A top House Republican staffer is suggesting that lawmakers are likely to continue scrutinizing the Environmental Protection Agency's influential chemical risk assessment program despite calls from current and former agency officials urging GOP lawmakers and industry to step back and let EPA implement reforms sought by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
September 16, 2026
Advocates for victims of workplace safety and health hazards are expressing concern about two aspects of OSHA's newly issued directive outlining field procedures for agency personnel to communicate with families after a workplace fatality occurs, though they generally laud OSHA for putting the policy in writing. One group representing the families of victims says the agency does not go far enough in spelling out a family's “right to know” about investigation details, or in allowing victim representatives to attend post-incident meetings between OSHA and employers.
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Experts on OSHA's rulemaking process told government investigators that Congress and the administration could take concrete legislative steps to improve the agency's regulatory procedures and get pressing occupational safety and health standards issued, such as making it easier to for OSHA to adopt voluntary consensus standards. Some, however, also suggested the agency itself has caused delays by shifting resources among different priorities and not setting out a clear agenda, and could benefit from a more formalized planning process.
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OSHA and NIOSH support the only broad recommendation in a newly released report by congressional investigators on how to streamline OSHA's rulemaking activity -- chiefly, that the two agencies collaborate more closely on occupational hazard research -- but OSHA points out that in some cases those efforts are already under way. OSHA also backs a suggestion in the report to formalize the interagency relationship through a possible memorandum of understanding (MOU), and says working with NIOSH on risk assessments could help speed up rules.
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A key Senate Democrat on worker safety and health issues says he will direct his staff to look into why Obama administration officials appear to be holding up proposed OSHA rules, such as the agency’s long-delayed plan to tackle workplace silica hazards, through lengthy review processes. Sen. Tom Harkin (IA), who chairs the full Senate labor panel, says he considers protracted reviews by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the central issue to emerge from a hearing by his committee Thursday (April 19) on how to streamline the agency’s standard-setting process.
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OSHA has come out with a formal policy for how to communicate with victims' families after a workplace fatality, codifying what one source describes as a longtime stance of the agency to become more proactive in such exchanges but without revealing information that could jeopardize the legal underpinnings of any potential citations against the employer. The policy also reflects some of the priorities that OSHA supporters have been trying to push on Capitol Hill to provide more deference to victims' rights.
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A key Senate panel will hold a rare OSHA-centric hearing to grill experts on what lawmakers refer to as the “toll” of delays in OSHA’s standard-setting process, armed with new data from Congress’ investigative arm that sources say was requested by Democrats in both chambers roughly 18 months ago. Worker advocates expect the upcoming report, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to bolster their arguments that the Obama administration should jump-start the OSHA rulemaking process.
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Delta Air Lines Inc. has signed a corporate-wide settlement agreement with OSHA to protect workers who operate baggage handling vehicles, a move that reflects the agency's new push for global corporate settlements. The agency is also taking steps to address similar hazards throughout the airline industry, recently sending a hazard alert letter to airlines across the nation reminding them that they are obligated to comply with applicable seat belt use requirements.
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An advisory panel addressing workplace safety issues among federal workers will unveil new recommendations on ways to update OSHA permissible exposure limits (PELs) at a May 3 meeting in Washington, OSHA says. The tentative agenda for the Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health (FACOSH) includes a review of revised recommendations on PELs from the FACOSH Emerging Issues -- Permissible Exposure Limits Work Group, proposed changes to the OSHA recordkeeping rule, and H1N1 recommendations the Labor Secretary recently approved.
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Lawmakers are expected to introduce a bill later this month to reauthorize the Pesticide Registration Improvement Renewal Act (PRIA) that sets fees and a schedule for the registration of pesticide products, prompting pesticide industry groups and others to ramp up their lobbying efforts urging Congress to pass the widely-backed bill.
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The Supreme Court has turned down a request from an industry trade group to decide whether the safety standard process in the OSH Act is constitutional. The court, in a list of orders released Monday, says it has denied the request to take up the case following a federal Appeals Court ruling on the matter.
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A maritime industry trade group is asking the Supreme Court to decide if the occupational safety standard-setting process outlined in the OSH Act is constitutional, arguing that a “cloud” has hung over the act for decades because the courts have never clearly established whether Congress went too far in the act by delegating legislative power to the agency. Legal experts, however, tell Inside OSHA Online the petitioners have an uphill climb and it would be surprising if the court overturns the law's provisions or even hears the case.
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A three-judge appeals court panel has shot down OSHA's stance that it has authority to issue recordkeeping citations up to five years after a violation occurred if employer logs remain inaccurate -- handing a major victory to industry and, according to sources closely watching the issue, forcing the agency to issue future recordkeeping citations within six months of when the actual violation occurred, in line with industry's position.
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Health care worker advocates are generally praising OSHA's launch of a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) for nursing and residential care facilities, saying the program is a needed step to address issues such as ergonomics and workplace violence, but also lodging persistent concerns that the agency has not reached more broadly into the health care sector. Industry officials, however, are concerned that OSHA is using the directive to tackle issues for which there are no specific standards.
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The Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn its strict interim cleanup targets for dioxin-contaminated soils from White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) review, a fresh delay for the already-stalled goals that is likely to rile activists who urged OMB to complete its review in order to ensure adequate dioxin cleanups by states and federal agencies.
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Key backers of NIOSH funding are launching a campaign against a pair of revived proposals in the Obama administration's budget request to zero out funding for education and training programs that advocates view as crucial to replenishing the labor pool in the occupational safety and health field. But simultaneously the Obama blueprint for fiscal 2013 to fund Labor and Health and Human Services (HHS) has come under increasing fire from Republicans for not tightening agency budgets further.
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Republican critics of OSHA's planned injury and illness prevention program (I2P2) rule and Democratic supporters of the effort are both pointing to a sweeping report on the impact of such programs at workplaces in California to draw competing assessments of such initiatives. Congressional skeptics of federal OSHA's plan say the study, by the RAND Corp., points broadly to ineffectiveness of I2P2 efforts in California, but backers of the planned rule say the report shows the programs work if adequately enforced.
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OSHA is struggling with how to handle the process for moving employers off of its Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) once they demonstrate willingness and continuous efforts to comply with OSHA standards, a key agency official says. The program was launched in 2010, and while the agency says it has been successfully ramped up by adding employers OSHA calls severe violators, right now there is no clear path to ending the SVEP designations. Sources suggest the agency's corporate-wide settlement policies may offer the best guide for moving employers off the list.
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The Labor Department's Office of Inspector General (OIG) is launching an investigation of OSHA's Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) just as the agency prepares to release a recently completed internal review of the program. A source says the draft OSHA report is “critical” of the program's administration, however, a top OSHA official in a speech last week defended the agency's effort to manage the program and said VPP continues to garner strong support from OSHA's leadership.
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A top OSHA official says the agency will soon produce a white paper on injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2) that focuses on enforcement, following shortly on the heels of a broader white paper on I2P2 concepts that OSHA published earlier this year. The official rejects two notions about OSHA's intent with regard to a proposed I2P2 rule, saying there are no plans to use it as a “second general duty clause” or double-cite for alleged violations.
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