A group of 47 Democrats is concerned that a Labor Department (DOL) proposal to weaken rules prohibiting minors from working in certain hazardous operations has not been adequately reviewed for potential safety risks to teen workers, writing in a recent letter that they are unaware of any formal NIOSH review of the underlying data informing the plan.
September 17, 2026
OSHA has issued its final rule delaying until Dec. 12 some provisions of its Obama-era beryllium standard in order to complete a separate rule that will roll back aspects of the underlying regulation as agreed to in a settlement with industry groups, but the move is facing criticism from some worker advocates though others are grudgingly accepting it.
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Business groups are urging the Supreme Court to review and reverse a California high court ruling that backed the state's use of supplemental enforcement powers to address workplace safety violations, fearing it will allow nearly two dozen other states operating under OSHA-approved plans to use their unapproved state laws to address alleged violations.
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Business groups and industry attorneys are threatening aggressive advocacy, including reviving stayed suits challenging OSHA's injury and illness recordkeeping program, to address concerns that the Trump administration's planned rollback of an Obama-era rule does not go far enough to remove aspects of the rule employers oppose.
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EPA is defending its framework for reviewing new chemicals, including risks to workers, under the revised toxics law against an environmentalist lawsuit by arguing that the policy is consistent with the 2016 law, but also says the framework is a draft that it might never finalize and therefore critics lack legal standing for their challenge.
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Labor and public interest groups are faulting OSHA's recent pledge to support three committees that advise the agency's rulemaking and enforcement efforts as “disingenuous,” arguing that the agency has failed to fill the panels, including a construction advisory committee that has not met in more than a year and currently has no members.
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Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is hedging on Senate Democrats' calls to strictly review and ban certain uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) that are blamed for harms to consumers and workers, saying only that the substance is one of 10 the agency has prioritized for review under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
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OSHA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are weighing an update to a 1994 agreement encouraging USDA food safety inspectors to report chemical hazards to OSHA, after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year noted gaps protecting workers, and advocates are pressing for new research on chemical hazards.
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A former senior OSHA official is faulting a softening in tone in the agency's announcements of workplace safety violations, arguing that strong language is necessary to maximize the deterrent effect of OSHA enforcement actions, though industry attorneys long opposed the Obama-era press release policy as unnecessary “regulation by shaming."
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OSHA has issued a proposed rule revising an Obama-era update to the agency's injury and illness recordkeeping program that would require employers to report only summary information to the agency, citing fears of disclosure of worker injury data under public records law, though labor groups are already challenging Trump administration efforts to curtail the Obama-era rule.
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In a new final agenda for construction safety research, a coalition convened by NIOSH is backing labor groups' calls for prioritizing research on protecting workers from falls and during natural or man-made disasters, while also softening past criticism of OSHA's lockout/tagout standard, which the Obama OSHA sought to revise, despite industry opposition.
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State, health and citizen groups are launching a lawsuit against the Labor Department (DOL) and OSHA over their alleged failure to enforce the Obama administration's May 2016 record-keeping and reporting rule update, charging that the agency's recent announcement delaying a reporting deadline failed to follow notice-and-comment procedures.
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White House officials reviewing EPA's draft proposal gutting the Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention program sought to bolster the basis for the agency's rollback, backing industry arguments that the update was unnecessary and that rolling it back would provide added benefits by improving facility safety.
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A proposed EPA settlement requiring a Missouri-based agricultural products company to perform third-party audits to prevent facility accidents undermines the Trump administration's roll back of equivalent Obama-era policies in the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule, environmentalists say.
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A federal appellate court is upholding a criminal conviction and a maximum penalty against an employer who failed to provide fall protection to an employee who fell to his death, a rare use of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act's criminal enforcement authority, which the Obama administration sought to bolster.
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Senate Democrats are signaling that they will not cooperate with congressional talks over the Trump administration's sweeping government reorganization plan, arguing their requests for the data informing the proposal were “stonewalled,” although Republicans argue that they are just at the “start” of the process.
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A free market group's suit seeking to retroactively extend the Congressional Review Act's (CRA) requirements to OSHA and other agencies' guidance documents is facing a major test as the Justice Department is seeking to dismiss it, arguing in part that courts lack jurisdiction to review agencies' alleged failure to submit the policies to Congress for possible repeal.
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EPA is planning to consider workers' exposures to existing chemicals when it assesses substances' risks for possible regulation under the revised toxics law, noting that OSHA has acknowledged that its exposure limits for many chemicals are “outdated and inadequate.”
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Former OSHA officials and a coalition of over 100 labor groups are formally petitioning OSHA to craft a federal standard protecting workers from exposure to excessive heat, though one former official says that imminent Democratic legislation requiring such a standard is likely the most feasible path forward under the Trump administration.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) is urging a federal court to reject environmentalists' suit seeking to require a rule mandating facilities report their accidental releases, charging, among other things, that the plaintiffs lack standing, though CSB says that if the court requires such a rule it may be “difficult” given administration plans to kill the agency.
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