Guitar Maker, Inc, makes guitars. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposes a safety rule governing the handling of wood and its dust in the workplace, including the woods that Guitar Makeruses in its operations. Guitar

Question

Makercontends that the rule will involve sub¬stantial compliance costs without significantly increasing workplace safety. The firm sends a letter to OSHA indicating its objections to the pro¬posed rule and enclosing research reports and other data sup¬porting those objections. Does OSHA have any obligation to consider these objec¬tions? What procedures must OSHA follow when it makes new rules, such as this one?

Answer 1

In formulating new rules, a federal administrative agency has to follow specific rulemaking procedures. The most commonly used procedure is notice-and-comment rulemaking, which consists of three steps: notice of the proposed rulemaking, a com¬ment period, and the fi¬nal rule. The notice of the proposed rulemakingproceeding is publishedin the Federal Register. The notice states where and when the proceed¬ings will be held, the agency's legal authority for making the rule, and the terms or subject matter of the proposed rule.Following publication of the notice, the agency must allow time for persons to comment in writing on the proposed rule. (If a hearing is held, the comments may be oral.) The agency need not respond to all comments, but it must respond to any signifi¬cant comments that bear directly on the proposed rule.
Thus, if Guitar Maker'scomments are significant, OSHA must take them into consid¬era¬tion. OSHA can respond by either modi¬fying its final rule or explain¬ing, in a statement accompanying the rule, why it did not make any changes.
After the agency reviews the comments, it drafts the final rule and pub-lishes it in the Federal Register. Later, the rule is compiled with those rules of other federal agen¬cies in the Code of Federal Regulations.