Congressional Democrats are renewing their long-standing push to reinstate, and update Obama-era policies aimed at barring federal contract awards to contractors with poor worker safety records after they were rescinded by Republicans and President Donald Trump.
November 15, 2026
Complicating Trump EPA plans to rollback Obama-era facility safety rules, industry lawyers are warning that the agency faces constitutional challenges over its plan to retain provisions that require companies to hold a public meeting to disclose data on an incident, saying the mandate helps potential plaintiffs and seeks to regulate by “shaming.”
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Senate Republicans have begun approving Trump administration nominees for the Labor Department under new rules that limit debate, suggesting they may soon confirm the president's long-time pick to lead OSHA, though the move is frustrating Democrats who say the GOP is unfairly blocking two of their nominees for labor panels.
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Citing EPA’s failure to account for the chemical hazards to which firefighters are exposed, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is sponsoring its own research to study the risks posed by chemicals in the per- and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS) class, which were widely used in firefighting foam.
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At the request of Congress, NIOSH is seeking comment on the feasibility of creating a national mesothelioma registry, an effort the agency says could help improve prevention and treatment of workers' exposure to asbestos -- the main pathway to contracting the fatal disease.
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Labor advocates and their supporters in Congress are preparing to launch a long-awaited push aimed at better protecting workers from heat stress, with a public awareness campaign slated for later this month and legislation requiring OSHA to set a safety standard expected later this summer.
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Homebuilders and other industry groups have amended their pending complaint challenging the anti-retaliation provisions in OSHA's recordkeeping rule to account for Trump administration rollbacks though their revised suit maintains most of the claims the groups made in their original complaint.
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OSHA is promising to carefully scrutinize and document its decision-making before issuing regulatory guidance in response to a report from the Labor Department's Inspector General (IG) that found the Obama administration did not establish adequate steps for distributing regulatory guidance, opening the agency up to legal challenges.
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Rejecting petro-chemical industry arguments, an OSHA review panel has upheld an enforcement action against an Oklahoma refiner for alleged process safety management (PSM) violations, a ruling that industry officials say “dramatically” expands the PSM rule's applicability to boilers and other “interconnected” units even if hazardous chemicals are not present in sufficient quantities.
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The Labor Department (DOL) has begun implementing a recently enacted data management law that requires agencies to better share and manage data, a move that observers say will allow OSHA and other agencies to bolster inspections and enforcement to target employers who have multiple violations across the different agencies.
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