Office of Management and Budget

A Status Update About OSHA’s Rulemaking For a Permanent COVID-19 Rule for Healthcare

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By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

We wanted to provide a little status report about OSHA’s quiet rulemaking for a permanent COVID-19 Standard for Healthcare.  A few weeks ago, at the ABA WOSH Committee Midwinter meeting, multiple senior Department of Labor officials, including Doug Parker (Head of OSHA) and Seema Nanda (the Solicitor of Labor), were asked some pointed questions about the rulemaking.  They were all pretty tight-lipped and evasive.  We pointed out to the Solicitor of Labor that the very day on which we were talking about the rulemaking was the 90th day since OSHA had delivered the proposed final rule to the White House’s Office of Management Budget for a “final review.”  Pursuant to Executive Order 12866, a proposed final rule generally cannot remain at OMB for longer than 90 days unless the regulating agency (in this case, OSHA) requests an extension of the review period.  The Solicitor of Labor was asked if the Department of Labor or OSHA had already or was intending to seek such an extension, or whether the agency had decided to withdraw the proposed final rule in light of the changing circumstances of the pandemic and President Biden’s withdrawal of the emergency declaration.  She sidestepped the question, stating that OMB can extend the review period at least another 30 days without any formal action by the Department of Labor, but would not say what OMB’s or OSHA’s plans were for the rule.

The one-time, automatic 30-day extension of OMB’s 90-day review period is consistent with our understanding too.  See the excerpt below from OMB OIRA FAQs: Continue reading →

OSHA Delivers Proposed Final (Amended) Electronic Recordkeeping Rule to the White House

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By Eric J. Conn, Lindsay A. DiSalvo, and Dan C. Deacon

We have an update to share about OSHA’s rulemaking to expand its regulation to “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses” (known better as the Electronic Recordkeeping or E-Recordkeeping Rule).  Late last week, OSHA delivered to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a proposed Final (Amended) E-Recordkeeping Rule for review by the Administration’s economists and policy experts.  OMB’s website reflects that, as of April 7, 2023, OMB:

  • Has received a proposed E-Recordkeeping Rule from OSHA; and
  • The rule is in the “Final Rule” stage.

As we indicated a few weeks ago, OSHA’s latest target date to issue the rule is June of this year, and getting the proposed final rule to OMB last week lines up well with that target.  The submission of the proposed rule to OMB means OSHA is at the goal line; just one step away from finalizing a rule that more closely resembles the agency’s original intent and broad scope of the E-Recordkeeping Rule when it was promulgated in 2016 under the Obama Administration.

The original E-Recordkeeping Rule would have had larger employers submitting to OSHA annually the data from their full panoply of injury and illness recordkeeping forms (the 300 Logs, 301 incident reports, and 300A Annual Summaries), and smaller employers in certain “high hazard industries” submitting only the 300A Annual Summary data.  Before ever collecting the more detailed level data from 300 Logs and 301 Incident Reports, former President Trump’s OSHA rolled back the more onerous requirements, such that no matter the employer’s size, if you were covered by the rule, you submitted only 300A Annual Summary date.

OSHA was sued by organizations representing labor alleging that Continue reading →

OSHA’s Heat Illness Rulemaking – NACOSH Meeting and Next Steps

Eric J. Conn 1 Comment

By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

As we mentioned in our last update from December, OSHA continues to move swiftly on its rulemaking for a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Standard in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.  We attended the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (“NACOSH”) committee meeting on January 10th, where the Committee primarily addressed recommendations and updates from NACOSH’s Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Work Group (“Work Group”), and wanted to provide you this update.

As a reminder, the NACOSH Work Group was split into two sub-groups – one addressing Task 1 of the Charge to the Work Group (evaluating and providing input and recommendations for compliance assistance materials about heat illness prevention), and the other sub-group addressing Task 2 (developing key recommendations on potential elements of a Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Standard for OSHA to consider).  As expected, only the sub-group addressing Task 1 (“Compliance Assistance Work Group”) delivered its recommendations to the full NACOSH committee during the January 10th meeting.  The sub-group addressing Task 2 (“Rulemaking Work Group”) – which is the sub-group more important to our Coalition – reiterated that it is still in the process of developing recommendations, to which OSHA responded with some strong words.  More on that below.

To start, the Compliance Assistance Work Group presented its findings and recommendations to the full NACOSH Committee, which the Committee approved unanimously without changes.  Four of the ten recommendations aim to improve OSHA’s guidance on heat dangers, urging the agency to: Continue reading →

OSHA’s Permanent COVID-19 Rule for Healthcare – OIRA Meetings and Next Steps

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By Eric J. Conn and Beeta B. Lashkari

Per our update last month, on December 8, 2022, OSHA delivered to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a proposed final rule for “Occupational Exposure to COVID-19 in Healthcare Settings.”  On behalf of our Employers COVID-19 Prevention Coalition, we secured three stakeholder meetings with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within OMB for the three industry segments in the coalition most likely to be affected by the rule:

    • Construction / Maintenance:  Tuesday, January 3rd
    • Retailers / Retail Pharmacies:  Wednesday, January 4th
    • Manufacturers w/ Medical Clinics:  Thursday, January 5th

Below is a report out from those meetings with OIRA and a discussion about what we think is going to happen next and when.

