Daily News

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is postponing significant revisions to the list of chemicals covered under its industrial facility security program, focusing its forthcoming proposed rule on other priorities, which may include streamlining standards and creating a process for companies to remove chemicals from the program.

Top Democratic lawmakers are backing labor unions' petition urging OSHA to issue a workplace violence prevention standard that would require healthcare and social service employers to create violence prevention programs, arguing the rate of violence at the facilities is “high and rising,” and that current enforcement is ineffective.

OSHA is implementing controversial anti-retaliation provisions of its new injury reporting rule through a legal settlement with a major employer even as industry groups are seeking a speedy court ruling to block the provisions before they take effect next month -- though the agency last week delayed enforcement of the requirement until November.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is dropping plans for a long-stalled rule regulating the sale of ammonium nitrate, an ingredient used in explosives and as fertilizer, and is instead asking the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to review substances that may be used in improvised explosives to support broader future oversight.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is launching an improved process for ranking the risk of industrial facilities under its Chemical Facilities Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program, saying the updated method for assigning risk levels to facilities will reduce time companies spend reporting and increase confidence in DHS reviews.

House appropriators advanced a fiscal 2017 spending bill that continues efforts to block OSHA priorities for bolstering its process safety management (PSM) facility accident prevention rule, directing the agency not to enforce a 2015 policy memo tightening its PSM exemption for fertilizer retailers, and opposing efforts to regulate ammonium nitrate under PSM.

OSHA advisors have issued guidance to help employers craft programs for protecting temporary workers from injuries and illnesses on work sites, and recommended that the agency pilot test the new methods at cooperating job sites to ensure the advice, which could inform OSHA's own guidance for protecting temporary workers, is effective.

OSHA is delaying by roughly three months enforcement of the legally-contested provisions of its new worker injury and illness reporting rule, citing a need to conduct additional outreach to regulated businesses and complete enforcement guidance.

In a July 13 memo to OSHA's regional administrators, the agency headquarters announces it is postponing until Nov. 1 enforcement of anti-retaliation provisions of the reporting rule that were originally scheduled to take effect Aug. 10.

Top Senate Democrats are urging conferees negotiating the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill to strip language from the two chambers' bills that would gut OSHA's plan for implementing President Obama's directive that federal agencies consider contractors' records of workplace violations in awarding procurement contracts.

Unions representing healthcare and other workers are formally petitioning OSHA to issue a violence-protection standard that would require healthcare and social service employers to create violence prevention programs, including procedures for assessing and correcting hazards, arguing violence is increasing and OSHA enforcement is inadequate.

A coalition of industry groups is seeking to block OSHA enforcement of portions of a new worker injury reporting rule, arguing that the agency has failed to show provisions that limit safety incentive programs and post-accident drug testing will reduce injuries, and that OSHA also failed to follow proper procedure in issuing the rule that exceeds its authority.

EPA's Office of Inspector General (IG) is urging the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), which it oversees, to issue a rule requiring facilities to report chemical accidents to the board, and for the board to increase its investigations of those incidents, priorities the IG says dropped off as the board wrestled with internal strife.

Public health advocates are raising doubts over EPA's ability to quickly ban asbestos using new authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform law, despite proponents saying the law's new powers could help the agency overcome regulatory barriers that stymied its first attempt to regulate the known carcinogen in the 1990s.

A House appropriations subcommittee has declined to include binding legislative language sought by farm groups in its just-issued draft spending bill which would block OSHA from enforcing its controversial 2015 policy narrowing a long-standing exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers, leaving industry hoping for non-binding report language opposing enforcement.

OSHA's small business advisors appear split on whether overlap between OSHA and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) facility accident prevention rules adds significant compliance burdens, with some saying efforts to comply with one program also satisfy the other, and others saying unnecessary steps are required.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing back on labor unions' effort to block the business group from intervening in litigation challenging OSHA's final rule strengthening its silica standards, calling labors' claim that the Chamber will raise new issues “speculation,” and not an adequate basis for precluding the companies' involvement.

Public health advocates are urging OSHA to significantly strengthen its policies and practices for settling enforcement actions as a companion to the agency's just-issued rule raising penalties for violations, saying such actions are needed to help overcome the agency's legal and resource limits that Congress imposes that restrict its ability to address new and emerging hazards and enforce existing standards.

Small business officials from the explosives and agricultural sectors are resisting OSHA suggestions to add ammonium nitrate, a common ingredient in fertilizer and explosives, to a list of hazardous chemicals covered under its Process Safety Management (PSM) program, arguing the rule is inappropriate for a substance that is safe when stored properly.

Key Democratic senators and public health advocates are calling for the creation of a regulatory watchdog to speed OSHA and other agencies' rulemakings, warning that such a position is needed to overcome agencies' “regulatory capture” by industry groups and the bias that results.

The Justice Department's (DOJ) top environmental official is touting new training for OSHA inspectors to spot environmental violations during workplace investigations and report them to EPA for enforcement, and pointing to two ongoing environment cases as proof of the new system's effectiveness.