
[Federal Register: January 19, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 11)]
[Notices]               
[Page 2890-2891]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr19ja10-85]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

[Docket No. OSHA-2010-0004]

 
OSHA Listens: Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
Stakeholder Meeting

AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.

ACTION: Notice of public meeting.

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SUMMARY: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is 
announcing a public meeting to solicit comments and suggestions from 
stakeholders on key issues facing the agency.

DATES: The public meeting will be held on February 10, 2010, from 9 
a.m. to 5 p.m. Persons interested in attending the meeting must 
register by February 3, 2010. In addition, comments relating to the 
``Scope of Meeting'' section of this document must be submitted in 
written or electronic form by March 30, 2010.

ADDRESSES: The public meeting will be held at the Frances Perkins 
Building Auditorium, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC 20210.
    Submit written comments to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-
2010-0004, Technical Data Center, Room N-2625, U.S. Department of 
Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone 
(202) 693-2350. Submit electronic comments by e-mail to: 
stakeholder.meeting@dol.gov. All comments should be identified with 
Docket No. OSHA-2010-0004.
    Registration To Attend and/or To Participate in the Meeting: If you 
wish to attend the public meeting and/or make an oral presentation at 
the meeting, you must register by e-mail to: 
stakeholder.meeting@dol.gov by close of business on February 3, 2010. 
When registering, you must provide the following information: (1) Your 
name, title, company or organization (if applicable), address, phone 
number and e-mail address, and (2) if you wish to make a short 
presentation, the specific topic or issue to be addressed. Actual times 
provided for presentation will depend on the number of requests. There 
is no fee to register for the public meeting. Registration on the day 
of the public meeting will be permitted on a space-available basis 
beginning at 8:30 a.m.
    We will do our best to accommodate all persons who wish to make a 
presentation at the meeting. OSHA

[[Page 2891]]

encourages persons and groups having similar interests to consolidate 
their information for presentation through a single representative. 
After reviewing the requests to present, we will contact each 
participant prior to the meeting with the amount of time available and 
the approximate time that the participant's presentation is scheduled 
to begin. Presenters must then send the final electronic copies of 
their presentations in Microsoft Word or Adobe Portable Document Format 
(PDF) to: stakeholder.meeting@dol.gov by February 8, 2010.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For further information please contact 
Cori Hutcheson, Office of the Assistant Secretary, Occupational Safety 
and Health Administration, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20210; telephone: 202-693-2507; fax: 202-693-1659; e-mail: 
stakeholder.meeting@dol.gov. Individuals with disabilities wishing to 
attend the meeting should contact Veneta Chatmon at (202) 693-1912, by 
February 3, 2010, to obtain appropriate accommodations.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is committed to 
ensuring safe workplaces for workers, and that the agency's efforts are 
effective, efficient and reflect the real world experiences of the 
workplace.
    Public engagement in the work of Government is a priority for the 
Obama Administration and is important to enhance the work of OSHA. On 
January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a Memorandum to the heads of 
executive departments and agencies regarding openness in government.\1\ 
In the Memorandum, the Administration noted that government should be 
participatory: ``Public engagement enhances the Government's 
effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is 
widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having 
access to that dispersed knowledge.''
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    \1\ Presidential Documents, Memorandum for the Heads of 
Executive Departments and Agencies on Transparency and Open 
Government (January 21, 2009) (74 FR 4685, January 26, 2009), 
available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/
TransparencyandOpenGovernment/.
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    Executive agencies were instructed to offer Americans increased 
opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their 
Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and 
information. The Memorandum further instructed Executive agencies to 
solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities 
for public participation in Government.
    On December 8, 2009, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
issued an Open Government Directive,\2\ directing the heads of 
Executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to 
implement the principles of transparency, participation and 
collaboration set forth in the President's Memorandum. Regarding the 
principle of participation, OMB Director, Peter R. Orszag, directed 
agencies to ``promote opportunities for the public to participate 
throughout the decision-making process''.
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    \2\ Presidential Document, Memorandum for the Heads of Executive 
Departments and Agencies, entitled Open Government Directive 
(December 8, 2009), may be found at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/
assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf.
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    In keeping with the Presidential Memorandum and the OMB Directive, 
OSHA is holding a public meeting and establishing a public docket to 
seek input from interested parties. OSHA LISTENS, the public meeting to 
solicit input from interested stakeholders, will be held on February 
10, 2010.

II. Scope of Meeting

    OSHA is interested in obtaining information from the public on key 
issues facing the agency. In particular, the agency invites input on 
the following:
    1. What can the agency do to enhance and encourage the efforts of 
employers, workers and unions to identify and address workplace 
hazards?
    2. What are the most important emerging or unaddressed health and 
safety issues in the workplace, and what can OSHA do to address these?
    3. How can the agency improve its efforts to engage stakeholders in 
programs and initiatives?
    4. What specific actions can the agency take to enhance the voice 
of workers in the workplace, particularly workers who are hard to 
reach, do not have ready access to information about hazards or their 
rights, or are afraid to exercise their rights?
    5. Are there additional measures to improve the effectiveness of 
the agency's current compliance assistance efforts and the on site 
consultation program, to ensure that small businesses have the 
information needed to provide safe workplaces?
    6. Given the length and difficulty of the current OSHA rulemaking 
process, and given the need for new standards that will protect workers 
from unaddressed, inadequately addressed and emerging hazards, are 
there policies and procedures that will decrease the time to issue 
final standards so that OSHA may implement needed protections in a 
timely manner?
    7. As we continue to progress through a new information age vastly 
different from the environment in which OSHA was created, what new 
mechanisms or tools can the agency use to more effectively reach high 
risk employees and employers with training, education and outreach? 
What is OSHA doing now that may no longer be necessary?
    8. Are there indicators, other than worksite injuries and illness 
logs, that OSHA can use to enhance resource targeting?
    9. In the late 1980s, OSHA and its stakeholders worked together to 
update the Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) (exposure limits for 
hazardous substances; most adopted in 1971), but the effort was 
unsuccessful. Should updating the PELs be a priority for the agency? 
Are there suggestions for ways to update the PELs, or other ways to 
control workplace chemical exposures?

III. Request for Comments

    Regardless of attendance at the public meeting, interested persons 
may submit written or electronic comments (see ADDRESSES). Submit a 
single copy of electronic comments or two paper copies of any mailed 
comments, except that individuals may submit one paper copy To permit 
time for interested persons to submit data, information, or views on 
the issues in the ``Scope of Meeting'' section of this notice, submit 
comments by March 30, 2010. When commenting on multiple issues, 
identify each comment using the number of the issue as provided in the 
``Scope of Meeting'' section of this notice. Please include Docket No. 
OSHA-2010-0004. Comments received may be seen in the U.S. Department of 
Labor, OSHA Docket Office, (see ADDRESSES), between 8:15 a.m. and 4:45 
p.m., Monday through Friday. OSHA is also exploring additional 
electronic means for the public to provide comments and feedback on 
this topic.

IV. Transcripts

    Transcripts of the meeting will be available for review 
approximately 30 days after the meeting at: http://www.osha.gov and at 
U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA Docket Office (see ADDRESSES).

    Signed in Washington, DC, on January 13, 2010.
David Michaels,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 2010-814 Filed 1-15-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-26-P

