Standard-Setting under Osha and EPA—Antitrust Barriers to Association Participation

• Author: Robert J. McManus
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7301800208
• Published date: 01 June 1973
• Date: 01 June 1973
• Subject Matter: Article

STANDARD·smING

UNDER

OSHA AND

EPA-

ANTITRUST

BARRIERS

TO ASSOCIATION

PARTICIPATION

by

ROBERT

J.

McMANUS·

I notice

that

this segment of the afternoon's

program

is

entitled "Standard-Setting Under OSHA and

EP

A-Anti-

trust

Barriers

to Association Participation." On the as-

sumption

that

my remarks would not necessarily reveal my

ignorance on the subject of

antitrust

law, I should begin with

adisclaimer of any expertise in this area. Indeed, my only

connection with

it

was a law school course. I might

add

that

the man who has recently been named Solicitor General of

the United States generously gave me a

"B"

in

that

course,

a decision on his

part

which probably casts doubt on the wis-

dom of his appointment.

Nonetheless, I was comforted to see from the afternoon's

agenda

that

we two representatives of the federal government

are

sandwiched between two speakers from private practice,

the first of whom was to define the problem, and the second

of whom was, in general, to tell ns how to solve

it;

Itake it,

therefore,

that

my remarks need not constitute a solution, but

can be taken, rather, as a

part

of the problem. Accordingly, I

appear

before you in a comfortable and familiar role for any

representative of a federal agency.

In

order

to heap some

lard

on the conceptual skeleton

which Mr. Joelson has

just

erected

for

you, I am going to tell

you, as concisely as I can, what my agency does; where

it

receives inputs from industry in general,

and

trade associa-

tions in

particular;

and what procedures

it

employs

for

the

harvesting, consumption, digestion and evacuation of in-

formation.

•

Office

of the General Counsel, Environmental Protection Agency.

271