The statutes in question do NOT require intent, only gross negligence. That is the way congress originally wrote them, with the intent of being able to prosecute under this slightly lower burden of proof.

America according its founding principals is not supposed to mandate things like this. And yet there is a trend toward better leave, without Federal involvement, from many prominent companies. I know it's slow and painful, and not all companies may change, but the US is not like Europe et al in respect to government's role in business. I for one would like to keep it that way.

What you describe is (mostly) what our federal system of government in the US was supposed to accomplish. Independent states bound together only by common commerce, money, and security. If the federal government hadn't grown to the size/scope it is today, we wouldn't bat an eye when one state enacted a particular law and the next did not.