Doug Parker, the former head of Cal/OSHA nominated by President Biden on April 9, 2021, to lead federal OSHA, steps into the most pressurized and politicized atmosphere in the agency’s 50-year history.
OSHA, a minor agency in the landscape of the federal bureaucracy, has less than a $600 million budget and less than 1,000 inspectors (vs EPA’s $9 billion budget and 14,000 workers). Due to the pandemic’s toll on the U.S. workforce, the agency has attracted a precedent-setting amount of attention from the White House and the national media. For most White House administrations and the national media, OSHA is off the radar screen. In the past, administrations have gone four years without a mention of OSHA.