In the wake of an ethics controversy, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) has reinstated its strict Obama-era standard defining when contractors, franchisers and other entities are considered “joint employers,” though the move is unlikely to result in new enforcement of related OSHA guidance as conservatives and Trump administration officials have long opposed the standard.
September 17, 2026
A federal district judge has rejected a legal challenge brought by public interest groups to President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) directing OSHA, EPA and other agencies to identify two existing rules for potential repeal in exchange for every new rule they issue, saying the plaintiffs failed to prove harm from the order -- but stopping short of dismissing the case entirely.
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House lawmakers are holding a Feb. 27 hearing where they plan to explore ways to bolster Trump administration calls to increase OSHA's focus on collaborative compliance-focused approaches with industry, an effort intended to avoid the Obama-era's focus on strict enforcement but which Democrats say jeopardizes worker protections.
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Industry officials are raising significant hurdles to the Trump administration's proposal to charge fees to assist facilities in complying with the agency's accident and spill prevention rules, arguing such a program is unnecessary or that companies will need liability waivers or other incentives to participate.
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The Supreme Court has unanimously rejected a request from a financial sector whistleblower to win protections from retaliation under Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules, prompting concern from whistleblower advocates that the ruling will set a precedent that could undermine similar protections under other laws that OSHA enforces.
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Democratic lawmakers are renewing their calls for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to revisit its recent decision reversing an Obama-era “joint-employer” precedent that had prompted strict OSHA enforcement guidance, citing conflict of interest concerns with one of the board's GOP members that were recently confirmed by an internal inspector general (IG) report.
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In a surprise to some industry observers, EPA appears to be downplaying prospects that it will appeal a recent precedential ruling that rejected its efforts to limit litigation over its denial of a citizen petition under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to the administrative record, saying the agency will fight the litigation "on the merits."
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House lawmakers are encouraging employers to bolster their workplace injury prevention programs to address opioid misuse after a hearing found that the epidemic is a growing safety concern among employers, though conservatives are cautioning against any new OSHA rules as the agency looks to address the epidemic as a workplace issue.
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EPA is planning to seek congressional approval to collect industry fees to support the agency's popular Energy STAR program and supplement compliance assistance for facility accident and spill prevention rules, according to its fiscal year 2019 budget request, an effort that aims to offset proposed budget cuts for the programs.
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The Senate labor panel has postponed the confirmation hearing of a Trump administration appointee to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) amid Democrats' concerns that an NLRB member participated in reversing an Obama-era “joint-employer” precedent that had prompted strict OSHA enforcement guidance, despite potentially having a conflict of interest.
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As the Senate debates immigration policy, labor unions are renewing their calls to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, saying providing such a path will help protect illegal immigrants from being exploited in unsafe working conditions.
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The Trump administration's fiscal year 2019 budget requests renews prior calls to eliminate the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) tasked with investigating industrial facility accidents, just as it did in FY18, while significantly cutting funding and reorganizing NIOSH.
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The Trump administration is proposing to continue funding OSHA in fiscal year 2019 at levels similar to recent years, while doubling-down on an FY18 push to scrap certain agency worker training grants, long opposed by industry as sending money to labor unions, in favor of bolstering the agency's compliance assistance programs.
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EPA has issued a proposed a rule allowing the agency to collect industry fees to help defray costs of implementing aspects of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), claiming to have answered industry calls for fees that are proportional to the agency's costs, though an environmentalist says EPA is underestimating those costs.
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Labor advocates are increasingly turning to state officials to do more to protect workers in New York and other states, fearing that Trump administration rollbacks have “decimated” OSHA, leaving many workers inadequately protected.
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Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top Democrat on the Senate labor committee, is seeking bipartisan support to preserve worker safety and other protections that many fear are being eroded by the growing use of “independent contractors” in the gig economy who are generally not covered by such safeguards.
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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is urging EPA to update its criteria for identifying persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals under the revised toxics law, calling the criteria “outdated”, while environmental groups are opposing that call and pressing EPA to seek OSHA data to better assess exposures.
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Democratic lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to adopt recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommendations for OSHA to bolster inspections of poultry plants, efforts that may have received a boost from the administration's rejecting of a poultry industry request to ease regulatory oversight of their processing facilities.
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With online companies dominating the transportation and delivery sectors, the rise of contracting jobs is at an all-time high, though the trend is raising concerns about how OSHA will address the growing number of workers classified as “independent contractors” who are not covered under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.
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Labor unions are urging EPA to reject a chemical sector call to defer regulation of new chemicals' risks to workers to OSHA, arguing that the plan would violate the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and that OSHA lacks resources and authority to adequately protect workers.
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