Labor groups are urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to tighten OSHA’s final safety standard for COVID-19 exposure in healthcare workplaces beyond the emergency requirements the agency imposed in 2021, focusing in particular on calls to exceed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines for the pandemic.
November 15, 2026
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released its report on a 2019 accident at a butadiene production facility in Texas, recommending that both the operator and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) strengthen their policies for the chemical to prevent similar incidents, just as EPA is evaluating its risks under TSCA.
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An industry group is urging the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to block EPA from placing strict TSCA limits on methylene chloride use in order to protect workers from exposure, arguing that a tough rule lacks scientific support and risks cutting off domestic manufacturing of several key products.
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A new report from the labor-environmental group BlueGreen Alliance (BGA) finds safety data sheets (SDS) OSHA requires to list chemicals’ toxic or hazardous properties are often erroneous, including several EPA has targeted for regulation -- which the group says undercut industry arguments that OSHA rules will protect workers from exposure.
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A top official with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce used a recent White House meeting to reiterate claims that OSHA is violating the law by crafting a final COVID-19 safety standard for healthcare facilities based on its expired emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the sector, in a preview of possible legal challenges facing the imminent rule.
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OSHA is urging a federal appeals court to reject a Texas construction firm’s argument that its safety standards for crane assembly and disassembly do not cover preparatory steps, arguing that the rule is “unambiguous” and that even if its scope is unclear judges should defer to the agency’s reasonable interpretation.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit is weighing competing briefs from OSHA and two subsidiaries of the healthcare giant UHS in an appeal testing when the agency can treat legally distinct companies as a “single employer,” as each side claims the other is trying to overturn foundational precedent on that question.
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Leaders of the Chemical Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC), an industry coalition that works with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are urging Congress to swiftly reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program before it expires in 2023, emphasizing what they say has been valuable public-private collaboration and successful work preventing cybersecurity and other chemical incidents.
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Leaders on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) appear likely to support President Joe Biden’s latest nominees to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle appeared to praise their qualifications and welcomed their promises to focus on hiring at the short-staffed agency.
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A coalition of 20 Democratic attorneys general (AGs) is calling on EPA to strengthen its proposed risk management program (RMP) rule, saying it should require facilities to adopt inherently safer technologies and other measures that the proposal would make optional, and bolster consideration of natural disasters worsened by climate change.
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