ELIZABETH WARREN

UNITED STATES SENATE
WASHINGTON, DC 20510 2105

MASSACHUSETTS

p 202-224 4543
COMMinEES

BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS
HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

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ARMED SERVICES

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SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

June 17, 20 19

www.warren senate.gov

Loren Sweatt
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution A venue NW
Washington, DC 202 10
Dear Ms. Sweatt:
I write to follow up on the findings and recommendations of the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) in its February 2019 report Defense Contracting: Enhanced Information Needed
on Contractor Workplace Safety. Pursuant to a provision in the National Defense Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 2018, 1 GAO revi ewed the safety and health records of Department of
Defense (DOD) contractors and existing DOD procedures to evaluate them during the
contracting process. 2 As part of this review, GAO identified several problems with the quality,
consistency, and accessibility of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA)
data.
DOD " is the largest contracting agency in the federal government," but GAO found an
alarmingly high number of workplace safety and health violations, including serious violations,
among the DOD contractors it reviewed in the construction and manufacturing sectors.3 GAO
found that almost 80% of contractors it reviewed that had had either OSHA or state-level
workplace safety inspections within the previous five years were found to have committed at
least one violation. Nearly half were cited for at least one serious violation, meaning that "there
was a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer
knew, or could have known ... of the hazard .'>4 The DOD contractors that received citations
averaged almost 5 citations (405 total) and 2.3 serious citations ( 195 total) per company. 5
Tragically, at least seven workers died in connection with the serious violations.6

1
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year2018, H.R.2810 ( 115 1h Congress), Sec. 814,
https://www.congress.gov/bill/ 11 5th-congress/house-bill/281 0/text.
2 Government Accountability Office, " DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Enhanced Information Needed on Contractor
Workplace Safety," GA0-1 9-235, February 21 , 20 19, https://www.gao.gov/products!GA0- 19-235.
3 GAO reviewed 192 contractors. 106 ofthese contractors had been inspected by either OSHA or state workplace
safety agencies.
4
!d., p. 14.
5
/d., p.J5.
6 /d. , p. 16.

 These findings are disturbing, because they strongly suggest that many companies receiving
billions of dollars in manufacturing and construction contracts from DOD are setiously
endangering the health and safety of their employees in violation of federal law.
GAO reported that it was Lmable to detem1ine the :full incidence of violations among companies
it reviewed, because "OSHA does not require its staff to obtain and enter a corporate
identification number in its inspector data, which is needed to match contracting data to
inspection data" and that '"unless OSHA explores the feasibility of requiring a corporate
identification number in its inspection data, website users will likely have difficulty obtaining
accurate information on individual companies' previous violations."7 This is a significant barrier
to any efforts that DOD has taken or will take to improve contracting officers' review of
prospective contractors' safety records in determining whether those companies meet
responsibility standards.
In lts response to the GAO report, DOD committed to issuing guidance to contracting officers on
accessing occupational satbty and health data on OSHA's website. But unless OSHA's data
consistently include corporate identification numbers, DOD contracting officers may encounter
significant difficulties in doing so. Considering the remarkably large prevalence of occupational
health and safety violations among DOD contactors indicated by GAO's findings, rectifying
these gaps in OSHA's data is an important step toward improving the occupational health and
safety for the millions ofAmerican workers employed by these companies.
Specifically, GAO recommended that OSHA "explore the feasibility of requiring a corporate
identification number in its inspection database and enabling its website to be searched by that
number."8 This would drastically improve the quality and usefulness of OSHA's data, both for
DOD contracting officers conducting responsibility determinations of prospective contractors
and for a wide range of other purposes. GAO reported that "collecting corporate identification
numbers as part of inspections could benefit both OSHA and users of OSHA's website,"
because, according to OSHA officials, knowing these numbers can help in collecting financial
penalties from companies that have violated OSHA standards. In addition, OSHA officials said
that requiring these numbers would make it easier to search OSHA's inspection data9•
Jn order to better understand OSHA's plans for implementing this recommendation, J ask that
you answer the following questions no later than July 8, 2019:
1. In your response to GAO's report, you wrote that OSHA ''will continue to promote the

collection of the EIN/TlN [Employer Identification Number/Taxpayer Identification
Number] whenever possible." 10 What specific steps is OSHA taking, or will OSHA take,
to do so?
a. What is the timeline for doing so?
7 Government Accountability Office, "'DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Enhanced Information Needed on Contractor
Workplace Safety," GA0-19-235, What GAO Found, February 21, 2019, https://www.gao.gov/products/GA0-19235.
8 Government Accountability Office. "DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Enhanced Information Needed on Contractor
Workplace Safety," GA0-19-235, p. 31, February 21, 2019, https://www.gao.gov/products/GA0-19-235.
~/d., p. 20.
!0 !d., p. 44.

2

 2. You noted, "OSHA currently routinely attempts to collect the employer's EIN during
each inspection," but that only "42% of establishments inspected between February 2011
and May 2017 provided an EIN." 11 To what factors to you attribute most employers'
failure to report an EIN?
a. What advice are you providing field staff in cases where businesses do not
provide EINs?
3. I appreciate your commitment that "the agency will reinforce the importance of collecting
the information," but, considering that less than half of companies are currently reporting
an EIN, will OSHA consider directing field staff to collect an EIN or other corporate
identification number from all companies that they inspect? If not, why not?
4. You wrote that "there is a financial cost associated with any redesign of the agency's data
system in order to create a searchable data field." 12 Please provide an estimate of, and
explanation for, those costs.
5. In light of GAO's concerning findings regarding the prevalence of occupational safety
and health violations among DOD contractors, will OSHA consider providing training, in
person or through written or electronic materials, for DOD contracting offices to better
understand how to use the OSHA website to find a company' s OSHA violations and
reports of severe injuries?
6. Will OSHA consider working with DOD to review the safety records of prospective
DOD contractors in high-risk industries? If not, why not?
7. What other steps does OSHA plan to take to better protect the occupational health and
safety of workers employed by these companies?

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,

eth Warren
States Senator

fd. , p. 43 .
Government Accountabil ity Office, " DEFENSE CONTRACTING: Enhanced Information Needed on Contractor
Workplace Safety," GA0-19-235, p. 43, February 21, 2019, https://www.gao.gov/products/GA0-19-235
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