Senate committee readies new ergonomics bill

WASHINGTON (June 26)—The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is expected to approve a bipartisan bill directing the Labor Department to issue mandatory ergonomics rules for U.S. workplaces within two years of passage. Rubber manufacturers and tire dealers alike are unhappy over the bill, which they characterized as a back-door attempt to re-establish the "one-size-fits-all" Clinton-era ergonomics standard Congress overturned in March 2001.