Daily News

Chemical, agricultural, and other industry officials plan to press Scott Pruitt -- President Donald Trump's nominee for next EPA administrator -- to pursue a rulemaking repealing controversial Obama-era revisions to the agency's facility safety program if a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the changes fails to advance in Congress.

Industry attorneys expect that OSHA's final rule aimed at limiting slips, trips and falls in the workplace will survive the Trump administration's rollback of Obama-era rules because much of the rule has industry backing and it has drawn few legal challenges, though courts are weighing whether to consolidate several pending cases over it.

The Trump administration is widely expected to scale back numerous rules from OSHA and other agencies issued in the final year of the Obama administration, when industry critics say OSHA pushed out numerous unnecessary rules.

Chemical manufacturers are urging EPA to further delay implementation of the agency's final rule revising its industrial facility safety program, which critics say encroaches on OSHA jurisdiction, arguing additional time is vital to give Congress time to weigh a Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution that could undo the entire rule.

Worker safety measures that EPA is seeking input on as part of its draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rules to limit certain uses of three chemicals could become a model for use in other TSCA risk rules given the revised toxics law’s mandate to consider risks to susceptible subpopulations such as workers, industry sources say.

A coalition of construction industry and other groups is broadening its suit over the Obama OSHA's worker injury and illness reporting rule, arguing that provisions for public disclosure of worker injury data change agency policy on confidential business information (CBI) without justification and violate companies' First Amendment rights.

Labor unions, environmentalists and other pro-regulation advocates are suing over President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) that requires agencies to balance each new rule they issue by identifying two existing rules for repeal, saying the mandate violates the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act.

The White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) has issued guidance implementing President Donald Trump's regulatory review executive order (EO) that will tee up battles between OSHA and other agencies over how to offset the cost of new rules, by declaring that an agency can request cost-saving offsets from a separate agency.

President Donald Trump's recent executive order (EO) requiring federal agencies to eliminate two existing rules for every new one will force OSHA to stop issuing new rules not required under federal law, and likely prompt the agency to instead revisit existing regulations to ease compliance or issue guidance, an industry attorney says.

A federal judge is allowing an industry challenge to OSHA's 2013 memo interpreting federal law as allowing union officials to accompany agency inspectors onto non-unionized work sites to proceed, backing companies' procedural arguments that the memo changes existing policy, though the judge rejects an industry claim that the memo exceeds agency authority.

Congress appears poised to repeal the Obama administration's policy requiring federal agencies to consider worker safety and other labor law violations in procurement decisions just as the Justice Department (DOJ) is asking a federal court to delay litigation over the policy to give incoming Trump officials time to consider it.

House lawmakers Feb. 2 voted largely along party lines, 236-187, to approve H.J. Res. 37, a disapproval resolution under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that would kill the Obama-era policy.

Chemical and other manufacturers are hailing the recently introduced Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo EPA's rule revising its Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety program, which critics say encroaches on OSHA jurisdiction, though it is unclear whether GOP leaders will give the measure floor time.

Industry officials made an 11th-hour push for leadership support for the resolution last week after the rule was not included on a short-list of Obama regulations slated for repeal under the CRA process.

Labor officials are arguing President Donald Trump's recent executive order (EO) requiring OSHA and other agencies to eliminate two existing rules for every new one, and the prospect he will back lawmakers' push to eliminate an Obama policy seeking to prevent federal contractors from violating labor laws, shows the new president failing workers.

Worker safety advocates are decrying Republican lawmakers' push to repeal the Obama administration policy requiring federal agencies to consider worker safety and other labor law violations in procurement, saying it is likely the start of “a sustained assault” by the GOP and the Trump administration on worker protections.

A worker advocacy group is urging the Senate to vigorously investigate the health and safety record of Andrew Puzder, the fast-food magnate President Donald Trump has nominated to head the Labor Department, arguing that Puzder fails to acknowledge the role of regulation in protecting workers, and hailing the Obama OSHA's record of strong enforcement.

Industry officials expect the Trump administration will prioritize for rollback anti-retaliation provisions of OSHA's worker injury and illness reporting rule, curtailing the rule through new guidance and limited enforcement, as well as an Obama-era policy allowing union officials to join OSHA inspectors at non-union sites, among others.

A top House Republican says lawmakers will likely target an Obama administration policy requiring consideration of safety and other labor law violations in federal procurement decisions as one of several regulations that lawmakers plan to repeal under the Congress Review Act (CRA).

But the lawmaker's list of rules does not include EPA's rule overhauling its Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety rule, prompting an 11-hour push from industry groups for lawmakers to also use the CRA to undo the RMP regulation.

Correction Appended

An industry attorney is arguing that the Obama OSHA's granting of nursing and labor groups' petition for a federal standard for preventing workplace violence in the healthcare and social service sectors sought to give advocates a legal pathway to sue the agency to force a rule in the likely event that the Trump administration declines to pursue a standard.

Beryllium producers have filed a federal lawsuit challenging OSHA's recently-issued final rule strengthening limits for workers' exposure to the substance, and are arguing in meetings with agency staff that changes from a proposed version make the final regulation “unworkable,” and undermine an industry-union partnership that informed the rule.

Industry representatives are seeking to expand the reach of a Trump White House directive aimed at blocking agencies from implementing a host of OSHA and other health and safety rules issued in the waning months of the Obama administration, saying that regulatory milestones in some already-effective rules could also be targets.

As Obama administration officials left office, they asked federal courts in Texas and Washington, DC, to dismiss separate suits challenging OSHA rules setting new silica standards and anti-retaliation requirements ahead of the incoming Trump administration, which is expected to seek to roll the measures back.