OSHA is extending the comment period on its proposed hazard communication standard (HCS) update, giving industry critics more time to build legal and policy cases against the rule after one attorney said it appears designed to aid EPA chemical evaluations by forcing many chemical companies to conduct elaborate new hazard analyses.
September 16, 2026
President Joe Biden is proposing $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2022 funding for OSHA and other Department of Labor (DOL) worker protection agencies, representing an increase of $304 million or 17 percent over the FY21 enacted level to ramp up enforcement and regulatory efforts to protect employees.
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Unions and worker safety groups are praising President Joe Biden’s selection of California OSHA (Cal/OSHA) chief Doug Parker to lead the federal OSHA and are urging him to swiftly enact a COVID-19 emergency temporary standard (ETS), which employers’ attorneys fear Parker could model on Cal/OSHA’s strict virus policy.
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OSHA has announced its first whistleblower stakeholder meeting under the Biden administration, giving unions, worker safety groups and others a fresh venue to advance calls for dramatically strengthening the agency’s program that protects employees from retaliations for reporting violations of workplace safety rules.
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An industry attorney says chemical makers and users could soon face an “absurd,” onerous mandate to assess the hazards posed by chemicals they produce or use, not only in their own operations but in all possible downstream uses and combinations -- a duty he says could be aimed at supporting EPA’s risk evaluations of existing chemicals.
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A federal district judge has scrapped the Trump Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) line-speed waiver for some pork slaughterhouses over its refusal to consider threats to worker safety during the rulemaking process -- a win for unions that said the policy was unlawful -- and is giving the Biden administration 90 days to decide its next steps.
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Animal welfare advocates challenging the Trump administration’s line-speed waivers for pork slaughterhouses say the Agriculture Department (USDA) is moving slowly, if at all, on a potential reconsideration of the policy, and they are renewing their push for a court ruling that would declare the waivers unlawful.
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OSHA is seeking nominees to fill six seats on the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (NACOSH), just a few weeks after the Trump administration named four new members to the committee during its final days and further advancing the revival of the panel that had been dormant since 2019.
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Employers are urging OSHA to use its impending emergency temporary standard (ETS) for COVID-19 to standardize the nationwide approach to pandemic protections, by formally overriding state-level ETS rules and executive orders that have created a patchwork of workplace safety requirements against the coronavirus.
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OSHA is floating the first update to its Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) since 2012 -- a move that would more closely align the policy with current international guidelines for chemical labeling in the workplace and could also drive a new effort to incorporate those same requirements into EPA rules.
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