David Keeling, nominated by President Trump on Feb. 12 to head OSHA, made his first public comments regarding his plans for the agency during his June 5 confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

There were no surprises and no specifics, just generalities, which is typical at confirmation hearings where appointees haven’t had the time to get into details.

Keeling, a respected former UPS and Amazon safety executive, is not a controversial pick and is expected to be easily confirmed.

His plans are befitting a Republican appointee to head OSHA:

• Supplement “simple” regulatory compliance using global safety and health management systems voluntary standards and predictive analytics to guide injury prevention and “informed design.”
• Expand voluntary compliance and cooperative outreach by collaborating with professional groups, companies and unions. OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs may be updated to increase participation.
• Treat enforcement to a “transformation” process using predictive analytics to more narrowly focus on the most at-risk employers. OSHA’s FY 2026 budget proposal projects the agency to conduct nearly 25,000 inspections, down from more than 34,600 inspections in FY 2024.

In his opening statement, Keeling mentioned that his “passion” for workplace safety was influenced by a relative’s work-related fatality. “Throughout my nearly 40 years in occupational safety and health, I have dedicated myself to ensuring that every worker goes home to their loved ones healthy and whole at the end of each day. This passion was influenced by the death of my uncle, Lonny Crouch, who died in a farming accident at the age of 17. I never had the opportunity to know my uncle. Because of the pain his death caused, his name wasn’t used every day. However, his loss was always there in my grandparents’ house, an empty chair always present at their dinner table.”

He concluded his remarks saying, “If confirmed, I am committed to working with each of you so that no family sits down to dinner at a table with an empty chair.”