The outcome of next month's election could bring vastly different outcomes for OSHA oversight with a Hillary Clinton administration likely advancing new and existing rulemakings, while a Donald Trump administration would likely seek to repeal recently issued rules and revert to a Bush-era focus on compliance assistance over new rules.
September 17, 2026
OSHA has issued new guidance for implementing controversial anti-retaliation provisions of its worker injury and illness reporting rule, clearing the path for the rule's enforcement, but industry attorneys say the new advice does little to resolve concerns raised in litigation over the rule, signaling efforts to block it will continue.
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A senior Justice Department (DOJ) official says prosecutors implementing a recent policy aimed at leveraging environmental laws to impose stiffer penalties for workplace violations are eyeing companies’ internal environmental management systems (EMS) and safety cultures while crafting settlements to ensure future compliance and improve attitudes toward worker safety.
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The federal court ruling blocking OSHA and other agencies from implementing an executive order requiring consideration of safety and other labor law violations in federal procurement decisions could boost lawmakers' efforts to gut the policy, but also suggests the rule is on shaky legal footing and so congressional action may be unnecessary, industry lawyers and other observers say.
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OSHA and EPA are planning to soon issue long-promised guidance to assist facilities in assessing whether inherently safer technologies (IST), like safer chemicals or processes, would reduce risks of facility accidents and worker injuries, underscoring that federal officials will likely forgo requiring that facilities use those safety measures in future rules.
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The Texas federal court hearing arguments on whether to block an administration policy requiring agencies to weigh firms' labor law violations in awarding federal contracts has given parties in the suit time to file additional briefs in the case, leaving the door open to a ruling before the policy takes effect Oct. 25.
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OSHA has issued recommendations to help employers craft safety and health programs to help reduce worker injuries and illnesses, voluntary approaches that complement OSHA's recently-issued rules seeking to compel safer workplaces by publicizing company injury data or weighing labor violations in federal contracting decisions.
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OSHA has again delayed anti-retaliation provisions of its controversial new worker injury and illness reporting rule after a federal court in Texas said it needed additional time and briefings from the parties to weigh the agency's push to limit the scope of a possible future injunction against the rule that industry plaintiffs are seeking.
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OSHA has sent for White House review a final rule clarifying that companies have a continuing obligation to record their employees' injuries and illnesses, a change in its record-keeping regulations that industry critics charge would unlawfully circumvent an appellate ruling limiting the statute of limitations, and that will almost certainly draw a legal challenge.
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EPA has sent for White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) pre-publication review its final revised facility safety rule, signaling that the agency will likely issue the rule before the end of the administration despite EPA having to overhaul its rule to account for a recent court ruling that vacated OSHA's related policy expanding its related facility worker protection rule.
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Builders and security firms have filed an emergency request urging a federal court in Texas to block an administration rule and related OSHA guidance that requires agencies to weigh firms' labor law violations in procurement decisions, saying they are seeking to block the policy before it takes effect later this month.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has settled an enforcement action against a Texas petrochemical facility, bringing steep fines for Clean Air Act violations in a case that began with an OSHA investigation of a fatal accident and highlighting the benefits of an almost year-old DOJ policy aimed at leveraging environmental laws to impose stiffer penalties for workplace violations than OSHA would otherwise be able to win.
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A coalition of builders and security firms is suing the Obama administration over its efforts to implement an executive order on weighing labor law violations in procurement decisions, arguing that OSHA guidance and an accompanying federal rule on the policy are unlawful and violate employers' constitutional protections.
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A recent federal appeals court ruling striking down an OSHA policy broadening the reach of its process safety management (PSM) rule to retailers will likely force EPA to ease its proposed risk management plan (RMP) rules governing thousands of facilities in the sector because EPA relied on the vacated OSHA policy for upgrading the facilities' regulatory classification.
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A federal appeals court is allowing two health groups that provided data supporting OSHA's final rule strengthening its silica standards to participate in the complex litigation challenging the rule as amici curiae supporting the agency.
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Industry officials are urging OSHA to revise draft guidance documents for assisting facilities in complying with the agency's facility worker protection rule, arguing the guides inappropriately and unlawfully suggest new safety mandates for data collection or good engineering practices, though a firefighters' group is seeking to strengthen the documents.
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OSHA and EPA are encouraging facilities to voluntarily conduct “root cause analysis” to identify underlying problems that may be the cause of industrial facility accidents or near accidents, suggesting the agencies are likely to require such studies in pending facility safety rules where they have already proposed or floated such approaches.
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United Steelworkers (USW) is weighing a petition urging OSHA to eliminate an exemption from its facility worker safety rule after an appeals court ruling striking down the agency's 2015 memo narrowing the exemption, arguing the ruling leaves workers at risk and will slow agency efforts to address hazards at retail and other facilities.
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OSHA is seeking public input on a proposed rule revising a variety of existing standards, including several for assessing potential health impacts to workers from chemical exposures and noise on the job, as part of the agency's fourth push under a 2011 executive order calling for limiting duplicative, unnecessary, or conflicting regulations.
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OSHA and several industry groups are battling over whether and how broadly a federal court should block enforcement of the agency's controversial worker injury electronic reporting and recordkeeping rule, a development that could complicate the litigation as it proceeds.
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