The House approved legislation earlier this month aimed at making chemical and water treatment facilities less vulnerable to terrorist attack.

The three-part legislation would give federal agencies greater power to require chemical and water plants to meet federally set standards, a policy welcomed by environmentalists but opposed by industry groups. It writes into law anti-terrorism rules in effect since 2007 and gives new enforcement teeth to the Department of Homeland Security over chemical facilities.

A main sticking point was a provision under which the DHS could require some chemical facilities to use certain chemicals or technologies under what are called inherently safer technology, or IST, standards. Backers of the bill said that would apply to the most at-risk facilities; opponents argued it would saddle smaller plants with costly bureaucratic mandates and result in job cuts.

There were also objections to a provision making it easier for citizens to sue companies and the DHS over safety regulation violations and another allowing states to implement rules tougher than the federal standards.

The second section requires the Environmental Protection Agency to establish risk-based performance standards for community drinking water systems serving more than 3,300 people.

Part three ensures that large- and medium-sized wastewater plants assess security and take steps to reduce vulnerability. Those facilities that use potentially dangerous chemicals such as chlorine gas would face reviews of whether IST standards could be imposed to reduce the overall risk.

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The nomination of a labor attorney to a federal board has become another front in the fight over legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

The business community, which has spent millions of dollars to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), is now turning its attention to the nomination of Craig Becker, an associate general counsel to both the Service Employees International Union and AFL-CIO, to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "card-check," has stalled in the Senate. But business groups worry that Becker would try to institute parts of EFCA through board rulings.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), National Federation of Independent Business and other business groups sent a letter to members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee expressing their opposition to Becker.

Three recent workplace shootings have again cast a spotlight on violence at work and the steps employers can take to recognize threats and protect employees, particularly in the ways they hire, fire or lay off workers.

In one high-profile incident, on Nov. 5, in Temple, Texas, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist, allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, killing 13 U.S. soldiers and wounding 30 other individuals, most of them soldiers, before being apprehended.

One day later, Jason Rodriguez, 40, entered the Orlando, Fla., office of Reynolds, Smith & Hills Inc., an engineering firm from which he had been fired two years earlier, and fired several shots at employees, killing one and injuring five others.

And most recently, on Nov. 10 in Portland, Ore., the husband of an employee at a drug testing lab entered the building and shot and killed his wife before killing himself, reportedly after his wife had filed for divorce. Two other employees were wounded.

From 1997 to 2007, there were more than 7,000 occupational homicides nationwide, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most of those incidents involved robberies; more than 1,000 involved work associates, according to the BLS. In 2008, it recorded 517 workplace homicides, a 52% decline from the high of 1,080 in 1994.

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