The 8th Circuit has stayed compliance deadlines of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) silica rule amid industry concerns that MSHA’s voluntary pause on enforcement of the rule does not provide the certainty of a stay pending judicial review.
November 15, 2026
A West Virginia coal miner is challenging the Trump administration’s near elimination of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), arguing the move violates provisions of mine safety law by disrupting health surveillance and job transfer programs for miners with respiratory diseases.
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Industry is pressing Trump administration officials to make numerous changes to its draft scoping document for the TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, with manufacturers arguing EPA must acknowledge “unreasonable risk” is not just any type of risk and pointing to existing protections for workers.
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Democrats are introducing legislation to strengthen health and safety protections for miners following the gutting of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which focuses in part on research related to black lung and innovative technologies to keep mines safe.
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President Donald Trump has nominated Deputy Solicitor of Labor Jonathan Snare to serve on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), but without an additional nomination and confirmation to the panel, OSHRC will continue to lack a quorum to address the backlog of cases before it.
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A federal district court judge has dismissed for the second time litigation alleging North Carolina labor officials were administering the state’s workplace safety plan in violation of the federal OSH Act, finding the case raises no new issues from a previously dismissed challenge.
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Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has vetoed legislation that would have required employers to implement control measures to address workplace violence safety concerns, arguing the bill is unnecessary even as employment law experts expect states to continue to consider such legislation in the absence of federal action.
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Republicans on the House workforce committee are urging the Labor Department (DOL) to withdraw proposed OSHA regulations and rescind final Biden-era ones as part of a broader push to overhaul “burdensome” regulations from the department.
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A leading chemical industry attorney is urging the Trump administration to engage industry and other stakeholders in strengthening the coordination between EPA and OSHA, arguing that a newly issued memorandum of understanding (MOU) fails to provide the necessary clarity on their respective regulatory roles.
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Worker advocates and Kentucky’s governor are raising concerns about recently passed state legislation that if enacted would block regulators from enforcing years-old rules that are less protective than federal OSHA standards, setting up a test of whether the Trump administration will enforce statutory mandates for state program effectiveness.
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