The Biden administration is highlighting early inspection figures from OSHA’s first-time National Emphasis Program (NEP) on heat danger as part of a broader push to showcase its climate policies amid a worldwide heat wave and the failure of Senate negotiations over clean-energy measures in a reconciliation spending bill.
September 17, 2026
EPA plans to “learn from” OSHA’s enforcement of workplace chemical-exposure limits as it prepares for the demands of enforcing new TSCA risk management rules, a spokesperson says, while an industry attorney sees a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) or other partnership between the two agencies as an option to aid those efforts.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has taken the rare step of announcing that its current members are deadlocked on a pending petition, unveiling a pair of opinions where the two members are at odds on whether claiming a violation occurred “on or about” a particular day gives OSHA leeway to file a citation more than six months later.
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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.
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California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) is imposing a combined $1.75 million in fines against an oil refinery and three contractors for “serious” violations following a fatal 2021 incident, concluding that several of the companies failed to determine acceptable “entry conditions” for a confined chamber where a worker suffocated due to high argon levels.
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A federal appeals court has denied a Kentucky mining firm’s bid to narrow or even scrap as unconstitutional the statutory ban on warning employers or workers of imminent safety inspections, rejecting the company’s argument that the restriction -- which appears in both the Mine Safety and Health Act and the OSH Act -- violates its free-speech rights.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has rejected a Florida contracting firm’s argument that the multi-employer doctrine that allows OSHA to cite several companies at the same worksite for a single hazard conflicts with precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, even as it overturned the citation at the heart of the dispute.
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A Massachusetts hospital and its Delaware-based management company are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to review an OSHA enforcement action that treated the two as a “single employer,” setting up a potentially precedent-setting decision on when the agency can subject firms to higher penalties that stem from such a standard.
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The Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) has largely upheld an enforcement citation stemming from a 2018 construction accident, holding that OSHA’s safety standard for cranes and derricks requires strict adherence to equipment manuals and rejecting the employer’s argument that its use of “similar” safety measures was sufficient.
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OSHA is formally launching its National Emphasis Program (NEP) for heat danger, directing its enforcement office to “proactively initiate inspections” and outreach targeted at workplaces in more than 70 industries deemed “high-risk” while expanding inspections of all industries to cover heat-related hazards and safeguards.
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