Topeka ? Republicans on the Senate Commerce Committee began backing away from the idea of having the state take over enforcement of workplace safety regulations after they were told that it couldn’t be used as a way of scaling back those regulations.

But the idea may still be alive in the House, where leaders say it has strong support within the business community in Kansas.

Both the House and Senate commerce committees heard a report this week from the Kansas Department of Labor, which was instructed last year to study the cost and feasibility of having the state take over workplace safety enforcement from the federal government — something that the federal law not only allows but provides funding for states that choose to do it.

But Brad Burke, chief attorney for the Kansas Department of Labor, said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Kansas would first have to adopt regulations that are at least as strict as the federal rules, and it would have to enforce those rules at least as vigorously as OSHA does.

“They’ll look at how many fines are being assessed, whether or not fine dollars drop, the number of inspections,” Burke said. “So basically what would happen is OSHA would need to be convinced we’re going to do at least as intensive of a review as they do, if not better.”

Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, said that would defeat the purpose of having the state take over OSHA enforcement.

“It was my understanding that one of the reasons we were very interested in this bill is so that the state could have a lot more flexibility as to when they are in disagreement with some of the federal requirements,” Pilcher-Cook said.

Terri Sanchez, director of the department’s industrial safety and health division, said the state currently provides consultation services to Kansas businesses to help them stay in compliance with OSHA codes and avoid paying federal fines. It also acts as the OSHA enforcement agency for all state and local government agencies.

But according to OSHA statistics, even with that help from the state, the federal agency found that of the 701 work sites it inspected in 2013, 63 percent were not in compliance with regulations. And of those, 84 percent were cited for “serious, willful or repeat violations.”

There were 3.7 work-related nonfatal illnesses and injuries per 100 full-time employees in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and there were 54 work-related deaths.

Fines from those enforcement actions totaled nearly $2.3 million.

The Kansas Department of Labor report also said it would cost about $3.2 million a year to adopt and administer a state OSHA plan. And even though the federal government would pay for half of that cost, committee chairwoman Sen. Julia Lynn said that would probably be impossible this year because of the state’s tight fiscal condition.

“It doesn’t mean the issue’s dead,” said Lynn, R-Olathe. “It’s just probably dead for this year.”

Burke, however, noted that if the state takes over OSHA enforcement, it gets to keep all of the fines it collects for violations. He said many states that do run their own plans finance them through those collections.

Rep. Mark Hutton, R-Wichita, who chairs the House Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development, said he hasn’t decided whether to pursue the issue this year.

“Industry is looking at how we would do it,” Hutton said. “The next step would be to commission the (Kansas) Department of Labor to submit a plan.”