Nevada lawmaker trying for position as OSHA leader

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, March 15, 2001 | 11:36 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Assemblyman Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, is in the nation's capital today to interview for a job as the nation's top occupational safety officer.

Nolan is applying for the post as Assistant Secretary of Labor, the top officer over the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. He has three sets of interviews today with Department of Labor and White House personnel officials, he said.

"I'm a safety guy," the former paramedic said. "I have always given a lot of thought to how OSHA works and I understand a lot about the agency and the standards it promulgates."

Nolan said he has been told he is among about five finalists.

The four-term assemblyman, former emergency medical service administrator, is also corporate director for safety and loss prevention for American Transportation Companies, which operates bus lines in 30 cities.

If chosen for the job, Nolan would be among the highest-ranking Nevadans in the Bush administration.

Nolan would also be a key national figure on the controversial issue of ergonomics. President Clinton launched new regulations, opposed by most businesses, in an effort to stem job-related injuries resulting from repetitive motions. The Republican-controlled Congress scrapped the rules earlier this month.

Organized labor fought for the rules, but Republicans said the regulations would cost $100 billion a year to implement and cause layoffs and business bankruptcies.

Nolan said Congress would have to revisit the issue again this year or next and reach a compromise both business and labor could accept.

"It was a rush to get bad legislation through," Nolan said of the ergonomics regulations. "Ergonomics is a nasty 10-letter word in Congress right now. But you have to come back and address it."