A laissez-faire approach and less urgency are part of OSHA?s practices under the Bush administration, which vowed to limit new rules and roll back what it considered cumbersome regulations that imposed unnecessary costs on businesses and consumers. Across Washington, political appointees ? often former officials of the industries they now oversee ? have eased regulations or weakened enforcement of rules on issues like driving hours for truckers, logging in forests and corporate mergers. Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.
See "OSHA Leaves Worker Safety in Hands of Industry", Stephen Labaton, The New York Times, April 24, 2007