WASHINGTON, March 7 — Moving with unusual speed, the House voted narrowly tonight to repeal new workplace safety regulations, just a day after the Senate voted to rescind the same rules. This rapid one-two punch represented the first joint legislative attack on the legacy of President Bill Clinton, who issued the regulations in what he called an effort to combat the wave of injuries resulting from repetitive motions on the job. The White House announced support of the repeal on Tuesday, and lawmakers said they expected President Bush to sign the legislation soon.
Voting largely along partisan lines, the House backed the repeal bill, 223 to 206, with 16 Democrats voting to support the repeal. At the same time, 13 Republicans voted to keep the regulations.
Like the 56-to-44 Senate vote on Tuesday to scrap the ergonomics rules, the House vote today was a major victory for business and a stinging defeat for organized labor, which had lobbied for 10 years for strong regulations to reduce ergonomic injuries. The Republican pushed through the business-backed repeal shortly after Mr. Bush upset many business interests by insisting he did not want corporate tax breaks to slow down his tax-cut proposal.
Democratic lawmakers voiced outrage that the House voted to revoke the rules after just an hour of debate, even though Mr. Clinton adopted the regulations after 10 years of studies and a year of hearings.
