§ 1902.32 General policies.

(a) Sections 18 (e) and (f) of the Act provide for the continuing evaluation and monitoring of State plans approved under section 18(c) of the Act. The Assistant Secretary's decision whether to grant an affirmative 18(e) determination will be based, in part, on the results of these evaluations. Section 18(e) provides that a period of not less than 3 years shall have passed before the Assistant Secretary may make a determination that the State program in actual operations is applying the criteria of section 18(c) of the Act. In the case of a developmental plan, § 1902.2(b) of this part requires that the Assistant Secretary must have at least one year in which to evaluate the plan's actual operations following the completion of all developmental steps specified in the plan. Thus, to be considered for an 18(e) determination, at least three years shall have passed following commencement of operations after the initial approval of a State's occupational safety and health plan by the Assistant Secretary. In the case of a developmental plan, at least one year shall have passed following the completion of all developmental steps, but, in any event, at least three years must have passed following initial approval of the plan before discretionary Federal enforcement authority and standards may be withdrawn from issues covered by an approved plan.