GOP lawmakers Wednesday (April 9) quashed any lingering hopes of worker safety and health advocates that Congress could be willing to consider sweeping mine safety legislation pushed in the aftermath of the Upper Big Branch disaster in West Virginia, also spelling defeat for prospects that OSHA reforms could be tied to any such measure – the only recent legislative vehicle to show promise for OSH Act changes.
September 17, 2026
House Republicans will try to block OSHA's controversial policy issued last year interpreting federal law as allowing union and other third-party worker representatives to accompany compliance officers in walkaround inspections, the chair of the House panel that oversees OSHA tells Inside OSHA Online.
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OSHA officials are looking into unspecified regulatory “alternatives” that would apply to the construction sector as they explore a rulemaking to tackle worker exposures to the toxic metal beryllium, in an effort that a source familiar with the issue says could make it increasingly difficult to get a new standard issued, though worker advocates consider it vital to take into account hazards to workers who use beryllium-containing abrasive blasting agents in construction activities.
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Government chemical safety experts are pressuring OSHA to get rid of key exemptions applying to the oil and gas sector in the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard in response to what they call high rates of injuries and fatalities throughout the industry, after an earlier dispute over covering those work sites ended in industry's favor.
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Safety and health activists, in pressing for a new OSHA rule cutting down on worker exposures to crystalline silica dust across the spectrum of both large and small U.S. businesses, have tapped into a long-simmering source of grievance with the federal regulatory process: that agencies often rely heavily on the Small Business Administration's (SBA) expansive view of what constitutes a small entity and as a result over-estimate rules' impact on small businesses.
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Industry groups appear split on the role local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) should play in federal efforts to improve the safety and security of industrial plants, with some industry advocates arguing the groups authorized under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) should play a key role and others seeking to largely bypass them – discourse that comes as OSHA seeks to update plant safety policies as a central part of a broad federal push by President Obama on the issue.
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NIOSH officials say a multi-stakeholder partnership involving industry, union and government experts on respirable crystalline silica has evaluated a range of engineering controls in field studies that are effective at keeping exposures to the toxic dust during road milling below the research agency's 50-microgram recommended exposure limit (REL) for silica dust – a level mirroring the compulsory exposure cap in OSHA's planned silica rule – and suggest use of the developed controls could obviate a need for respirator use over full shifts in road milling operations.
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Arizona's two Republican senators led by John McCain are demanding that federal OSHA back off a threat to take jurisdiction of construction standards enforcement from the state's OSHA plan, after a new state law kicked in that replaces federally issued mandates on residential fall protection with less stringent requirements, particularly over the contentious issue of how best to guard workers from building falls between 6 and 15 feet.
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A Republican lawmaker from Alabama has launched a full-bore assault on OSHA over an agency inspection program targeted at auto parts plants in OSHA's Southeast region, telling the Obama administration the enforcement activity has the appearance of a pro-union bias and at least looks like an attempt to help labor organize workers in southern states -- especially when coupled with an earlier controversial enforcement memo saying union representatives are authorized to participate in OSHA walkarounds.
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OSHA issued a final rule Tuesday aimed at improving worker safety in electric power generation, transmission and distribution, bringing to a close what one union official entrenched in the issue calls a lengthy regulatory process in producing a “very comprehensive” rule.
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A plastics industry group charges OSHA's proposed rule to mandate electronic filing of injury and illness records quarterly at large firms -- information that would later be disseminated on the Internet -- fails to qualify for an exemption from Privacy Act provisions that bar agencies from publicly distributing data concerning individuals.
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A company that is challenging the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting rules is seeking to push back against agency claims that chemical producers have a broad duty to disclose results of health and safety studies and is alleging the claims are at odds with EPA guidance on the issue, with worker risks from exposure to hexavalent chromium at the center of the dispute.
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President Obama's regulatory czar said Monday he feels no “particular pressure” to put an eventual final OSHA silica rule on a fast track for completion before the swiftly approaching end of the administration, and does not take that view toward any other rule despite a generally recognized 90-day window for the White House budget office to review agency standards -- a period often extended for lengthy stretches to the ire of pro-regulation groups.
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The national paving industry, with key union backing, is urging OSHA officials to reexamine a mandate for respirator use under some exposure conditions that the agency included in a proposed new standard for silica control measures in construction activities, saying a requirement triggered by more than four hours of possible exposure actually creates new and greater hazards for road workers.
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Construction industry trade groups are mounting an informal challenge to OSHA's crystalline silica rulemaking that hinges on an argument that agency officials did not adequately consult with their construction advisory panel on details of the planned regulations as required by OSHA procedures before issuing the proposal last year.
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A national group of occupational hygiene experts wants OSHA to craft a formal regulatory definition of “recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices” (RAGAGEP) as it explores a range of options for potential revisions to its process safety management (PSM) standard designed to protect workers from chemical disasters, urging OSHA to help clarify an issue that has become the subject of enforcement disputes.
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Organized labor has launched an assault backed by economic expertise against the business community's assertion OSHA's planned rule on respirable silica would cost countless U.S. jobs, with unions arguing the regulatory scheme would actually yield more economic benefits and result in less costs than even OSHA estimates.
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Administration officials working to implement President Obama's executive order on improving safety and security at industrial plants are considering strengthening local emergency planning committees (LEPCs) overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency but are not addressing calls to require controversial new safety requirements at facilities.
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Labor Department lawyers are fighting back against industry complaints that OSHA set aside too short a time at its public hearings on silica to respond to stakeholder questions about the rule, citing procedures that govern the hearings and declaring that while OSHA will accept written queries as suggested by an administrative law judge (ALJ), the agency has not agreed to respond to any of them.
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Congressional investigators are urging OSHA to work more closely with the Transportation Department (DOT) to enforce anti-retaliation laws designed to protect auto industry workers. OSHA's top official responded that the agency believes it has adhered to so-called “key practices” in whistleblower agreements with the transportation agency, but GAO says in a report released Wednesday (March 19) that it still thinks such inter-agency deals can be strengthened.
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