A move by federal OSHA towards approving a state plan in Maine covering state and local employees represents an unusual bid to increase the number of states with delegated OSHA programs, and sources say the trend may continue in future years with political efforts under way in West Virginia to apply for state plan status.
September 17, 2026
Congress' investigative arm is urging OSHA and other Labor Department agencies to ensure consistent compliance with White House parameters for setting out new regulatory guidance, as concerns simultaneously arise on Capitol Hill that agencies may be circumventing the rulemaking process in some instances by issuing effectively binding policies.
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Two key Senate Republicans on executive branch oversight are expressing worry that federal agencies -- including possibly OSHA and other branches of the Labor Department -- have repeatedly leveraged guidance documents to create effectively binding policies without going through rulemaking channels.
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A recent report from NIOSH and a key occupational safety group concludes that young Hispanic immigrants working at small construction firms tend to face greater workplace hazards overall than the U.S. worker population in general, leading to calls from safety advocates to address “overlapping vulnerabilities” such as social and economic factors to decrease injury and illness risks.
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Environmentalists are praising a federal proposal to regulate new uses of toluene diisocyanates (TDI) -- chemicals that have generated concern about possible harmful effects on exposed workers -- and are even seeking expansions of the proposed rule, but industry groups are calling for the Environmental Protection Agency to narrow its regulatory approach to TDI.
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OSHA in concert with NIOSH is putting new pressure on health care employers to apply rigorous workplace controls to ensure proper selection and use of respiratory protections, as a key part of efforts to prevent the spread of airborne transmissible diseases -- adopting a California public health model that in some ways exceeds OSHA standards.
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An OSHA advisory group plans in the coming months to recommend to the agency draft language on how to better protect temporary workers, material OSHA could then incorporate into guidance documents for employers to develop comprehensive injury and illness prevention programs.
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OSHA internally is bandying about numerous initiatives aimed at reducing the impact on workers from toxic chemicals -- including creating a control banding system to categorize substances by risk level, and tightening enforcement in situations when employers should know exposures are too high -- as the agency explores how to tackle what it considers antiquated permissible exposure limits (PELs), expert sources say.
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A Democratic House member is decrying the process by which OSHA issues new rules, saying the procedures and associated length of time taken to promulgate standards “unacceptable,” as she calls on OSHA chief David Michaels to re-assess how nail salon workers can be better protected from a range of potential chemical hazards.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has walked back a controversial policy devised early this year to significantly increase the agency chair's authority, and has proposed a regulatory change to require votes within 90 days on “calendared” items and at least four public meetings a year -- moves aimed at responding to congressional and inspector general concerns about the board's transparency.
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A key organization of industrial hygienists has added to stakeholder calls, mostly among worker health activists and their Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, for the Obama administration to release for public review OSHA's stalled regulatory proposal to reduce occupational exposure to beryllium, but the White House remains reticent on the timing of the rule's potential publication.
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Organized labor points to newly culled data on occupational fatalities among Latino workers in the United States as particularly alarming given their contrast to much lower rates in the general worker population, exacerbating worries that Latinos are lagging behind in safety and health protections as well as in knowing about worker rights.
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Industry advocates are voicing strong support for a measure put forth by Rep. Vickly Hartzler (R-MO) to alter OSHA enforcement by letting employers sidestep citations for non-serious regulatory violations as long as the alleged hazards are abated during a “grace period,” but there is also concern that the bill if enacted might discourage employers from contesting citations they believe are flawed.
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A cluster of congressional Democrats is urging the White House to disclose the administration's estimated time frame for allowing publication of OSHA's draft proposed rule tackling beryllium health hazards -- as the planned regulations, which had been expected out last year, remain stuck in the review process at the Office of Management and Budget.
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OSHA has quietly issued a policy directive that clarifies investigative standards for the agency's Whistleblower Protection Program (WPP) to reflect OSHA's legal position that reasonable cause, as opposed to preponderance of evidence, is the only threshold to issue a merit finding that calls for further probes into a whistleblower claim.
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Democrats on Capitol Hill, strongly backed by organized labor leaders, are pushing to restart debate over legislative efforts to make sweeping changes to the OSH Act with the aim of making it more effective, but face renewed backlash from industry over the proposed revisions and a GOP majority in both houses largely hostile to exploring the issue.
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OSHA says regulators have taken into account numerous new technologies available to building industries as it rolls out a rule adding a subpart to its construction standards to tackle confined space hazards much like the general industry regulations designed to ensure protections for workers in enclosed areas, but the rule differs in significant ways from the existing standards.
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A major nurses group has floated wide-ranging recommendations for health care employers to prevent incidence of “incivility” and “bullying” in the workplace, alongside measures to stop workplace violence, perhaps breaking new ground in a policy debate over the extent to which OSHA can exercise its enforcement authority to prevent occupational injuries stemming from such problems.
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OSHA continues to hone its enforcement and regulatory emphasis on fatalities and severe injuries in communication tower building and maintenance, with Deputy Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab on Tuesday saying the agency has observed “an alarming increase” in fatalities in the fast-growing industry and assuring safety advocates that OSHA has become deeply engaged in the issue.
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OSHA will “very soon” publish in the Federal Register a final rule tackling confined spaces in construction, a senior agency official tells Inside OSHA Online, signaling that the long-sought regulatory action to align general industry confined spaces standards with requirements in building activities is on the verge of being completed.
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