Daily News

The Supreme Court is facing calls to end its long-standing precedent deferring to OSHA and other agencies' interpretations of their own rules, with a critic's opening legal brief urging the justices to scrap the “egregiously wrong” precedent because it allows regulators to change rules on a whim without notice-and-comment rulemaking.

Hours after OSHA promulgated its rule rolling back the Obama administration's recordkeeping requirements, Public Citizen led an alliance of state and health groups in filing a lawsuit challenging the measure, charging it is “arbitrary and capricious” because of a series of alleged violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

As the Trump OSHA prepares to promulgate its final rule rolling back Obama-era injury reporting requirements, it is facing a likely lawsuit alleging it violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and oversight from House Democrats who charge it undermines worker safety and its approval during the shutdown may have violated federal law.

Labor groups are conferring with Democratic lawmakers over a possible challenge to the Trump administration's approval of OSHA's rule rolling back Obama-era reporting and recordkeeping requirements during the government shutdown, which they say may have violated the Antideficiency Act (ADA).

If they decide to bring a challenge, the critics could force the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to re-review OSHA's recently issued rule, potentially delaying promulgation of the measure before a March deadline.

Worker safety advocates are targeting states with high populations of temporary or contract workers to push for legislation strengthening their safety and other protections, using blueprints from recently approved measures in several states that focus on worker safety and create a path for the so-called gig workers to become permanent employees.

White House officials have approved a final OSHA rule rolling back an Obama-era measure that requires employers to upload injury and illness data online rather than keep the data on a work site, clearing the way for an almost certain lawsuit that critics say has been bolstered by a prior challenge to agency efforts to delay the 2016 rule's implementation.

In addition, Democratic lawmakers are planning to conduct oversight on any final rule and have already raised a host of concerns with the proposed version.

For the second time since first nominating him, the White House has again renominated former FedEx executive Scott Mugno to lead OSHA, though his prospects for Senate confirmation remain dim due to partisan differences over Labor Department and other Trump administration nominees.

The delay in his confirmation has prompted significant concerns from industry attorneys who say it has hampered the administration's deregulatory agenda and allowed OSHA to continue more-aggressive enforcement stances.

House and Senate lawmakers have agreed to a one-year extension of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) ahead of a looming Jan. 19 deadline when the program's funding will expire, planning to use the next few months to debate potential legislative changes to CFATS.

The Labor Department (DOL) is appealing an administrative law judge's (ALJ) decision voiding an OSHA citation against a security company for not requiring its armed guards to wear bulletproof vests, arguing in part that OSHA's 2014 policy expanding application of its personal protective equipment (PPE) standard to include bulletproof vests was applicable in this case.

Public interest groups are suing EPA over its failure to ban paint-stripping uses of methylene chloride after finding that it does not meet the Toxic Substances Control Act's (TSCA) risk standard, marking one of the first legal tests of the agency's responsibilities to regulate toxic substances under the law since Congress revised it in 2016.

Environmentalists fear a proposed EPA training program to limit commercial exposures to methylene chloride in paint strippers hints at a retreat from an Obama-era plan to prohibit the use outright, suggesting the agency will instead finalize a scaled-back ban that will allow some paint-stripping uses of the chemical despite potential risks to workers.

House Democrats are vying to win seats on the newly renamed Education and Labor Committee, likely delaying a decision on who will lead the workforce protection subcommittee, which oversees OSHA, given the departure of Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), who was previously the panel's ranking member but who is now leading the veterans committee.

"We won't know for another week or so,” says Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT), a senior committee member.

Key House and Senate lawmakers are at odds over how to extend the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) chemical facility safety program, raising doubts that lawmakers will act before the program's authorization expires later this month.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and his Senate GOP counterpart, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), indicated in competing statements Jan. 8 that they disagree over how to reauthorize the DHS' Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS).

Top Democrats are urging the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) to audit the department's process for crafting a controversial rule that eases child labor restrictions to allow teenagers working in healthcare to independently operate powered patient lifts, heightening an already contentious workplace safety dispute.

The House is poised to vote Jan. 8 on Democrats' legislation to reauthorize for two years the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) industrial facility security program which rejects GOP calls for changes to the program, though the effort faces uncertain prospects amid the ongoing government shutdown.

The Senate unanimously confirmed President Donald Trump's nominees to lead EPA's toxics and international offices in the final hours of the 115th Congress, but his nominee to lead OSHA and the EPA office overseeing facility safety and waste cleanups remain stalled.

As a result, the administration will have to renominate former FedEx executive Scott Mugno to lead OSHA and Dow Co. lawyer Peter Wright to lead EPA's waste office for consideration in the 116th Congress.

EPA has denied a petition from health and other groups seeking to expand industry reporting of asbestos uses in the workplace, concluding the petitioners' proposal to drop exemptions from the Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule aren't warranted because they would not provide new data and would not affect EPA's ongoing asbestos risk analysis.

OSHA is expected to face significant attention in the 116th Congress, which begins Jan. 3, with newly-empowered House Democrats planning a series of oversight inquiries into the Trump administration's regulatory rollbacks and the GOP-controlled Senate facing a heated battle to confirm the agency's long-stalled nominee to lead the agency.

Labor advocates are urging the Trump administration to withdraw a plan to increase line speeds at hog processing plants after a study found “significant limitations” in the data underlying the plan, findings that could also bolster an expected lawsuit from critics who charge the proposal is “arbitrary and capricious” and would increase worker injuries.

Bolstered by a recent ruling, Public Citizen and other health groups are asking a federal court to find the Trump OSHA violated federal law when it delayed mandates for employers to submit detailed 2017 worker injury and illness reports and order the agency to “require and accept” the data that the Obama administration had required by July 2018.