OSHA and a broad coalition of employers are asking a federal district court to rule on the coalition’s challenge to the Biden-era walkaround rule without holding oral argument, noting the case has been pending for over two years and has been fully briefed since Oct. 2, 2024.
September 16, 2026
The House Appropriations Committee is making cuts to OSHA’s fiscal year 2027 budget that go beyond President Trump’s requested reductions to the agency, removing an additional $5.48 million on top of the $46.9 million reductions the White House requested from FY26-enacted levels.
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The Agriculture Department (USDA) is optimistic that its proposals to increase processing speeds at poultry and pork slaughterhouses will be upheld in court, pointing to a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that it says eliminated the need to consider worker safety, which is not part of USDA’s authority.
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The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is renewing its calls for OSHA to amend its process safety management (PSM) standard to address reactive hazards, saying that implementing such requirements could have prevented a fatal accident at a caramel coloring manufacturing plant in Kentucky.
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Labor unions are urging EPA to maintain current compliance deadlines for workplace exposure requirements in the Biden-era TSCA rules on carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) and perchloroethylene (perc or PCE), arguing the agency’s plan to extend the deadlines until June 2027 will harm workers.
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OSHA has scheduled a series of informal public hearings for August on a host of deregulatory proposals unveiled last year, including a plan to eliminate medical evaluation requirements for certain respirators that the agency’s construction advisory panel has recommended OSHA drop.
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Worker-safety advocacy groups and employer representatives continue to clash over proposed amendments to California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) workplace violence-prevention standard, including over key definitions, employee representatives’ access to records and training requirements.
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Texas produce groups are pushing back on OSHA’s efforts to dismiss the groups’ constitutional challenge to the OSH Act, arguing the agency is failing to address the merits of their arguments and instead is raising various procedural defenses that are flawed.
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A Texas oil field equipment supplier has dropped without comment its legal challenge to the constitutionality of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC), which it originally filed after receiving OSHA citations related to the death of a subcontractor’s employee.
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Battery makers and other critical users of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) are pointing to a worker protection value in EPA’s Biden-era TSCA rule restricting most uses of the solvent to support their argument that even though the rule provided them extended phaseout timelines, the conditions are too stringent and thus violate the toxics law.
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The Labor Department (DOL) is not making any adjustments to civil money penalties in 2026 -- including for OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) -- because the lapse in federal funding last fall prevented the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from producing the data necessary for any such adjustments.
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California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is granting a petition to launch a rulemaking to prohibit the fabrication and installation of artificial stone products containing more than 1 percent crystalline silica -- a move to protect workers after hundreds have contracted the deadly lung disease silicosis in recent years and more than 30 have died.
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OSHA’s construction-sector advisory panel is backing the agency’s long-discussed plan to develop a tree care standard, noting state and industry standards that could serve as a model for a national standard and highlighting areas where construction activities overlap with actions that could be considered tree care.
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California lawmakers are advancing some bills to bolster Cal/OSHA worker-protection standards and enforcement, while blocking others, including an industry-sponsored measure that would have required Cal/OSHA to develop an application and certification process for artificial stone fabrication shops to help reduce crystalline silica exposure.
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OSHA’s construction-sector advisory panel is providing a mixed response to the agency’s proposals to streamline and provide compliance flexibility for chemical-specific respirator standards -- backing some, opposing others and deadlocking on two -- after previously narrowly opposing other aspects of OSHA’s deregulatory package.
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EPA and petroleum refiners are renewing their efforts to dismiss a suit challenging the agency’s denial of a petition seeking stricter regulation of hydrogen fluoride (HF) to prevent accidental chemical releases that could harm workers or residents, charging the case is doomed because it relies on uncertain worst-case scenarios.
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New analysis from a coal miners’ advocacy group, using data collected by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), finds that 20 percent of surface and underground mines sampled for silica exposure in 2025 had levels of silica dust above the standard set in a now-paused Biden-era MSHA rule.
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OSHA is announcing two virtual public meetings to gather comments and information ahead of United Nations meetings on chemical classification and labeling, in order to help shape the U.S. government’s position going into the international sessions.
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The Labor Department (DOL) is agreeing to increase its data collection from recipients of the Black Lung Benefits Program to better track whether mine operators are providing the same level of medical coverage as the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, following a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation.
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One of the greatest emerging worker safety issues is the Trump administration’s continued efforts to slash funding for OSHA and other worker safety agencies, which if successful would hamper efforts to prevent illness, injuries and deaths, Biden-era OSHA chief Douglas Parker told a House panel May 13.
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