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OSHA's Standards Improvement Projects (SIPs) are intended to remove or revise duplicative, unnecessary, and inconsistent safety and health standards. The Agency has published three earlier final standards to remove unnecessary provisions (63 FR 33450, 70 FR 1111 and 76 FR 33590), thus reducing costs or paperwork burden on affected employers. This latest project identified revisions to existing standards in OSHA’s recordkeeping, general industry, maritime, and construction standards, with most of the revisions to its construction standards. OSHA also proposed to remove from its standards the requirements that employers include an employee's social security number (SSN) on exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, and other records in order to protect employee privacy and prevent identity fraud.

Statement of Need:

The Agency has proposed a fourth rule that identified unnecessary or duplicative provisions or paperwork requirements.

Summary of the Legal Basis:

OSHA is conducting Phase IV of the Standards Improvement Project (SIP-IV) in response to the President’s Executive Order 13563, Improving Regulations and Regulatory Review (76 FR 38210).

Alternatives:

The main alternative OSHA considered for all of the proposed changes contained in the SIP-IV rulemaking was retaining the existing regulatory language, i.e., retaining the status quo. In each instance, OSHA has concluded that the benefits of the proposed regulatory change outweigh the costs of those changes. In a few of the items, such as the proposed changes to the decompression requirements applicable to employees working in compressed air environments, OSHA has requested public comment on feasible alternatives to the Agency’s proposal.

Anticipated Costs and Benefits:

OSHA has estimated that, at 3 percent discount rate over 10 years, there are net annual cost savings of $6.1 million per year for this final rule; at a discount rate of 7 percent there are net annual cost savings at $6.1 million per year.  When the Department uses a perpetual time horizon, the annualized cost savings of the final rule is $6.1 million with 7 percent discounting.

Risks:

SIP rulemakings do not address new significant risks or estimate benefits and economic impacts of reducing such risks. Overall, SIP rulemakings are reasonably necessary under the OSH Act because they provide cost savings, or eliminate unnecessary requirements.