michigan Manufacturers Association, praised Governor Snyder and the Legislature at today?s bill signing press conference for legislation (SB 1335, 1336 and HB 5917 and 5922) that establishes greater accountability for state-specific regulations and helps to ensure that Michigan companies are not forced to comply unnecessarily with more stringent standards than their competitors in surrounding states.
?I?d like to thank Governor Snyder, legislative leaders, the bill sponsors and the Office of Regulatory Reinvention for their exemplary leadership in reinventing Michigan?s regulatory environment,? said McKinley at the press conference.
?It was an honor to be a part of the Workplace Safety Advisory Rules Committee, which was really a comprehensive and inclusive process to identify ways to streamline workplace safety regulations while maintaining the most rigorous worker safety regulations. Burdensome rules and unnecessarily restrictive regulations impose billions of dollars in costs on Michigan job-providers and that makes us less competitive in the global economy. This legislation reduces regulatory complexity, eliminates inefficiencies and makes Michigan a better place to do business.?
Under the changes signed into law today, MIOSHA will be aligned with the principle in place since the mid-1990s that only the director of an agency has jurisdiction to promulgate rules, eliminating three unnecessary statutory commissions that have not had authority to approve administrative rules since 1996.
The Director of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) will also be required to present a statement of the specific facts that establish a clear and convincing need for any proposed rule that would exceed federal standards, identifying why Michigan should have stricter standards than every other state in the nation. MMA has been a strong champion of the need to bring Michigan?s standards more in line with other states, and this legislation will accomplish that important goal.
McKinley served as an appointed member of the Workplace Safety Advisory Rules Committee under the authority of the Office of Regulatory Reform that conducted the extensive review of Michigan?s workplace safety regulations that ultimately led to these changes to Michigan?s workplace safety regulatory process. The Committee?s recommendations, which were issued to the Governor in March 2012, include 624 proposed revisions to improve Michigan?s workplace safety regulations. Of the recommendations submitted, 334 call for elimination of MIOSHA workplace safety rules that exceed federal standards.
