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Law360 (March 12, 2020, 6:32 PM EDT ) A group of mostly Democratic lawmakers have floated an emergency measure in the U.S. Senate that would require the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration to boost safety standards for health care workers on the front line of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Thursday announcement.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said she has introduced the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Act in the Senate, just days after a similar measure was introduce in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.
The legislation would require that OSHA issue an emergency temporary standard increasing exposure protections for frontline health care workers, according to Duckworth's announcement. The DOL has the power to issue such standards in emergency situations, according to Duckworth, who added that the legislation would give OSHA 30 days to come up with a standard.
"Our nation's health care workers are on the front lines as we work to defend Americans from COVID-19," Duckworth said in a statement. "They deserve to be as protected as they can be as they take on greater risks to keep the rest of us safe, and this legislation will help ensure they are."
Other Democrats co-sponsored the Senate bill, including Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was also a co-sponsor.
The AFL-CIO said in a statement that all health care workers should be kept safe while the COVID-19 pandemic is still raging.
"All existing guidelines are voluntary, so employers have the discretion to implement, ignore, or selectively follow the guidelines, and workers need enforceable standards that provide a consistent level of protection across an industry so that they can go to work knowing they are safe," Rebecca Reindel, the labor federation's health and safety specialist, said in a statement to Law360. "Every worker has the right to a safe workplace."
The Senate legislation comes after the House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., introduced a House version of the bill on Monday.
The World Health Organization earlier this week declared COVID-19 a pandemic — a disease that has spread across the world.
The WHO has documented more than 125,000 cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide as of March 12, with more than 4,600 deaths since it originated in China's Hubei province late last year. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest count confirmed 1,215 cases with 36 deaths.
Lawmakers have also introduced the Public Health Emergencies and Personal and Family Care Act, which would make paid sick time mandatory nationwide. That bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and in the House by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., on March 6, would make employers give all workers seven days of paid sick time plus another 14 days during a "public health emergency."
Representatives for OSHA were not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
--Additional reporting by Braden Campbell and Alex Lawson. Editing by Jack Karp.
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