A poultry processing facility is urging federal judges to reject OSHA's appeal of a lower court's ruling that held the agency lacks authority to expand an inspection beyond the circumstances of an employee's injury, faulting OSHA arguments that the company's injury reporting provided “reasonable suspicion” of a possible violation.
President Donald Trump has repealed OSHA's final rule clarifying that employers face a “continuing obligation” to record worker injuries, part of a broad federal effort to roll back Obama-era rules under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) and other authorities that his staff say will continue even after the window for such action closes later this month.
A federal judge has granted OSHA's request to stay for two months a lawsuit builders, petrochemical manufacturers and other industries filed against the Obama administration's final rule updating the agency's worker injury and illness record-keeping program, but the judge sidestepped industry requests to delay the rule's initial July 1 compliance date.
With Congress facing an early May deadline to approve resolutions undoing Obama-era rules, industry and others are raising doubts over whether lawmakers will act in the coming weeks on a pending resolution that would undo changes to the agency's facility safety program, a rule that the Trump EPA is seeking to delay an additional 20 months.
EPA is proposing to delay by an additional 20 months -- from June 19 to Feb. 19, 2019 -- the effective date of the Obama administration's final rule overhauling the agency's industrial facility accident prevention program, citing the need for more time to weigh potential revisions to the rule in response to requests from industry and some states.
Top Senate environment committee Republicans are hedging on whether a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to rescind EPA's chemical facility safety rule will reach the Senate floor, raising fresh doubts about the measure's prospects even as EPA is said to be concerned about its administrative reconsideration of the regulation.
The Trump administration has narrowed OSHA's legal push to preserve the agency's authority to expand an inspection beyond the circumstances of an employee's injury, arguing inspectors had “reasonable suspicion” to check for some additional hazards, while dropping, for now, Obama-era arguments that OSHA could conduct an even broader review.
Grover Norquist, the influential leader of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), is urging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) to quickly advance a pending Congressional Review Act (CRA) disapproval resolution to repeal the Obama EPA's overhaul of its industrial facility accident prevention program.
A broad coalition of petrochemical, power and other industry groups is petitioning EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt to “reconsider and rescind” the Obama administration's final rule overhauling the agency's industrial facility accident prevention program even as the groups prepare to file litigation that they hope will lead to the rule's elimination.
Chemical, agricultural, and other industry officials plan to press Scott Pruitt -- President Donald Trump's nominee for next EPA administrator -- to pursue a rulemaking repealing controversial Obama-era revisions to the agency's facility safety program if a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to undo the changes fails to advance in Congress.