OSHA observers expect wide-ranging impacts on the agency depending on the results of Tuesday's elections, with a Romney administration likely to cut back resources for enforcement and and dramatically slow OSHA's rulemaking agenda, and a re-elected President Obama expected to accelerate the agenda and perhaps move toward finalizing the agency's top regulatory priority, injury and illness prevention programs (I2P2). Also, congressional watchers are waiting to see how changes at the committee level could affect OSHA, especially the pending retirement of a key OSHA supporter, Rep.
September 17, 2026
The Labor Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) is urging OSHA to ramp up oversight of the agency's Management Accountability Program (MAP), which it put in place in the mid-2000s amid concerns from Congress' investigative arm about OSHA's ability to improve its oversight of agency programs. But OSHA says it has no comment on the OIG recommendations to beef up oversight.
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House Republicans accuse the Obama administration of flouting the law by failing to produce a spring regulatory agenda setting out the agencies' upcoming rulemaking priorities, charging the White House is playing a “hide-and-seek” game with the American public. In a recent teleconference, Boris Bershteyn, the acting OIRA administrator, indicated that the administration was skipping the spring agenda altogether and proceeding with the fall agenda, according to a newly released statement from Republicans on the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
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An investigation into a chemical fire in Indiana last month has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency and one of its contractors to take the additional precaution at hazardous waste cleanup sites of re-checking any highly hazardous chemical when its label classifies the waste differently than field testing, according to an EPA official involved in cleanups in EPA's Region V. The move comes as OSHA continues implementing a final rule revamping the country’s classification and labeling system for chemicals.
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House Republicans are amping up pressure on the White House to explain, less than two weeks before the election, why the Obama administration has not released a spring 2012 unified regulatory agenda and want to know if the administration plans to post 'midnight' regulations just after the election. The move, by four Republican leaders on the House Judiciary and Oversight & Government Reform panels, follows demands just weeks ago from the committee with OSHA jurisdiction for the White House to explain the agenda delay.
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Public Citizen argues in the newest report in its series of studies focused on construction deaths in the states that Washington state could save hundreds of millions of dollars from barring serious OSHA violators and insisting on bidders with strong safety records to obtain public contracts. Industry blasted the report as suggesting a back-door requirement on employers to roll out injury and illness prevention programs as a mandate for contracts, with one attorney saying the proposal would also end up costing the states huge sums in legal fees.
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The California state OSHA plan's roll-out of new regulations mandating safe patient handling systems in acute care hospitals continues, with the Golden State implementing a new law that could serve as a model for efforts to tackle the issue in other states or at the federal level. A key health official at Cal/OSHA tells Inside OSHA Online there is “a lot of outreach” right now to inform hospital employers about the requirements.
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An OSHA-organized work group has added a metric for percent of enforcement presence across industries as a key new indicator of state OSHA plan effectiveness and is also seeking more data on whistleblower cases falling under the OSH Act 11(c) clause. OSHA's move to formalize a set of state performance indicators follows a nearly two-year effort by the working group to come up with standard effectiveness measures in light of a Labor Office Of Inspector General (OIG) report raising concerns about OSHA's ability to monitor state programs.
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EPA is weighing its authority under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide & Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to ensure that hydraulic fracturing is adequately regulated, prompting new industry concerns that it could open the door to increased enforcement under a law that does not provide exemptions for drilling operations like several other environmental laws. The move comes as OSHA faces increasing pressure to address potential worker safety and health concerns in the fast-growing fracking industry.
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New requirements for federal agencies to report worker injury data through electronic portals could help make it easier for OSHA to target federal work site inspections, officials said Thursday (Oct. 18). An OSHA official noted that the agency currently targets federal work site inspections differently than private sector inspections because the feds don't track injury and illness data in the same way they do for private employers that fall under site-specific targeting.
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The Labor Department will soon reveal whether it will ask President Obama to issue an executive order updating permissible exposure limits (PELs) at federal work sites. An advisory group to DOL on federal worker safety and health issues has sought such an executive order, which is seen by some OSHA stakeholders as potentially pushing forward the issue of updating PELs in the private sector.
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The Labor Department Inspector General charges that OSHA's site-specific targeting program left out 26 percent of worksites with reported severe injuries and illnesses, but OSHA is pushing back against the OIG's call for major changes to the scope of data the agency uses to target work sites. The agency told the OIG the changes would require a major policy shift outside the agency's regulatory control and could ultimately limit the agency's access to data.
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Industry advocates say OSHA's recent launch of a revised web page dedicated to tackling combustible dust hazards represents an effort to bolster recognized-hazard cases brought against employers in the absence of a specific standard on the contentious issue. The agency says it has revised the page on its site to become more user-friendly, arrange information in a logical order and provide links to reports from NIOSH and the Chemical Safety Board.
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The Environmental Protection Agency has laid out plans to develop a rule that would ensure safe disposal of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals (HWP) under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), in lieu of adding the provisions to its universal waste rule as previously proposed, following concerns raised by the agency's Office of Inspector General (IG) earlier this year that EPA has fallen short on its responsibility to regulate the waste.
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Regulatory experts don't expect the White House reg shop to move OSHA rules any faster following the departure of Cass Sunstein, the Obama administration's regulatory czar who faced criticism from worker advocates for his cost-benefit emphasis, especially with an upcoming election and a permanent replacement for Sunstein not expected to be tapped before at least then. They offer mixed reviews on how Sunstein's cost-benefit stance affected OSHA rules the agency hoped to move substantially in the first term.
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OSHA observers see wide-ranging impacts from the automatic, government-wide sequestration that could hit agencies early next year if lawmakers and the White House fail to reach an alternative deficit reduction plan. The Obama administration has already estimated that OSHA's budget would be cut by $46 million in January under the policy.
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Industry may push back against efforts by a NIOSH scientific advisory panel to learn more about the government's latest occupational research on ergonomics, which business advocates see as a potential catalyst for new regulatory efforts. One industry source tells Inside OSHA Online that NIOSH has already clearly demonstrated its conclusions on the controversial subject.
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Occupational safety and health advocates are increasing pressure on the Agriculture Department to drop a hotly contested rulemaking that would effectively speed up poultry plant inspection lines, saying the rule would result in ergonomic, laceration and amputation hazards. But industry says the line speeds under the proposed rule have been shown to be safe for workers in the broiler chicken industry.
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OSHA is generating praise from both industry and whistleblower advocates for rolling out a pilot program in two regions that will set up an alternative dispute resolution system to resolve whistleblower complaints outside the traditional process of investigation, hearing and appeal at the Labor Department. Sources say the tentative program -- to be tried out in the OSHA regions anchored by Chicago and San Francisco -- will provide new opportunities to avoid costly and lengthy legal battles over whistleblower complaints.
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Both industry and organized labor are urging the Obama administration to publish a final rule setting safety requirements for electric power transmission and distribution, saying the rule would clear up confusion that arises from existing standards. Sources tell Inside OSHA Online that stakeholders also are pressing OSHA to write the upcoming rule so it comports with National Electrical Safety Code (NESC) consensus standards in two areas -- regulations on flame-resistant clothing and minimum approach distances.
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