The Trump administration is moving forward with enforcing the Obama OSHA's stricter crystalline silica standard for the construction industry, issuing an interim guidance for enforcement as the agency reviews a permanent compliance directive and a federal court weighs recent arguments in an industry challenge to the rule.
Sens. Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) have re-introduced legislation to codify OSHA's Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) even as the Trump administration works to overhaul the program administratively to address declining resources.
The chairman of a key House subcommittee charged with overseeing OSHA says that without worker safety priorities from the Trump administration, the panel is gearing up plans for 2018, including bolstering compliance through training, and continuing to support the Trump administration's deregulatory efforts.
Labor groups are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to deny an industry request to increase line speeds in poultry plants, while also opposing a proposed rule expected to increase speeds in pork processing, arguing both changes would increase risks to workers and reiterating arguments from past petitions for OSHA line-speed limits.
EPA's career toxics chief is requesting input from staff within the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) regarding a trio of proposals he has floated for reorganizing the office, options under consideration as part of the office's ongoing efforts to implement the one-year-old statute reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
A Republican congressional staffer is raising concerns that a lack of a Trump administration appointee to head OSHA leaves lawmakers with a lack of clear priorities, highlighting uncertainty that has prompted agency officials to stop work on new initiatives and led Senate Democrats to question the administration's commitment to worker safety.
The chlorine industry has dropped a controversial guidance based on a novel dispersion modeling approach for assessing risks from toxic gas releases in response to an EPA directive to withdraw it because it “significantly under-predicts” off-site consequences of releases and to advise facilities not to use the method for complying with its Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety rules.
The United Steelworkers (USW) has withdrawn its request for the Trump administration to hold a public hearing on its plan to limit the reach of an Obama OSHA rule bolstering protections for workers' exposure to beryllium, drawing concern from industry producers of alternatives to beryllium-containing products who support the Obama-era rule and fear the loss of a key ally.
A key House Democrat is pressing the Trump administration's OSHA to ensure that the agency fully staffs open inspection positions now that a federal hiring freeze has ended, reiterating concerns of Senate labor committee Democrats who have called for adequate funding for inspections and questioned the administration's commitment to worker safety.
United Steelworkers (USW) is highlighting its facility accident prevention program and calling for greater employee involvement in companies' process safety decisions, offering the principles as a potential model for overhauling OSHA's process safety management (PSM) rule even though the Trump administration has stalled a ny update.
OSHA officials in a new court filing say they have completed a draft rule revising the Obama administration's worker injury and illness reporting rule, days after a Trump Commerce Department (DOC) report urged OSHA to scrap provisions on publicizing the data and restricting employer programs, though the filing does not detail the revisions.
The Trump administration in a new report quietly issued by the Commerce Department (DOC) is targeting two major Obama OSHA rules for revision, backing industry arguments that the 2016 measures updating silica and worker injury reporting rules include unnecessary provisions that harm domestic manufacturing and should be revised.
Former OSHA official and EPA science advisor Adam Finkel is urging EPA to list the chemical n-propyl bromide (nPB) as a Clean Air Act hazardous air pollutant (HAP), citing data from OSHA and elsewhere on nPB's risks to workers that he says warrants the listing and rules to curb nPB emissions.
Following a chemical release in his state, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), a senior member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), is pressing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and other officials to commit to implementing the Obama EPA's overhaul of the agency's facility accident prevention program, though a Trump nominee sidestepped the call in a recent hearing.
A House committee has approved on a party-line vote a bill that would override a controversial 2015 ruling that expanded the definition of a “joint employer” subject to enforcement of labor and worker safety measures, prompting concerns from Democrats that the legislation would hamper worker protections, including workers' recourse for safety hazards.
A coalition of groups convened by NIOSH is backing several Obama-era workplace safety priorities, unveiling a draft research agenda for construction workers that supports the prior administration's controversial 2016 silica rule, which industry has urged the Trump administration to scale back, as well as other Obama priorities, including strengthening protections from electrical hazards and reducing disincentives to injury reporting.
EPA and other government economists are facing significant challenges implementing President Donald Trump's order requiring agencies to repeal two rules for every new one, saying the order doubles the workload of regulatory impact analysis and raises other uncertainties, though some economists call such new directives part of the job.
Health and environmental groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to consolidate and hear lawsuits filed in several circuits challenging EPA's initial rules for implementing the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), resisting Trump administration efforts to move the litigation to the 4th Circuit, which is slated to hear another one of the suits.
OSHA is declining to start major new initiatives until the Trump administration nominates an agency chief, a senior agency official told a recent health and safety conference, though staff continues to advance certain initiatives from the Obama administration, including updating a product labeling standard and bolstering crane operator requirements.
A federal appellate court has scheduled briefing in environmentalists and a labor union's lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's delay of the Obama EPA's final rule updating the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility accident prevention program, setting deadlines that will have the court hold oral arguments in early 2018.