OSHA has issued guidance detailing steps small construction firms must take to comply with the agency's final rule strengthening its silica standards, signaling agency plans to advance the rule's implementation despite an industry legal challenge and expected pushback from President-elect Donald Trump's administration and Republican lawmakers.

Environmentalists are pressing departing Obama administration officials to strengthen EPA's upcoming final rule revising its facility safety regulation even as the measure faces a growing threat that the next Congress, backed by President Donald Trump, will eliminate the rule under privileged processes guaranteed by the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

Several industry attorneys say President-elect Donald Trump will likely seek to roll back many OSHA rules issued under the Obama administration, though it is unclear when Trump's administration will start that effort and which of the wide range of tools it will employ, given Trump's lack of specific statements on OSHA during the campaign, and other priorities.

OSHA is asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to review the recent three-judge panel ruling that vacated the agency's controversial 2015 policy narrowing an exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers.

OSHA is widely expected to appeal the recent federal court ruling that it unlawfully targeted a poultry processing plant for an expanded inspection, opening the door to a broader precedent that would either give companies new authority to resist broader inspections, according to industry, or affirm the agency's discretion to protect workers, labor advocates say.

A federal district court has blocked OSHA's plan for an expanded inspection of a poultry processing facility because the agency's sectoral enforcement program arbitrarily and unfairly targeted the plant for inspection beyond the circumstances of a reported incident -- a ruling that could limit OSHA inspection authority under its emphasis programs.

A senior Justice Department (DOJ) official says prosecutors implementing a recent policy aimed at leveraging environmental laws to impose stiffer penalties for workplace violations are eyeing companies’ internal environmental management systems (EMS) and safety cultures while crafting settlements to ensure future compliance and improve attitudes toward worker safety.

A former top OSHA official says the agency is “an overmatched regulator” that rarely uses its full authority to protect workers, and is urging the agency to partner with federal, state, and local regulators, as well as the public, to better focus inspections on serious hazards.

Industry attorneys expect that OSHA will challenge the recent appellate ruling that vacated its 2015 policy that subjected more fertilizer retailers to its process safety management (PSM) rule, noting that the decision limits OSHA's ability to interpret its standards, and will bolster employer challenges to enforcement actions before the agency's review commission and in courts.

Striking a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to bolster facility safety, a federal appeals court has vacated OSHA's controversial 2015 policy narrowing the exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers, finding the agency unlawfully issued the memo expanding the reach of its facility worker protection rule without public input.