OSHA to Require E-Filing, Create Database of Injuries, Illnesses The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) is planning to mandate that employers submit their reports on workplace injuries and illnesses electronically. This information will then be included in a searchable online database. Originally, this initiative was announced in a Federal Register notice in late 2013, though it was long known that OSHA was moving in this direction. There are no new requirements in terms of what must be reported or which employers must compile and report such data. This represents a significant change in the law. Presently, employer specific data are not readily available to the public or even to employees of a particular firm. The new database will allow OSHA, and others, to better target enforcement and related efforts, as well as facilitate the ability of employers to benchmark themselves against their competitors in these areas. Congress Pursues STEM Initiatives Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education initiatives are the focus of several bills currently in Congress. There are two in particular that are generally considered to be bipartisan and capable of being approved. One is the Innovate America Act, the primary purpose of which is to fund 100 new STEM-focused high schools throughout the United States. This legislation is also designed to accomplish the following: • Encourage greater commercialization of research and development by expanding the basic research tax credit to include all industry-funded university research; • Allow companies to take a flat 30% tax credit for donating equipment to high schools and technical and community colleges; • Incentivize colleges and universities to increase graduation rates for STEM students; • Expand undergraduate research opportunities; • Establish a website for technology commercialization ideas; • Establish a manufacturing assistance program; • Remove regulatory barriers for top 20 exporting industries; • Enforce existing international exporting and importing laws. The second bill, the STEM Gateways Act, is designed to provide funding through the U.S. Department of Education to help schools implement rigorous STEM academics, with a focus on reaching underrepresented groups. Selected elementary and secondary schools in partnership with community colleges, nonprofits, and other partner organizations would be able to use federal funding to support STEM classroom activities, extracurricular and after-school learning, summer programs, student tutoring and mentoring, and professional development for educators. Such effors are focused on expanding STEM opportunities for female, minority, and economically disadvantaged students. Defense Authorization Legislation Includes Key Contracting Provisions The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013, signed into law at the end of last year, includes several contracting policy provisions intended to favor small businesses in the federal procurement marketplace. First, the Act requires federal agencies to incorporate in the performance evaluation of senior agency contracting officials their promotion of, and conformance with, existing small business contracting requirements. Overall, the federal government consistently fails to meet small business contracting thresholds by 25% or more. Second, the Act imposes requirements to help ensure that when the government restricts competition to small businesses the work is actually performed by small businesses and not subcontracted to large firms. Finally, the Act is intended to enhance contracting opportunities for small businesses by adding an incentive for prime federal contractors to consider small firms for more subcontracts. Government Issues Manufacturing Communities ʻPlaybookʼ A new federal partnership, the Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP), aims to accelerate the resurgence of manufacturing and create a competitive climate for communities to attract manufacturing jobs and investment. The IMCP encourages communities to devise comprehensive economic development strategies that strengthen their competitive edge in attracting global manufacturers and their supply chains. In this regard, IMCP has developed a playbook that identifies existing federal planning grant and technical assistance resources and catalogs best practices in economic development, including a three-step approach to building an effective strategy. The playbook is available online at www.manufacturing.gov /imcp/index.html. House Passes Patent Troll Legislation The U.S. House of Representatives has approved H.R. 3309, the Innovation Act, by a bipartisan vote of 325 to 91. This bill takes steps to combat the ever-increasing problem of abusive patent litigation, i.e., patent trolls. This legislation would • Require plaintiffs in patent litigation to disclose who the owner of a patent is before litigation, so that it is clear who the real parties behind the litigation are; • Require plaintiffs to actually explain why they are suing a company in their court pleadings; • Require courts to make decisions about whether a patent is valid or invalid early in the litigation process so that patent trolls cannot drag patent cases on for years based on invalid claims; • Require judges to award attorneys’ fees to the victims of a frivolous lawsuit; • Require the Judicial Conference to make rules to reduce the costs of discovery in patent litigation, so that patent trolls cannot use the high costs of discovery to extort money from small businesses and entrepreneurs; • Create a voluntary process for small businesses to postpone expensive patent lawsuits while their larger sellers complete similar patent lawsuits against the same plaintiffs, to protect customers who simply bought the product off-the-shelf. There is similar legislation pending the Senate that also is expected to pass.♦ WASHINGTON WATCHWORD 6 FEBRUARY 2014 BY HUGH K. WEBSTER AWS WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS OFFICE Contact the AWS Washington Government Affairs Office at 1747 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006; e-mail hwebster@wc-b.com; FAX (202) 835-0243.
Welding Journal | February 2014
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