Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee are proposing a $68 million fiscal year 2023 funding increase for OSHA in hopes of restarting long-stalled talks with the GOP on spending legislation, just as the chamber’s leaders are embracing a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on a reconciliation bill that appears to exclude long-sought boosts to OSH Act penalties.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced it is directly investigating workplace safety concerns and “related issues” at multiple Amazon warehouses, in the wake of a worker death at one of the company’s New Jersey facilities -- a step one Democratic lawmaker says is “exceptionally rare” and justifies a strict OSHA response as well.
The coalition of unions suing OSHA to revive its COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS) for the healthcare sector say the agency’s self-imposed timeline for a permanent rule appears at risk of slipping by as much as two months, citing comments by Labor Secretary Marty Walsh during a Senate appropriations hearing.
Seeking to ramp up OSHA enforcement, House appropriators have approved a fiscal year 2023 spending bill for the Labor Department that would raise the agency’s budget by $100 million from current levels, exceeding the White House’s request by over $10 million and turning focus to the Senate, which has yet to begin its appropriations process for the coming year.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), ranking member on the Senate’s environment committee, used a June 22 hearing to warn EPA’s chemicals chief that her office is “drifting” into territory better regulated by OSHA, arguing that it should stay away from addressing personal protective equipment (PPE) and other worker protection measures.
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) Chair Katherine Lemos has resigned with three years left in her term, reportedly citing “eroded confidence” in the body’s mission and priorities, months after the Senate confirmed two new CSB members and just days after the announcement of President Joe Biden’s latest nominee.
A top Republican on the Senate environment committee is strongly opposing Democrats’ latest bill to ban asbestos uses, arguing during a June 9 hearing that OSHA and EPA should address the material’s risks through rulemaking instead of legislation, in a sign the measure faces an uphill battle to win bipartisan support needed to break any filibuster.
National Nurses United (NNU) is pointing to the June 1 shootings of three employees and a patient’s spouse at a Tulsa clinic as further proof of the need for an OSHA workplace violence standard, and is urging the Senate to advance a bill that would mandate a final rule in just a year, cutting short what supporters say is the agency’s unacceptably long rulemaking process.
An OSHA oversight hearing by a House labor subcommittee highlighted the gulf between Republicans and Democrats on the agency’s regulatory plans and its requested funding for fiscal year 2023, underscoring both continued tensions over the Biden administration’s COVID-19 rules and the high bar any budget increase will face in the current Congress.
Democrats have introduced their latest bill seeking to ban all uses of asbestos, but its prospects appear uncertain at best as it is even stricter than a 2019 version that collapsed without a vote, including a phaseout schedule mirroring EPA’s proposed TSCA rule that industry opposes and a definition of commercial “asbestos” similar to what has divided supporters of past legislation.