The U.S. House of Representatives approved a raft of legislation on Tuesday aimed at better protecting the rights of companies that tangle with federal regulators over workplace safety rules.

Sponsors said the measures were “common sense” reforms to restore balance to the law and cut unneeded regulation. “Regulation is just taxation’s evil twin,” declared House Republican Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.

Critics, most of them Democrats, said the proposals would weaken enforcement of workplace health and safety regulations.

Yet while the four-bill package cleared the Republican-run House, there appeared to be little chance for the legislation to win approval this election year in a closely divided Senate, where there is no parallel legislation pending.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, accused Republicans of merely trying to court the favor of business. “Congressional Republicans expose their reflexive desire to tilt the playing field in favor of employers over workers with bills like this,” Hoyer said.

One bill in the package would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets and enforces workplace safety rules, to pay a company’s attorneys fees if the business wins when contesting a safety citation from the agency.

Another would let OSHA make exceptions to its 15-day deadline for employers to challenge the agency’s citations for workplace hazards.

A third would amend current law to expand the presidentially appointed OSHA Review Commission to five members from three.

Democrats charged Republicans wanted to “stack” the commission, which settles disputes between companies and OSHA, by appointing new members who may not favor workers’ interests.

The fourth bill said courts should give the Review Commission’s interpretation of occupational safety laws more weight than that of the OSHA administrator.