COLLABORATIVE RULEMAKING PROCESS
NSSGA POSITION:
The traditional approach to rulemaking typically offers stakeholders too few opportunities for a meaningful exchange of views before a final rule is issued. NSSGA has found this system to be largely unresponsive
to the concerns it raises to regulations. NSSGA supports a rulemaking process similar to the Part 46 rule-
making where a regulatory agency, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), with support from
Congress, worked collaboratively with an industry-labor coalition to craft a regulation on safety training
in the aggregates industry in record time and absent the acrimony that is a common characteristic of
government rulemaking.
BACKGROUND:
30 CFR Part 46, a safety training regulation for the aggregates industry, was promulgated by MSHA in 1999 with the full support of industry and organized labor. Part 46 was proposed in April 1999, and the final rule was issued a mere five-and-a-half months later. The record-setting pace for developing this rule reflects the benefits that derive when industry, labor and government share a common vision and come together to fashion a solution acceptable to all parties. Issuance of the rule meant the end of a rider on the MSHA appropriations bill, first imposed in 1979 and renewed every year thereafter, which prevented the agency from enforcing a safety training rule on the aggregates industry. Termination of the rider and development of an enforceable training regulation that had buy-in from all major stakeholders was a win-win for everyone involved. We propose to use the Part 46 model for all future rulemaking. We do not foresee the need for a legislative fix to make this happen, since no such change was needed to bring Part 46 into existence. However, we do feel Congress needs to strongly encourage regulators to work collaboratively with industry and labor before issuing future regulations, and to urge the Secretary of Labor and the assistant secretaries for MSHA and OSHA to support this concept.
TALKING POINTS:
- NSSGA supports collaborative rulemaking and believes proposals developed through a collaborative process that involves labor, industry and government can be expected to have a better chance of acceptance than regulations created through the traditional command-and-control method of rulemaking, assuming the parties agree in principle on the need for change in the subject area.
- 30 CFR Part 46 is an example of collaborative rulemaking and demonstrates just how successful it can be.
- Congress played a key role in making Part 46 a reality, and it can apply its considerable influence to change both OSHA’s and MSHA’s regulatory direction toward a more participatory rulemaking process.
- A collaborative process should result in benefit to industry, labor and government and contribute to – the advancement of miner health and safety and to the welfare of the country in general.
Updated: November 2008
