The 8th Circuit has stayed compliance deadlines of the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) silica rule amid industry concerns that MSHA’s voluntary pause on enforcement of the rule does not provide the certainty of a stay pending judicial review.
President Donald Trump is stepping up his administration’s aggressive deregulatory agenda, issuing a memorandum requiring the repeal of OSHA and other agency rules that officials deem “unlawful” under recent Supreme Court precedents while also issuing ordering several agencies to begin considering a “sunset” of rules related to energy production.
A West Virginia coal miner is challenging the Trump administration’s near elimination of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), arguing the move violates provisions of mine safety law by disrupting health surveillance and job transfer programs for miners with respiratory diseases.
A medical sterilizer is suing EPA over its rule limiting occupational exposures to ethylene oxide (EtO) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), a move that comes after the agency announced it will reconsider its air toxics rules for such facilities and puts more pressure on EPA to overturn a key EtO risk assessment.
Industry is pressing Trump administration officials to make numerous changes to its draft scoping document for the TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, with manufacturers arguing EPA must acknowledge “unreasonable risk” is not just any type of risk and pointing to existing protections for workers.
Democrats are introducing legislation to strengthen health and safety protections for miners following the gutting of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which focuses in part on research related to black lung and innovative technologies to keep mines safe.
EPA deputy chemicals chief Nancy Beck is reminding agency science advisors that TSCA evaluations inform regulations that have “real consequences” for both workers and the general public who need to use chemicals such as 1,3-butadiene, and urged them to let staff know if the Biden-era evaluation missed something or is “overly conservative.”
Attorneys are advising employers to press California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to include maximum flexibility within its forthcoming proposed infectious disease standard for general industry, in part by applying lessons learned from the problematic implementation of COVID-19 worker-safety rules and guidance during the pandemic.
The Trump administration’s decision to eliminate nearly all aspects of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is likely to hamper OSHA’s ability to develop new regulations and ensure they are legally defensible as well as generally increase risks to workers, OSHA experts say.
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit appeared skeptical during recent oral argument of a construction company’s arguments that OSHA’s multiemployer citation policy is unreasonable on its face and that the agency’s “selective” enforcement of the policy is also unreasonable.
Labor unions are seeking to eliminate questions raised during recent oral argument about their standing to challenge the Biden-era TSCA framework rule for evaluating existing chemicals’ risks by providing the D.C. Circuit with what they say are clear declarations of how the rule would harm their members.
President Donald Trump has nominated Deputy Solicitor of Labor Jonathan Snare to serve on the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), but without an additional nomination and confirmation to the panel, OSHRC will continue to lack a quorum to address the backlog of cases before it.
California lawmakers are advancing a bill that would impose new restrictions and certification requirements for stone fabrication shops to protect workers from being exposed to crystalline silica and contracting silicosis, a measure that would expand on toughened rules recently approved by California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board.
A federal district court judge has dismissed for the second time litigation alleging North Carolina labor officials were administering the state’s workplace safety plan in violation of the federal OSH Act, finding the case raises no new issues from a previously dismissed challenge.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has vetoed legislation that would have required employers to implement control measures to address workplace violence safety concerns, arguing the bill is unnecessary even as employment law experts expect states to continue to consider such legislation in the absence of federal action.
Republicans on the House workforce committee are urging the Labor Department (DOL) to withdraw proposed OSHA regulations and rescind final Biden-era ones as part of a broader push to overhaul “burdensome” regulations from the department.
A panel of D.C. Circuit judges appear likely to rule on the merits of the Biden-era TSCA framework rule laying out procedures for evaluating existing chemicals’ risks to workers and others, after judges repeatedly questioned EPA and industry attorneys’ arguments that the court lacks jurisdiction to do so.
A leading chemical industry attorney is urging the Trump administration to engage industry and other stakeholders in strengthening the coordination between EPA and OSHA, arguing that a newly issued memorandum of understanding (MOU) fails to provide the necessary clarity on their respective regulatory roles.
A federal appellate court has backed calls from labor and other groups to hear oral arguments March 21 in a case over EPA’s Biden-era TSCA framework rule laying out the procedures for evaluating -- and thus regulating -- worker and other risks under the law, though the court has directed the parties to discuss EPA’s request to remand the rule.
Worker advocates and Kentucky’s governor are raising concerns about recently passed state legislation that if enacted would block regulators from enforcing years-old rules that are less protective than federal OSHA standards, setting up a test of whether the Trump administration will enforce statutory mandates for state program effectiveness.