The Senate has confirmed Doug Parker as the first permanent head of OSHA since the Obama era in a mostly party-line Oct. 25 vote that puts the former California work-safety chief in control of the agency just as it is poised to implement a much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine standard and a host of the administration’s other priorities.
November 15, 2026
A new decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit refusing to block Maine’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare workers over religious-freedom claims could bode well for OSHA’s impending general-industry vaccine standard, but attorneys say any such case is still likely to go to the Supreme Court.
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Senate leaders are teeing up two long-awaited steps for OSHA, scheduling a floor vote for Oct. 25 on former California safety chief Doug Parker’s nomination to lead the agency and proposing a fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill that includes a $74.1 million funding boost largely focused on its enforcement work.
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OSHA is warning three states that it could withdraw their state plan status unless they craft COVID-19 protections for healthcare workers, arguing that all three have failed to adopt counterparts to the agency’s emergency temporary standard (ETS) and thus violated the mandate to maintain programs “at least as effective” as federal standards.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of OSHA’s advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for a nationwide heat danger standard, setting the stage for what stakeholders expect to be a preliminary request for input that will inform the standard-setting process.
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The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has started stakeholder meetings on OSHA’s upcoming emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 vaccination, and several industry groups tell Inside OSHA they have used their sessions to raise concerns on implementation and recordkeeping requirements in the rule.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit could soon decide whether changes in state and federal workplace safety guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic have rendered moot litigation over employers’ alleged failures to comply with earlier safeguards, as it weighs new arguments in Amazon workers’ suit over warehouse conditions.
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Whistleblower protection groups are asking OSHA to take new steps to help undocumented workers report safety violations and seek protection from unlawful retaliation following a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo ending immigration agencies’ practice of raiding work site to make mass arrests.
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OSHA has sent its hotly-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine emergency temporary standard (ETS) for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review, signaling the administration could soon enact its mandate for large private-sector employers to set strict vaccination requirements for their workers.
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The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is ramping up its calls for OSHA to broaden its process safety management (PSM) standard to cover additional “reactive hazards,” along with a parallel push for EPA to bolster its chemical-safety rules, after a recent investigation blamed the current policies for failing to prevent a fatal hydrogen gas explosion.
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