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.
September 17, 2026
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Federal appellate judges appear to be backing the Obama administration's rule strengthening limits for worker exposure to silica, criticizing industry attacks that OSHA lacked “substantial evidence” to adopt the standard and even suggesting that the rule could be strengthened after questioning agency reasoning for rejecting further protections unions are seeking.
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Senate labor committee Democrats are urging the Trump administration to quickly nominate an OSHA chief with a “demonstrated commitment to worker safety,” suggesting such a nominee is needed to reverse the Labor Department's (DOL) “cavalier attitude” toward worker health and safety, such as its limits on public disclosure of worker fatality data and plans to scrap a worker safety training program.
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The Trump OSHA is promising to hold off on enforcing the Obama administration's landmark silica rule, which takes effect Sept. 23, and instead provide compliance assistance for the first 30 days, though the rule's longer-term future is in doubt as a federal appellate court is slated to hear oral arguments in an industry challenge to the measure.
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Industry trade groups are urging OSHA to increase resources for the agency's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and give employer safety programs, including some incentive programs opposed by the Obama administration, a greater role in VPP, though labor groups say OSHA should evaluate VPP's effectiveness and not take funds from enforcement.
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Pointing to the increasing severity of hurricanes and other natural disasters, House Democrats are urging the Trump EPA to do more to limit risks from contaminated sites and industrial facilities as a result of such disasters, including reconsidering its delay of an Obama-era rule updating EPA's facility accident prevention program with new safeguards.
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Industry attorneys are outlining a series of hurdles to implementing a controversial Obama OSHA rule updating the agency's worker injury and illness reporting regulation, including House passage of a measure that would gut implementation, uncertainty over state reporting requirements and a looming Trump administration deregulatory rule.
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The AFL-CIO is faulting OSHA's narrowing of criteria for publishing worker fatality online as the latest step by the Trump administration to hide information from the public, and countering OSHA's rationale for the decision, arguing failure to cite an employer does not preclude acknowledging a death and calling the removal an insult.
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EPA is urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to transfer to the 4th Circuit environmentalists' challenges to the agency's rule for prioritizing chemicals for review under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing the 4th Circuit is already hearing a case over a related rule and moving it there could conserve resources.
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OSHA and the American Chemistry Council (ACC) have established a two-year alliance to reduce worker risks from exposure to diisocyanates in the polyurethane industry, an agreement that could bolster industry calls to scale back California efforts to review and possibly regulate products containing the substances.
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