Daily News

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is countering the latest legal argument against President Donald Trump’s “2-for-1” deregulatory order that requires OSHA and other agencies to repeal two existing rules for every new measure, arguing that labor and other plaintiffs suing over it have failed to show any concrete evidence that it caused any regulatory delays or other “harms."

EPA is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to transfer industry’s challenge over the agency’s recent ban of consumer sales of the paint-stripping chemical methylene chloride to the 2nd Circuit, where environmentalists and labor groups previously filed their own challenges to EPA’s rule.

Bolstering prospects for a bill banning the manufacture and use of asbestos, a group of Democratic attorneys general (AGs) is supporting the bill while agreeing with GOP lawmakers and industry groups that the legislation may have to give more time for producers of chlorine used for water treatment to transition to non-asbestos methods.

Cal/OSHA is advancing for formal rulemaking first-time regulations to prevent indoor heat illness among workers across an array of job sectors, drawing concerns and recommendations from both labor representatives and employers, who suggest that other states could eventually follow California’s lead.

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s July 12 resignation creates new uncertainty for the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda at OSHA, further disappointing industry groups who have long been concerned at the agency’s failure to roll back a series of Obama-era measures or scale back its enforcement, along with other policy issues.

“It’s not just a deregulatory agenda. It’s everything that OSHA does,” says Eric Conn, an employer-side attorney.

House Democrats, backed by a coalition of labor, public interest and other groups, are pushing a bill requiring OSHA to protect workers from heat-related injuries and illnesses, though it is facing stiff opposition from Republicans, who say it imposes standards without allowing for adequate regional flexibilities, among other things.

Three years after Congress reformed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), handing EPA a host of new authorities to regulate industrial chemicals, agency staff are struggling to meet the law’s deadlines, many rules face litigation, and states and retailers continue to lack confidence that the new regime will provide the certainty they are seeking.

Backed by a host of labor and other groups, House Democrats are preparing to push legislation that would require OSHA to quickly craft a standard requiring employers to protect their employees from excessive heat, a measure that if enacted would preempt a pending petition many of the groups have filed asking the agency to craft such a standard.

A key House Democrat plans to introduce legislation to advance a progressive regulatory reform agenda that includes neutralizing “corporate capture” at OSHA and other agencies, aiming to start debate on a counterpoint to GOP and industry calls for regulatory reform bills that might hinder efforts to pursue novel regulatory policies.

Nearly a dozen Democratic senators are stepping up pressure on the Trump administration to address allegations of workplace violence at McDonalds, putting pressure on OSHA to toughen its scrutiny of the company even as they struggle to advance legislation requiring the agency to quickly set a standard for the health sector.

California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) has made a series of amendments easing her controversial bill that would lock into state law Obama-era worker safety and other rules, but the changes are failing to fully address industry opposition, setting up the potential for more talks and further changes.

“This removes no one’s opposition, including the State Water Contractors, the California Chamber of Commerce-led industry coalition and the Metropolitan Water District, which has another coalition,” says an industry source closely involved with the bill.

Long-running divisions between OSHA and other agencies over how to assess the risks of the ubiquitous solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) have been thrown into stark relief as a federal health agency is backing EPA’s 2011 assessment setting strict risk values for the chemical.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) July 1 said EPA’s approach for assessing TCE was “reasonable,” rejecting industry calls to ignore a controversial toxicology study that EPA’s risk program used when it set risk values to protect against fetal heart malformations.

Cal/OSHA is scheduled later this month to approve first-time emergency rules to protect outdoor workers from wildfire smoke, which could serve as a model for other states that lack such measures and are also experiencing increasing numbers and intensity of fires due in part to climate change.

EPA has found that the ubiquitous solvent 1,4 dioxane poses risks to workers “in certain circumstances,” according to a newly released draft evaluation, opening the door to new workplace protections or limits on the chemical’s use under its revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) authority.

But the draft evaluation of 1,4 dioxane found no other conditions of use present unreasonable risk, suggesting those uses will likely remain on the market as a result.

The Supreme Court’s decision faulting the Commerce Department for adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census based on a “contrived” post hoc pretext could bolster lawsuits targeting the Trump OSHA’s rule rollbacks, such as the pending case over its recordkeeping rule, where challengers say officials ignored or misrepresented the record.

The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote has preserved the long-standing doctrine that mandates judicial deference to OSHA and other agencies’ “reasonable” readings of ambiguities in their rules, but the majority’s emphasis on the doctrine’s limits prompted conservative justices to warn the test has been so weakened it may as well be “zombified."

Facing a court deadline, the Trump administration has issued a final rule that codifies its earlier plans to strengthen its standards identifying hazards contractors and others face from lead paint dust in residences while declining to adopt a new definition of “lead paint,” an approach that appears likely to draw a suit from groups who criticized the proposed version of the plans.

Advisors reviewing EPA’s first draft chemical risk evaluation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) have raised sharp concerns about several aspects of the draft assessment of pigment violet 29 (PV29), with some urging officials to gather more data on risks to workers and others because the draft does not support its threshold finding that the chemical doesn’t require risk management.

The Supreme Court’s conservative wing is signaling a desire to radically strengthen its doctrine that bars Congress from giving agencies too much rulemaking discretion which in turn could impose major new limits on OSHA’s authority, though the justices in a new ruling held off on setting a new standard because of the unique nature of the decision.

A House panel voted June 19 along party lines to approve Democratic legislation renewing and strengthening the Department of Homeland Security’s chemical facility safety program, though lawmakers pledged to continue working to reach a bipartisan deal before the program expires next year.