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.
September 17, 2026
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Two House Democrats responsible for funding the Labor Department are urging officials to craft by next April a “comprehensive strategy on enforcement” to address concerns about child labor safety in the agriculture sector after a recent watchdog report found the sector is responsible for a disproportionate number of child labor fatalities.
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has found a small decrease in the rate and number of workplace fatalities and injuries in 2017 but the data show a continued spike of 25 percent or more in workplace deaths in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, as well as fatalities due to falls and overdoses.
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A coalition convened by NIOSH has outlined plans for a broad research agenda aimed at improving worker safety in the oil and gas extraction industry amid signs that while drilling activities have increased significantly, drillers may not be willing to invest in safety technologies and programs as fuel prices remain low, cutting into industry profits.
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Echoing concerns raised by a 2017 congressional watchdog report, a top House Democrat is urging OSHA to investigate whether a Texas poultry plant violated the agency's sanitation standard and to conduct inspections “where compliance offices speak not only with management, but workers and their representatives.”
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A bipartisan group of senators is pushing federal health agencies to study the health effects of occupational exposures to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on firefighters and others in future studies on the chemicals, expressing disappointment that the agencies recently precluded the subjects from an ongoing investigation.
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Public Citizen and other health groups are preparing to file a motion asking a federal judge to quickly order the Trump OSHA to require employers to submit detailed 2017 worker injury and illness reports as required by a now-delayed Obama-era rule after the judge rejected agency efforts to dismiss the case and upheld the groups' standing to sue.
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Top Democrats and labor advocates are clashing with healthcare industry groups over the Trump administration's proposed rule rolling back child-labor protections to allow teenagers to independently operate powered patient lifts, underscoring the continued controversy the proposal will face as officials work to finalize it next year.
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The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that seeks to overturn the 21-year-old precedent that requires judges to defer to OSHA and other agencies on the meaning of their regulations -- a precedent at the center of many court rulings addressing agency rules but one that many of the court's conservatives have openly criticized for years.
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OSHA is proposing to clarify a suite of provisions and definitions in the Obama-era beryllium standard for general industry, including modified definitions for “dermal contact” and a “beryllium work area,” terms that act as thresholds for when employers must provide protective gear.
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The National Academies of Sciences (NAS) is urging OSHA and other agencies to harmonize respiratory standards in healthcare to protect against future airborne disease outbreaks, but appears to sidestep the past debate between OSHA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on proper guidance for using certain reusable respirators.
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OSHA is consulting with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and weighing enforcement to protect workers from exposure to strong antimicrobial disinfectants used in meat and poultry processing, after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned of serious gaps in federal oversight and urged coordination on the chemicals' risks.
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Citing risks of climate change, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) is crafting a bill for introduction in the next Congress that would require OSHA to develop “federal heat protection standards” for workers and require employers to provide safe workplaces with water, rest, and shade, a measure that supporters say may be the most viable means of requiring such a standard.
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Lawmakers negotiating a new five-year Farm Bill have agreed to Democrats' demands to drop language originally included in the House version of the bill that aimed to codify a permanent waiver from OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standards for retail facilities, Capitol Hill sources say.
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