In March of 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed an uncontroversial—and long overdue—regulation that would require employers to pay for personal protective equipment, including eye goggles, work gloves, and fall gear, for employees, many of whom go without protective gear rather than pay for it out of pocket. The rule was already in its final stages when Bush came into office, but in 2004, OSHA reopened the comment period—five years after the original rule was proposed. Two-and-a-half years later, and eight years after the rule was first proposed, tens of thousands of workers are still forced to pay for their own equipment or go without. Now the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers unions have filed suit to force OSHA to finish the rulemaking. "Nothing is standing in the way of OSHA issuing a final PPE rule to protect worker safety and health except the will to do so. It is long overdue that the agency take action on protective equipment. Now, we are asking the courts to force OSHA to act," said Joseph Hansen, UFCW International President.