Groups representing sheriffs and other first responders are again urging lawmakers to reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, warning that allowing it to lapse has increased terrorism risks and limited collaboration between local emergency services.
November 15, 2026
OSHA is clashing with the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) after it found the agency needs to do more to mitigate high injury and illness rates among warehouse workers, refusing to directly respond to recommendations and slamming OIG’s methodologies for the audit instead.
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OSHA is launching a new initiative to bolster enforcement and compliance with its rules governing respirable crystalline silica (RCS) to protect workers in the engineered stone fabrication and installation industries by prioritizing federal inspections of worksites where workers are exposed to high levels of silica dust.
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OSHA chief Doug Parker used a Sept. 27 House hearing to warn lawmakers against an increasingly-likely government shutdown, arguing that a lapse in appropriations will hamstring the agency’s enforcement work including a new silica initiative, while also seeking to defend its regulatory agenda against attacks by Republican panel members.
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EPA has sent its final rule overhauling the risk management program (RMP) to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review, setting the stage for what is expected to be a slew of changes to facility-safety requirements addressing emergency preparedness, regulatory definitions and extreme weather planning, among others.
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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su can continue in her position because provisions in federal law establishing Department of Labor (DOL) positions preempt time limitations in the Federal Vacancies Reform Act on how long a federal official can serve in an acting capacity.
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Two attorneys are warning that both employers and OSHA itself face an “incredible burden” from the agency’s proposal that would allow third parties to accompany compliance officers on inspections even when they do not work for the company -- particularly when deciding who qualifies as an “authorized representative” of non-union employees.
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An employer attorney says companies, especially small businesses, are likely to push OSHA for greater flexibility in its upcoming heat-danger standard after the agency quietly released a lengthy list of “potential options” for its proposal including a range of possible heat-control requirements, temperature thresholds and training mandates.
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A prominent industry attorney says OSHA is likely to include mandates for facilities to plan for extreme weather like hurricanes in any overhaul of the process safety management (PSM) standard, building on what is already a broad push by several other program offices and agencies to incorporate weather resiliency into regulatory programs.
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A broad coalition of industry trade associations is again pressing the Senate to reauthorize the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program by quickly passing a two-year bill that has already cleared the House, teeing up the issue again after lawmakers returned from their August recess.
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