The meetings were hosted by a Deputy Branch Chief at OIRA with participation by representatives from OMB/OIRA, DOL, DOL’s Office of the Solicitor, SBA’s Office of Advocacy, as well as OSHA’s Directorate of Standards and Guidance, Office of Engineering Safety, Office of Physical Hazards, Office of Chemical Hazards, and Office of Regulatory Analysis.

On behalf of our Employers COVID-19 Prevention Coalition, we had representatives from the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) for the Construction / Maintenance industry segment, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores for the Retail Pharmacy industry segment, and the American Chemistry Council for Manufacturers with On-site Medical Clinics.

Here are the official records on OIRA’s website about our meetings: Continue reading →

Biden Administration Signals that the Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate May Go Into Effect, But Not Yet

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By Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Task Force

On Friday, October 14th, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (Task Force) issued some “clarifications” about the expected next steps for Executive Order 14042 – the federal contractor vaccine mandate – now that the longstanding nationwide injunction restricting enforcement of the E.O. has been narrowed by order of the Eleventh Circuit.  That narrowing (to just the six States that were named parties to the legal challenge in Georgia v. Biden) took effect on October 18th.  OMB and the Task Force suggested that we would see at least three new guidance documents now that the injunction is narrowed, including:

    1. OMB would give notice to federal agencies about compliance with applicable injunctions, and also whether, where and when the new clause implementing Executive Order 14042 should be included in new solicitations and contracts.
    2. The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force would update its COVID-19 guidance for covered contractor workplaces, including a timeline for implementation.  Last week’s clarification specified that this “updated guidance [by the Task Force] will be issued following development and review by the Task Force, subject to the OMB Director’s approval and determination published in the Federal Register that the updated guidance promotes economy and efficiency in Federal contracting, in accordance with Executive Order 14042.”
    3. After the updated Task Force guidance issues, and if the OMB Director makes a determination that implementation of the E.O. in some form continues to promote economy and efficiency in federal contracting , then OMB would provide additional guidance to agencies on timing and considerations for provision of written notice from agencies to contractors regarding enforcement.

On October 19th (the day after the 11th Circuit’s narrowing of the nationwide injunction took effect), OMB did issue one of the notices we were expecting. Continue reading →

Fed OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards Officially Submitted to OMB for Final Approval

Eric J. Conn 10 Comments

By Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Task Force

We have officially entered the phase of Federal OSHA’s emergency rulemaking when things are going to start to move very quickly.  After hitting the “refresh” button more times over the last month than we would like to admit, today we finally saw what we have been expecting since mid-March – Federal OSHA’s COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) has been submitted to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) for approval:

The entry for the ETS on OMB’s website confirms that OMB:

  • Has received a proposed COVID-19 rule from OSHA;
  • The rule is in the “Final Rule” stage;
  • The rule is characterized as “Economically Significant”; and
  • Regulatory text is not available to be reviewed by the public.

The Department of Labor issued this press statement confirming that the rule was sent to OMB:

“Today, OSHA sent draft standards to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.  OSHA has been working diligently on its proposal and has taken the appropriate time to work with its science-agency partners, economic agencies, and others in the U.S. government to get this proposed emergency standard right.”

Of particular note in this press statement is DOL’s use of Continue reading →

OSHA Takes A Big Step Towards Issuing a COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard

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By Conn Maciel Carey’s COVID-19 Task Force

As we continue our marathon COVID-19 ETS watch, some news today made the future of OSHA’s emergency rulemaking more clear.  OSHA has officially delivered a proposed COVID-19 emergency temporary standard to the White House’s Office of Management Budget today, Monday, April 26th.  Although the OMB website is still not showing a record of the rule, the Department of Labor issued this statement:

“Today, OSHA sent draft standards to the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review.  OSHA has been working diligently on its proposal and has taken the appropriate time to work with its science-agency partners, economic agencies, and others in the U.S. government to get this proposed emergency standard right.”

We had circled this Wednesday, April 28th, on our calendar as the likely day OSHA would officially announce it was going to issue an ETS because that is Workers Memorial Day, and that seemed to be a good symbolic occasion to announce a rule designed to address a pandemic that has claimed so many lives.  Here’s a link to the Dept. of Labor’s Virtual Workers Memorial Day event, and here’s how the event is billed: Continue reading →