Few changes in DOL’s latest regulatory agenda

Washington — The Department of Labor’s Fall 2024 regulatory agenda – released December 13 and the last under the Biden administration – features only a few minor changes from the previous agenda.

Typically published by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs twice a year, the agenda provides the status of and projected dates for all potential regulations listed in three stages: pre-rule, proposed rule and final rule.

Among the changes:

• OSHA’s rulemaking titled Process Safety Management and Prevention of Major Chemical Accidents has moved back to the pre-rule stage from the proposed rule stage. The agency is still analyzing stakeholder comments, according to the regulatory agenda entry.
• OSHA’s attempt to update its standard on mechanical power presses for the first time in 40-plus years moved to the pre-rule stage from long-term actions. The agency plans to analyze comments on the update until at least July.
• OSHA changed the title of one potential regulation to Workplace Violence in Health Care and Social Assistance from Prevention of Workplace Violence in Health Care and Social Assistance. No reason for the change was given in the regulatory agenda entry.
• An emergency temporary standard on COVID-19 vaccination and testing was taken off the “long-term actions” list nearly three years after the Supreme Court issued a stay.

OSHA has seven regulations listed in the final rule stage. One of those – published Dec. 12 and set to go into effect Jan. 11 – updates personal protective equipment fit requirements in the construction industry.

Three of the remaining six final rules are related to procedures for handling retaliation complaints under various laws. Another is on OSHA’s procedures for using administrative subpoenas.

The final two are on a powered industrial trucks standard update and COVID-19 exposure among health care workers. The latter has been under OIRA review for two-plus years and likely will exit the regulatory agenda under the incoming Trump administration.

Additionally, OSHA is working on a proposed rule on infectious diseases for the health care industry and “other high-risk environments.” The proposal is under OIRA review and could be published sometime before Inauguration Day (Jan. 20). That infectious disease standard would focus not only on COVID-19 but also MRSA and influenza, among others.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration has three rules on the agenda, with the lone final rule having been published Dec. 10. That rule concerns the testing, evaluation and approval of electric motor-driven equipment and accessories used in “gassy mines.” It’s set to go into effect Jan. 9.

MSHA has a similar regulation as a new entry in the proposed rule stage titled, “Testing, Evaluation and Approval of Equipment for Use in Underground Mines.” It would focus on “gassy or dust-laden mining environments.”

The agency says: “Under this proposal, MSHA would accept voluntary consensus standards that are suitable for all gassy mining environments and provide protection against fire or explosion dangers. This proposed rulemaking is intended to promote the use of innovative and advanced technologies that lead to improvements in mine safety.

“This rulemaking was initiated by stakeholder recommendations; specifically, MSHA received recommendations to reduce government-unique standards and to use voluntary consensus standards to evaluate and approve equipment for use in potentially hazardous mining environments.”