REINVENTING THE GOVERNMENT: Clinton-Gore plan affects industry, academia

Abstract

One of Bill Clinton's presidential campaign themes was, "It is time to radically change the way the government operates/' Last week, President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore revealed their prescription for that change in a 168-page document entitled "Creating a Government That Works Better & Costs Less, from Red Tape to Results/7 Among the document's 800 recommendations are a number that, if implemented, would affect various aspects of the chemical community, from industry to academia. Among what Gore terms the report's 100 most important actions and recommendations is one that says the Secretary of Labor will issue new regulations for work-site safety and health, relying on private inspection companies or nonmanagement employees. The problem, according to the report, is that the current inspection system, which tries to ensure the safety and health of 93 million workers at 6.2 million work sites, just doesn't work well enough. Because of inadequate staffing levels, the 2400 inspectors ...