A. Introduction
During the 109th Congress, significant progress was made in improving the Office of the General Counsel’s (OGC) occupational safety and health (OSH) inspection and hazard abatement program. Implementing objectives in the Office of Compliance (OOC) Strategic Plan, the OGC revised its inspection procedures, substantially expanded the scope and thoroughness of its inspections, and initiated precedent setting litigation to secure compliance with a long-standing Citation concerning serious life threatening hazards present in the U.S. Capitol Power Plant utility tunnels.
With these proactive and comprehensive inspection procedures in place, three areas of concern were targeted: (1) completing a comprehensive inspection of all legislative branch facilities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, (2) monitoring hazard abatement progress, and (3) reducing the backlog of requester-initiated inspections. Because a more comprehensive inspection was conducted during the 109th Congress than in previous cycles, a substantially greater number of hazard findings were discovered. This inevitably created a larger work load and demands on employing offices in order to address and abate each finding. Additionally, more requester initiated inspections were conducted and resolved than during the previous Congress. The highlights of these three areas are presented below and additional information can be found in individual sections within this biennial report.
Since the 109th Congress Biennial Inspection was more comprehensive than in past years, the AOC and employing offices were required to devote more extensive staff time in accompanying the OGC inspection team and in providing necessary information to the completion of the Report and associated appendices. Throughout this inspection process, this Office has received excellent cooperation from the employing offices and the Architect of the Capitol. In this regard, particular thanks are extended to those most involved in this process: Ann Rogers of the Office of House Employment Counsel, Mike Garrott, representing the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives, Susan Adams of the Architect of the Capitol, Irvin Queja of the Senate Sergeant at Arms, Janet Jones of the Senate Chief Counsel for Employment, Rick Rogers of the United States Capitol Police and Robert Browne of the Library of Congress for their generous assistance in aiding this Office to accomplish this important task.
B. Inspections
Routine completion of a thorough OSH inspection of each covered employing office facility during each Congress is a top priority of the OGC. The Congressional Accountability Act (CAA) requires the OOC General Counsel to conduct comprehensive inspections of all legislative branch facilities at least once biennially; this mandate was achieved within all covered facilities the Washington, DC metropolitan area during the 109th Congress.2 This accomplishment was made possible due to increased support provided by Congress in the OOC FY2006 budget for the OGC’s OSH inspection program. With these greater resources, the OGC was able for the first time to implement a year round inspection cycle that was not possible during past Congresses. The inspections were also completed ahead of schedule and within budget. While only five million square feet were inspected during the 108th,3 approximately 15.3 million square feet were covered during the 109th Congress, representing nearly 98% of the covered space over which the OGC has jurisdiction on Capitol Hill and in the legislative branch suburban locations.4 Consequently, the OOC was able to complete its first ever “baseline” inspection of OSH conditions throughout all covered facilities in this area during a single Congress.5
