The Trump administration is expanding its rollback of an Obama-era injury and illness reporting rule with a new memo that critics say will curtail OSHA enforcement of the rule's anti-retaliation provisions, as dozens of Senate Democrats are urging the agency to drop a proposed rule that would limit the reporting requirements of the Obama rule.
Industry groups are urging OSHA to broaden its proposed rollback of an Obama-era injury and illness reporting rule to further curtail requirements for electronic reporting of injury data and the rule's anti-retaliation provisions, while labor groups and Democratic state officials are arguing the proposed revisions are unwarranted and will harm worker safety.
A plastics industry attorney expects that the Trump administration will not advance an Obama-era plan to expand when OSHA's safety standard applies to power equipment that is shut off during repair work, noting that OSHA did not hold a required hearing on the change, and that the agency may instead seek changes to ease the burdens of the existing rule.
The White House is reviewing a draft final rule that the Obama OSHA originally sought to use to expand when the agency's safety standard applies to power equipment that is shut off for repairs, though it is unclear whether the final Standards Improvement Project (SIP) rule will include the measure given strong opposition from employers.
Senate Democrats are signaling that they will not cooperate with congressional talks over the Trump administration's sweeping government reorganization plan, arguing their requests for the data informing the proposal were “stonewalled,” although Republicans argue that they are just at the “start” of the process.
A free market group's suit seeking to retroactively extend the Congressional Review Act's (CRA) requirements to OSHA and other agencies' guidance documents is facing a major test as the Justice Department is seeking to dismiss it, arguing in part that courts lack jurisdiction to review agencies' alleged failure to submit the policies to Congress for possible repeal.
Democrats are seeking to block President Donald Trump's July 10 executive order (EO) allowing for expedited approval of administrative law judges (ALJs) at OSHA, EPA and other agencies, charging that the proposal would politicize the hiring process and undermine the qualifications for such judges.
The Trump administration is proposing to merge the Departments of Education (DOE) and Labor (DOL) into a new Department of Education and Workforce in which OSHA would be placed into an “enforcement” sub agency, a plan that is drawing concern from Democrats and labor groups who fear it would undercut the agency's workplace safety mission.
Supporters of the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda are urging lawmakers to codify President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) forcing OSHA, EPA and other agencies to repeal two existing rules for every new measure, though their call is drawing strong pushback from Democrats who say it will undermine protections by limiting rules' estimated benefits and devalue human lives.
Democrats are taking the rare step of using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) -- the law that eases Congress' ability to repeal federal rules -- to block a Trump administration rule rolling back Obama-era 'net neutrality' mandates, despite criticism from safety advocates that it legitimizes use of a poorly-written law that Republicans and industry have long-used as a deregulatory tool and which they are seeking to repeal.