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One Year In: OSHA’s Direction Under the Second Trump Administration
With one year of the second Trump Administration nearly complete, we can take stock of what has changed and what remains consistent under new OSHA leadership and preview what we expect from OSHA in 2026.
First, David Keeling was confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health this past October. Assistant Secretary Keeling comes to OSHA after a long career in private industry, including at UPS and Amazon. During his confirmation hearing, Keeling expressed an intent to modernize and update OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), among other goals. While employers have sometimes been reluctant to enroll in VPP, fearing increased attention to their sites, for certain businesses these programs can provide a net benefit, particularly with the indication that OSHA is attempting to encourage participation by more types of businesses, and it will be worth paying attention to OSHA’s anticipated efforts to update the VPP under Assistant Secretary Keeling’s leadership.
In September of 2025, the Trump Administration announced its semiannual regulatory agenda, featuring several OSHA proposals. OSHA continues to reevaluate the proposed rule relating to heat injury and illness prevention that was issued under the prior administration. The new administration has now twice extended the public comment period on this proposed rulemaking. We expect to learn more in 2026 about whether OSHA intends to finalize the Biden-era rule or withdraw or revise it.
Also included in the semiannual regulatory agenda are proposed rules to revise certain substance-specific respirator requirements to allow different types of respirators to be used and to align these requirements with OSHA’s more general respiratory protection standard. Substances addressed include asbestos, benzene, cadmium, inorganic arsenic, and lead, as well as other substances. This and other proposals are described as being consistent with Executive Orders aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on business.
In May 2025, OSHA issued a new instruction for its National Emphasis Program (NEP) to identify and reduce or eliminate amputation hazards in manufacturing industries. Under the new instruction, businesses with ten or fewer employees in low-hazard industries, as well as businesses inspected under this NEP within the previous 24 months and with no reported amputations in that time period, will not be subject to programmed inspection. OSHA has continuing NEPs in other areas of interest, including a warehousing and distribution centers NEP whose governing instruction will expire in July 2026. Our firm will be keeping a close watch on OSHA’s NEP activities, including whether expiring instructions will be renewed by the new administration.
