OSHA Healthcare Compliance News

Department of Labor Confirms Key Rulemaking Initiatives

The U.S. Department of Labor has recently shared insights into the key actions being taken by the department to ensure safety and health in the workplace while reducing unnecessary burdens on employers and employees.

New regulations are important to ensure that Americans have a safe and healthful working environment, especially in hazardous working environments such as indoor and outdoor settings where workers may be exposed to extreme heat. While there is a clear need for further regulations in some areas to ensure that employers adequately protect their workers, some existing regulations are placing unnecessary burdens on employers with little benefit provided to employees.

The announcement follows the Trump Administration’s semiannual Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which details the actions currently being taken or under consideration. For the Department of Labor, that includes more than 100 areas of rulemaking, including new rules and rule changes that will ensure that U.S. workers are properly protected, while supporting business growth and advancing the Trump Administration’s goal of putting American workers and businesses first.

“Eliminating red tape and crafting smart regulations that spur job creation will bring us even closer to reaching the Golden Age of the American Worker,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “The Department of Labor is committed to helping President Trump and the entire Administration implement this bold regulatory agenda, which focuses on flexibility, transparency, and common-sense reform to ensure every hardworking family has a fair shot at achieving the American Dream.”

On April 15, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order – Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First – that seeks to reduce the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs. One aspect of that executive order concerns pharmacy benefit managers (PMBs) – the prescription drug middlemen that negotiate prices with drug companies.

Under the Biden Administration, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an inquiry into PMBs in June 2022. The interim report, published by the FTC in July 2024, found that PMBs may be contributing to higher out-of-pocket costs for patients. The FTC has recently filed a lawsuit against three major PMBs alleging they are enriching themselves by manipulating the drug supply chain. The Department of Labor has confirmed it is looking at ways to improve transparency around the direct and indirect compensation PMBs receive from employer-sponsored health plans and is looking at ways to improve market transparency in pricing and cost-sharing information for consumers.

An area where further regulation may be required concerns heat illness and injury prevention in indoor and outdoor work settings. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been considering implementing a heat safety standard for some time, and in July 2024, OSHA proposed a new rule that would apply to all employers and would be triggered when employees are exposed to temperatures of 80º F for more than fifteen minutes in any given sixty-minute period. This was an area where OSHA was expected to row back on further regulation. Public hearings on the proposed rule took place over the summer, and OSHA has confirmed that it is “continuing to examine how to establish standards specifically related to heat-related injury and illness prevention.”

Since 2021, the Department of Labor has had no regulatory guidance addressing joint employer liability under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). A rule was proposed to address this in 2020, although it was blocked by a court decision. The department is continuing to look at the circumstances under which businesses can be held liable as a joint employer. Also under the FLSA, the Department of Labor is looking at the circumstances under which a worker should be classified as an employee or independent contractor for the purpose of federal wage and hour requirements, and will be defining and delimiting exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employees, including whether salaried employees are exempt from FLSA minimum wage and overtime requirements.

Under the H-2A program, employers in the agricultural industry are permitted to hire foreign workers for temporary or seasonal jobs when domestic workers are unavailable. Under the Biden administration, a final rule was issued in June 2024 to improve protections for these workers; however, the rule was suspended in June 2025. The Department of Labor has proposed to rescind some of the burdensome requirements for growers using the program for agricultural labor. The Department of Labor is also considering updates to the Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for calculating the prevailing wage for H-2A workers, which has been criticized for exceeding the actual local market wages.

“This regulatory agenda reflects our steadfast commitment to restoring economic opportunity by fostering innovation and reducing unnecessary burdens on employers,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling. “By modernizing outdated rules and prioritizing clarity and efficiency, we’re building a more agile, worker-centered labor policy framework that fuels economic growth and prosperity. Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Labor is delivering the regulatory certainty that American workers and businesses need to thrive.”

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Senate Advances Appropriations Bill Maintaining OSHA Funding

There has been much talk of late about the future of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced lease terminations on 18 OSHA area offices, and Republican Congressman Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) introduced the Nullify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act (NOSHA Act), which sought to abolish OSHA, as Biggs felt safety and health issues were better handled by states and private employers.

The future of OSHA now seems more secure, as on July 31, 2025, the Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the FY 2026 appropriations bill (S. 2587) with a 26-3 vote. The Committee recommended the full $632,309,000 in funding, maintaining the funding levels of FY 2025, and demonstrated Congress is committed to improving safety and health through continued enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). Having been advanced by the Senate, the appropriations bill must now head to the House for a vote, which is expected to take place in September 2025.

The appropriations bill continues to use language that allows OSHA to retain course tuition and fees for training institute courses used for occupational safety and health training and education activities in the private sector. Exemptions from OSHA regulations remain for small farming operations and employers with fewer than 10 employees in industry classifications with a lost workday injury rate less than the national average. They will continue to be exempted from general schedule safety inspections.

The bill requires OSHA to allocate no less than $3.5 million to the administration of its Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP), which encourages private industry and federal agencies to take proactive steps to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. If they maintain accident and injury rates below the national average in their sector, they are exempt from OSHA programmed inspections.

There is growing concern about workplace violence in the healthcare and public health sector, where incidents of workplace violence are six times higher than in all other industries. While the appropriations bill does not call for funding specifically to address the problem, the Committee has urged OSHA to explore steps the agency can take to ensure that healthcare and social services workers are protected from workplace violence. The Committee has requested a briefing within 180 days of enactment of the appropriations bill on the steps that have been taken to improve protections for healthcare workers.

OSHA enforces OSH Act compliance at the federal level; however, 22 states have OSHA-approved occupational safety and health plans, and five states have plans that only cover public sector employees. Those states must ensure that their safety and health programs are at least as effective as federal programs. The FY 2026 appropriations bill earmarks $120 million in grants for states to ensure that remains the case.

The advancement of the bill will provide some security to OSHA, and shows that Congress is committed to improving workplace safety and health through education, enforcement, and addressing workplace hazards and risks.

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