Daily News

A key Senate panel on government oversight will formally request that OSHA rescind several guidance documents that have far-reaching implications for the agency's rule designed to prevent chemical disasters, and then go back to the drawing board with a public rulemaking process, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) tells Inside OSHA Online.

Government experts urge hospitals to put in place more stringent safety measures than earlier sought for workers donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients who may or are confirmed to have Ebola, beefing up federal recommendations at the same time OSHA works to reduce dangers from infectious agents in general.

President Obama's lieutenants are blasting Republican appropriators for including policy riders in spending bills for fiscal 2016 that would block the administration's moves on several workplace policies as well as health and environmental issues, as they called for compromise ahead of a looming fiscal deadline.

OSHA has decided to extend by 30 days the time period to comment on a planned rule designed to overcome a court decision holding that OSHA's statute of limitations applies to the discrete occurrence of an injury or illness not being properly recorded, even if the log remains inaccurate within the five-year retention period.

A Senate panel that examines regulatory concerns plans in an upcoming hearing to look closely at the Labor Department's use of agency guidance documents, including by OSHA, to carry out policy, committee sources tell Inside OSHA Online, as lawmakers probe an issue that often causes friction between OSHA and the regulated community.

OSHA must shortly decide whether to give stakeholders more time to comment on the agency's planned rule to reverse the impact of a court decision striking OSHA's legal stance that inaccurate injury or illness logs renew the statute of limitations period every day they are in error within the five-year retaining period.

Progressive groups want lawmakers to turn back a provision attached in the 11th hour of committee talks on fiscal 2016 Labor Department spending legislation that mandates an independent study of the epidemiological data underpinning OSHA's controversial proposed silica rule, along with another small business review -- but the fight may be irrelevant in the hectic closing weeks of September, with Congress barreling toward a possible government shutdown.

Congressional Republicans are girding for a long fight with the Obama administration over possible citations of labor laws, including the OSH Act, to franchisors and other companies engaged in so-called “joint employer” relationships with small businesses like chain restaurants using a new controversial new standard for shared liability.

OSHA apparently has begun gathering materials from employers to determine joint employer status, industry sources tell Inside OSHA Online, based on a new Labor Solicitor's office stance on applying the joint employer test.

OSHA policy under the Obama administration and what House Republicans view as flawed enforcement and rulemaking will continue to be targeted as part of the GOP's oversight role during the remaining months of this Congress, according to Rep. John Kline (R-MN), who is retiring at the end of next year.

Industry sources say OSHA has been consulted regarding possible changes to the Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) for industrial accident prevention, and while EPA says the review is still on track, advocates are concerned officials may miss an announced September deadline for proposing revisions.

Activists note that a review of the rule's potential costs to small businesses has yet to begin, although an industry source says the review could occur after revisions are proposed.

Vanessa Sutherland, the new chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) and a former federal regulator, says she is already forging ties with top OSHA officials to talk about current and future policy recommendations that could help shape the regulating body's approach to facility safety.

OSHA has drafted early regulatory text creating new standards aimed at protecting emergency responders that brings into play elements similar to those in injury and illness prevention programs -- the first iteration of what officials hope will evolve, with stakeholder help, into an actual proposed rule in the coming years.

OSHA has successfully pursued a civil contempt order against a small Maine construction employer over his alleged refusal to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in OSH Act fines, as the agency comes under pressure to take the toughest enforcement actions possible against what safety and health activists regard as bad actors -- but the owner accuses OSHA of simply continually harassing him.

John Howard will stay on as NIOSH director, becoming the longest serving chief of the occupational research institute that serves as sister agency to OSHA, federal health officials said Tuesday. Howard, who has served in the role since 2002 as the sixth director of NIOSH, officially began his new term Sept. 3.

Howard, in addition to his appointment running NIOSH, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), acts as administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program.

OSHA strongly signaled its continued intent to stem ergonomics problems at poultry plants using every angle possible -- inspections, fines and warnings to the industry -- most recently by issuing citations against a Delaware chicken supplier and then following up months later with a series of “hazard alert letters” calling for voluntary measures.

House Republicans will lose a persistent critic of Obama administration labor policies who has tried to impede an increasingly active OSHA agenda when Rep. John Kline (MN) steps down from Congress after 2016.

The pro-industry chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee overseeing the government's workplace safety and health initiatives said in a brief statement Thursday (Sept. 3) that he would retire next year, but pledged to stay involved in many of his adopted issues.

A GOP-led House plan to zero out funding for OSHA's Susan Harwood training grants next year and launch a new round of evaluations to see if existing recipients should still get money has the Labor Department ginning up opposition to the effort, which sources say grows out of Republicans viewing the program as union- and activist-driven.

An industry attorney is pushing back against the Environmental Protection Agency's assertion in a recently released vapor intrusion guidance that it has "broad authority" to protect workers from indoor air contamination, arguing the agency's position lacks legal backing and tries to compensate for weak OSHA exposure limits.

Nurses' representatives are pressing hard for health care employers to use an OSHA-developed model to reduce the potential for workplace violence, including a set of engineering controls, as the agency comes under increasing pressure from labor groups to take an enforcement approach to cutting violence risks.

Corporate franchise advocates are seeking a wide swath of documents and information from OSHA regarding its internal decision-making and any enforcement direction imposed by the national office on field staff to carry out the current OSHA policy on determining the joint employer status of businesses.