The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed review of final EPA rules seeking to limit workplace risks from three toxic solvents, teeing up their release in the last weeks of the Biden administration -- and likely efforts to narrow or reverse them after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
December 7, 2024
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EPA has issued a draft TSCA evaluation of the synthetic rubber component 1,3-butadiene finding that inhalation exposure to the ubiquitous chemical poses unreasonable risk to the health of workers and the general population, just weeks after finalizing court settlements that set deadlines for that review and more than 20 others.
OSHA is giving stakeholders another two weeks to file comments on its proposed heat safety standard, pushing the deadline from Dec. 30 into the new year -- though far sooner than the two months or more that many employer groups sought -- while also scheduling an online hearing on the rule for summer.
EPA has unveiled its long-awaited final TSCA evaluation of “legacy” asbestos uses, finding ongoing risk to workers and the general population from several asbestos fiber types and applications that were excluded from its Trump-era “Part 1” review -- and triggering a mandate for the incoming Trump administration to regulate those dangers.
A three-judge appellate panel is evaluating whether EPA correctly determined that it has authority to regulate rail cars as a “stationary source” under its Risk Management Program (RMP) and emergency planning rules for facility safety, questioning how it should review the agency’s interpretation since the high court eliminated Chevron deference.
Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) for a second time, is expected to push a series of measures from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 deregulatory blueprint for the new administration to slash OSHA and other agencies’ budgets, as well as wider efforts to scale back the executive branch civil service.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected outgoing Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-OR), a moderate who has sponsored union-friendly legislation, to head the Department of Labor (DOL), drawing skepticism from pro-business Republicans and cautious praise from organized labor -- though many are questioning whether the administration will allow her to maintain those priorities.
California OSHA’s (Cal/OSHA) standards board is launching an advisory committee that will weigh amending state safety rules to eventually allow deployment of certain types of autonomous agricultural equipment, amid continued pushback from labor advocacy groups.
Two employer attorneys say a New Jersey steel company’s bid to declare the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) unconstitutional poses legal questions that will likely require resolution by the Supreme Court -- though possibly only after similar cases make their way through multiple lower courts.
Industry attorneys say the incoming Trump EPA will likely try to reverse a host of the Biden administration’s TSCA actions including chemical-specific rules and risk evaluations that aim to limit workplace chemical exposures, but could struggle to overcome legal barriers to quick rollbacks as well as a potential wave of court challenges to its efforts.