Federal appeals court judges appeared doubtful at recent oral arguments of citizen groups’ suit aiming to revive Obama-era rules from OSHA and other agencies the GOP scrapped using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in the early days of the Trump administration, questioning claims that the CRA is unconstitutional and the repeals were unlawful.
In a move that seeks to bolster the lagging deregulatory agenda at OSHA and other agencies, President Donald Trump has announced his intent to nominate Eugene Scalia, a former Labor Department (DOL) solicitor, to replace exiting Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta’s July 12 resignation creates new uncertainty for the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda at OSHA, further disappointing industry groups who have long been concerned at the agency’s failure to roll back a series of Obama-era measures or scale back its enforcement, along with other policy issues.
California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) has made a series of amendments easing her controversial bill that would lock into state law Obama-era worker safety and other rules, but the changes are failing to fully address industry opposition, setting up the potential for more talks and further changes.
Advisors reviewing EPA’s first draft chemical risk evaluation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) have raised sharp concerns about several aspects of the draft assessment of pigment violet 29 (PV29), with some urging officials to gather more data on risks to workers and others because the draft does not support its threshold finding that the chemical doesn’t require risk management.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear oral argument Aug. 5 in public interest groups’ challenge to the constitutionality of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), teeing up a decision that could limit or even block lawmakers’ ability under the 1996 law to revoke rulemakings from OSHA and other agencies.
Over the objections of a broad industry coalition, a California Senate panel has advanced a controversial bill that would require Cal/OSHA to strengthen its standards should it find that the Trump administration has weakened any equivalent federal OSHA standards below levels that were in place at the end of the Obama presidency.
OSHA has issued its long-awaited final rule amending a series of existing standards to remove or revise duplicative, unnecessary, and inconsistent requirements though, as expected, the measure drops an Obama-era plan to expand when OSHA’s so-called “lockout/tagout” safety standard applies to power equipment that is shut off for repairs.
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta says the Labor Department (DOL) is considering writing a new procedural rule that would limit OSHA and other entities' use of guidance documents to make policy in the wake of an Inspector General finding that the agency, during the Obama administration, did not take adequate steps when issuing guidance, opening it up to legal challenges.
As Congress returns from its two-week recess, labor groups are stepping up their calls for lawmakers to restore Obama-era OSHA rules that Republicans have reversed and craft new rules governing workplace violence, heat stress, chemical safety and other issues, though such legislation is unlikely to be considered in the GOP Senate.