The Trump administration’s approach toward the regulatory state has been a sea change from its predecessor. From reductions in executive agency personnel to promises about requiring deletion of multiple regulations for every new one adopted, this strategy appears focused on minimizing businesses’ interactions with government agencies. However, this month the U.S. Department of Labor released its current regulatory agenda confirming that a number of initiatives left over from the previous administration remain under active consideration.

For workplace safety professionals, the most notable of these initiatives involves the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s proposed rulemaking on prevention of workplace heat illness or injury. While OSHA has made no moves to finalize the rules released last year, DOL’s regulatory agenda says that OSHA is reviewing various approaches toward federal regulation of employer heat stress prevention practices.

This news may not reflect any overall change in the DOL’s approach toward safety rules. In the absence of uniform federal heat stress rules, a number of states have filled the vacuum, releasing or proposing heat rules affecting employers in their jurisdictions. Employers faced with a patchwork of state heat injury and illness safety rules may prefer a more uniform federal approach toward establishing policies and procedures. It remains unlikely that OSHA will finalize the current regulatory proposal, but it may substitute a more performance-based regulation or guidance that addresses heat-related safety risks without some of the more onerous requirements called for in the current proposal.

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