Lawmakers and witnesses at a recent Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee (EPW) hearing on extreme heat appeared open to a union official’s arguments that this summer’s record temperatures show the need for stronger worker protections, though several also expressed opposition to a “one-size-fits-all” nationwide policy.
November 15, 2026
OSHA is taking a broad view of when a worker’s injury can be considered “work-related” in a new guidance letter holding that an unprovoked car crash and shooting on public roads still meets the test, and rejecting an employer’s suggestion that such “unforeseeable third-party criminal acts” can overcome the general presumption that any on-the-job incident falls under the agency’s recordkeeping mandates.
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OSHA has agreed to reform how it handles reimbursements to state plans for emergency supplemental funding following a report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) faulting several aspects of the process, though the agency is maintaining that some of the problems that report found with fund allocation were out of its control.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is calling on OSHA to improve how it investigates and records worker deaths in the oil and gas extraction (OGE) sector, saying the agency’s current practices and lack of a specific safety standard for OGE work have produced incomplete data as part of a report on fatalities in the industry.
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OSHA has reached a company-wide enforcement settlement with the discount-retail giant Dollar Tree that includes regular inspections of its stores and an immediate $1.35 million penalty, following a years-long series of citations for what the agency repeatedly said was a persistent pattern of safety violations across the company.
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A chemical-sector trade group is laying out ways facilities can maintain their current recordkeeping and security practices even after Congress allowed the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program to expire, saying companies still have options to continue many of its protections as they wait for a reauthorization vote.
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Chemical industry groups are planning to resume their push to reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standard (CFATS) program as soon as Congress returns from its August recess, over a month after lawmakers allowed it to lapse in July -- and likely with a two-year term rather than the five-year extension initially proposed by Senate leaders.
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The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is urging chemical facility officers to prepare quickly for what could be more frequent and more powerful hurricanes and other extreme wind events in the future and this season in particular, pointing to two recent reports as evidence of the dangers several hurricanes can pose to the sites.
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The chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over OSHA’s worker-protection duties says that he intends to prioritize oversight of the agency’s rulemaking work in the coming years, and is specifically highlighting plans to press for more stakeholder involvement in the rulemaking process, especially from small businesses.
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A group that advocates for restaurant workers is urging OSHA to include kitchens in its forthcoming standard for heat danger, escalating labor groups’ recent calls for the rule to extend beyond outdoor job sites and to mandate protections such as sufficient breaks, heat education and acclimatization plans for all employees.
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