Six Democratic Senators have written to the United States Secretary of Labor, Lori Chavez-DeReme, demanding answers about an apparent rollback of safety rules and reduced oversight of workplace safety and health. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Ron Wyden (OR) questioned whether the Trump administration is discouraging the enforcement of workplace safety laws, and whether the sharp reduction in inspections and penalties is a precursor to the elimination of key safety regulations that were established to keep American workers safe.

Sen. Warren was confidentially provided with data that shows a 20% reduction in workplace inspections by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) between April 2025 and September 2025, compared to the corresponding period the previous year. The data also show a 42% reduction in inspections with citations for willful violations.

While there may have been improvements to workplace safety, resulting in fewer citations for willful violations, such a high percentage reduction in a single year suggests something else may be at play.  “This reduction in findings of willful violations indicates that OSHA inspectors may be being encouraged to issue citations for lesser violations, allowing employers who commit serious safety violations to avoid facing proportional consequences,” wrote the senators in the letter. “If employers know that they are unlikely to face hefty fines, they may be less likely to adhere to safety standards that keep American workers safe in their places of employment,” the senators wrote.

The senators cite a December 2025 report – Worker Protections in Freefall: The Collapse of Federal Labor Enforcement under the Second Trump Administration – by the advocacy group Good Jobs First that highlights a precipitous decline in OSHA penalty assessments. Between 2009 and 2024, OSHA penalty assessments have remained fairly steady, only fluctuating by 4% over that period. Good Jobs First reports that “Wage and hour penalties have decreased 94% during Trump’s second term, and workplace health and safety penalties have dropped 45%.”

Based on the findings of workplace safety and health inspections since 2009, an increase in inspections would appear to be the logical response to get employees to create safer and more healthful workplaces, yet the Trump administration has proposed massive cuts to OSHA’s funding, while the Department of Labor has rolled out a deregulatory agenda to eliminate key health and safety regulations. “Your agency has tried to cloak your deregulatory agenda in the language of ‘putting workers first,’ but the reality is that the Labor Department is prioritizing the interests of unscrupulous employers over Americans who work hard in dangerous environments to provide for their families,” wrote the senators.

According to the senators, some of the regulations that have been rolled back include the elimination of the authority of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to require mine operators to ensure proper ventilation to protect miners from hazards such as black lung disease, and loosened respirator requirements for workers exposed to carcinogens, lead, asbestos, and formaldehyde. The senators also warn that the Department of Labor plans to eliminate the requirements for adequate lighting on construction sites, despite one in 20 construction worker deaths being due to inadequate lighting, and plans to limit the ability of OSHA to hold employers accountable for unsafe working conditions in inherently unsafe professions.

In the letter, the senators demanded answers to their questions by March 4, 2026. They include questions related to the Department of Labor’s deregulatory agenda, whether the termination of leases of 11 OSHA regional offices by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) means they have been permanently closed, whether there are plans to close other OSHA regional offices, and several questions about OSHA inspections, hazard letters, violations, and citations in 2025.

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The deadline for submitting electronic workplace injury and illness information to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is March 2, 2026. Failure to submit timely data can result in a citation or penalty.

OSHA maintains a secure website hosting its Injury Tracking Application (ITA), which can be used by certain employers to submit data from their OSHA recordkeeping forms (OSHA Forms 300A, 300, and 301). Covered employers must use the ITA to submit their data ahead of the reporting deadline, which for calendar year 2025 is March 2, 2026. To ensure that data is submitted on time, establishments should use the ITA to submit their data well ahead of the deadline in case of any technical issues.

Online submission of workplace injury and illness data is required for establishments if the answer to either of the questions below is yes.

1. Your establishment had 250 or more part-time, full-time, and seasonal employees at any time during calendar year 2025 and is not on the exempt industry list.
2. Your establishment had between 20 and 249 part-time, full-time, and seasonal employees at any time in calendar year 2025 if you are in a designated industry.

Designated industries include, but are not limited to, general medical and surgical hospitals, psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals, specialty (except psychiatric and substance abuse) hospitals, other ambulatory health care services, nursing care facilities, residential mental retardation, mental health and substance abuse facilities, community care facilities for the elderly, and other residential care facilities. If your establishment qualifies for electronic reporting, then electronic reporting is mandatory. OSHA will not accept paper submissions of workplace injury and illness data.

If the answer to one of the above questions is yes, your establishment is required to use the ITA to submit OSHA Form 300A data. Establishments must also use the ITA to submit Form 300/301 data if they have more than 100 employees in designated industries, which include the aforementioned healthcare and social care sectors, as listed in Appendix B to Subpart E of 29 CFR Part 1904.

It is the responsibility of each establishment to determine whether it is required to submit its workplace injury and illness data electronically, as OSHA does not generally notify establishments if they must submit data electronically. If in any doubt, OSHA has an ITA coverage application that can be used to determine if the ITA must be used to submit Form 300A and 300/301 data.

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Rep. Mark Messmer (R-IN) has introduced a bill that seeks to repeal safety and health legislation introduced by the Biden administration to protect Americans against heat injury and illness in both indoor and outdoor work settings. Rep. Messmer introduced the Health Workforce Standards Act of 2025 on November 20, 2025, to repeal the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s  (OSHA) Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed rule. The bill is co-sponsored by 23 Republican representatives in 16 U.S. states and is supported by more than two dozen industry organizations.

OSHA’s proposed standard applies to most employers in the general industry, construction, maritime, and agriculture sectors where OSHA has jurisdiction, and requires them to implement a plan to evaluate and control heat hazards in the workplace and protect their workers from hazardous heat. Rep. Messmer claims that OSHA’s proposed rule would impose impracticable and unnecessary requirements on residential construction employers, noncompliance with which would attract excessive financial penalties.

Rep. Messmer said the sweeping and unworkable heat standards were fast-tracked by the Biden administration, and these heavy-handed regulations are likely to crush innovation, increase costs, and undermine productivity. The proposed rule would require almost all American businesses and institutions to follow rigid, one-size-fits-all, federal workplace standards based on predetermined temperature thresholds, regardless of industry, climate, or existing safety protocols.

“The Biden Heat Rule was never about safety, but was rather, unsurprisingly, focused upon expanding federal bureaucratic control over hard-working Americans,” said Rep. Messmer in a press release announcing the bill. “My Heat Workforce Standards Act empowers employers to maintain safe and realistic workplace standard parameters which allow for both their workers and the business to thrive.”

Rep. Messmer maintains that if OHSA’s proposed rule is implemented, there would be redundant and egregious regulation requirements in all 50 states, with little variance considered for industry-specific outdoor and indoor heat variables and differences in climate. Employers who already had heat injury prevention measures in place would not be recognized, and it would remove state governments’ ability to create targeted heat rules specific to their climate and local industries.

“Needless to say, California, Florida, and Michigan are miles apart when it comes to heat, and heat hazards in construction are very different from the hazards in manufacturing or agriculture. That is why any standard intended to prevent and reduce heat-related injuries must be flexible and keep workers safe in ways that best address their unique environments and challenges,” Tim Walberg, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman, said. “The Biden-Harris proposed heat rule does not have that much-needed flexibility, which is why this bill is a necessary step in protecting workers and preventing federal overreach so we can help workers earn a living and get home safe.”

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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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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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