OSHA has sent for White House review a draft final rule based on its proposal to mandate that construction employers ensure workers have properly fitting personal protective equipment (PPE), though even if the agency manages to enact the policy before the end of the Biden administration it faces uncertain prospects under President-elect Donald Trump.
September 16, 2026
After almost a decade of delay, OSHA has sent its proposed infectious disease standard for health care facilities and other “high-risk” environments to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for interagency review, teeing up its release just ahead of the transition to President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration.
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As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, the direction of federal labor and safety policy faces a major upheaval, as he has pledged to sharply roll back a host of Biden-era regulations and would likely scale back OSHA’s work as he did during his first term.
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The fabricated stone manufacturing industry is making final pleas for California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) to scale back its proposed final permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, warning that dozens of onerous new requirements and poor enforcement will penalize businesses that are adequately protecting employees.
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Chemical-sector groups are urging EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ease the strict workplace exposure standard that the agency proposed in its TSCA rule for trichloroethylene (TCE), by either easing the final regulation or allowing for greater flexibility on enforcement.
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OSHA chief Douglas Parker says he is looking to employers’ comments to help fill gaps in OSHA’s data on workplace heat dangers and mitigation methods as the agency crafts a long-awaited rule on the subject, telling viewers on an Oct. 9 webinar that the wide scope of its proposed standard “raises lots of issues” that will require stakeholder input to resolve.
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Trade groups are pushing EPA to craft a “consistent approach” for setting de minimis exemptions in its TSCA risk management rulemakings, while also renewing pressure on the agency for more transparency on workplace exposure limits for the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) in particular -- limits some say should have been crafted by OSHA instead.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to enact a bill unanimously backed by state legislators that would expand the state’s stringent petroleum refinery worker-safety standards to biorefineries and other facilities, in response to labor union concerns about a recent series of fires at renewable fuel production plants that caused serious injuries.
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David Michaels, who led OSHA for nearly all of the Obama administration, says local authorities should issue their own workplace protections for heat rather than waiting for the federal agency to enact its proposed standard, noting that a final version is likely years away and probably would be scrapped under a second Trump administration.
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Industry groups representing fabricated stone manufacturing companies are pressing California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) officials to ease certain sections of their proposed permanent rules to protect workers from exposure to crystalline silica, including by relaxing requirements for respirators and providing more incentives for in-shop improvements.
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