The White House also announced support of the repeal, and lawmakers said they expected President Bush to sign the legislation soon, upon which, the ergonomics regulation will be null and void.

TBR�s position has been that while the final ergonomics standards that OSHA developed were well intentioned, they were overly broad, unnecessarily vague and excessively costly for businesses to implement.  According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, these regulations would have cost American businesses billions of dollars in compliance and related costs.

Unlike many other industries in today's high-tech world, travel and tourism is very labor-intensive and TBR�s members indicated that the regulations would have severely hampered growth and job creation within the industry. 

TBR, however, does support efforts to develop a more reasonable, balanced and science-based approach to ergonomics and hopes to work with Congress and the Bush Administration to craft workable solutions to prevent workplace injuries

With the passage of this important resolution, TBR will continue to encourage the 107th Congress to focus on other priorities that impact the travel and tourism industry.

These include:

• Formation of a Presidential Advisory Council on Travel and Tourism
• Travel and Tourism Industry Worker Shortage
• Work Opportunity Tax Credit
• Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit
• Raising the visibility of the U.S. as an international travel destination
• Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts
• Minimum wage policy
• Business Meal deduction
• Expanding Aviation Capacity 
• American with Disability Act accessibility guidelines

The Travel Business Roundtable is a coalition of more than 60 CEO�s representing all sectors of the travel and tourism industry whose mission is to educate elected officials on all levels of government on the important contributions travel and tourism makes to the nation�s economy.  In addition to the major airlines, car rental companies, travel management agencies, hotel chains, TBR�s membership roster also includes companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, USA Today, TravelNow.com, the Taubman Company, and the International Council of Shopping Centers, demonstrating the broad scope and diversity the industry represents.  Projected to be the world�s largest industry within the decade, travel and tourism is also America�s leading services export, travel and tourism created a trade surplus of nearly $12 billion in 1999, generating $82 billion of tax revenue and $541 billion in total expenditures.