OSHA issued its always anticipated latest regulatory calendar on September 4^th, reshuffling the deck of how new standards proposals rank. This is the first look at the standards-setting agenda in President Trump’s second administration. Keep in mind OSHA chief nominee David Keeling still has not been confirmed by the Senate.

Several standard proposals have received what former OSHA official Jordan Barab calls the “death penalty.”  The proposed infectious diseases rule has been killed. OSHA put an overall infectious diseases proposal on the reg agenda in 2009 to make all Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) infectious disease guidelines enforceable by OSHA. The agency’s explanation for removing the proposal: In accordance with Executive Order 14192 (Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation), the agency has concluded that rulemaking on infectious disease is no longer an agency priority and is withdrawing this rulemaking from the regulatory agenda."

OSHA's Blood Lead Level for Medical Removal standard proposal has also been removed from the agency’s plans. No reason was given. According to Barab’s Confined Space newsletter, new science indicates that workers suffer serious health effects such as hypertension, cognitive dysfunction and reproductive system harm at the current blood lead level.

Standards placed in a long-term twilight zone, officially categorized as long-term action items, include a proposed standard aimed at preventing workplace violence in health care and social work, an update of the process safety management standard, and a standard for silica medical removal protection.

Still alive are the much-discussed heat-related illness prevention standard (with future action to be determined); a standard on tree care protections; a standard to protect communication tower workers; an updated standard for industrial truck design; an update on lockout-tagout; a standard for emergency response requirements (with comments being analyzed); re-opened rulemaking on walking-working surfaces; welding in construction confined spaces; and more than a dozen proposals to make respirator requirements more flexible for specific toxic exposures. These are all categorized as being in the proposed rulemaking stage.

A standard addressing mechanical power presses is in the pre-proposal stage.

On average, it takes about seven years to finalize an OSHA rule. Perhaps the best chance for a final standard in the next three years of the Trump administration is the tree care standard, which the industry wants. The most publicized proposal, covering heat illness prevention both indoors and outdoors, is supported by professional associations and labor unions, and also pushed forward by media coverage of heat-related worker deaths. But longtime agency watchers believe the rule will be significantly weakened if it does move ahead or suffer a death by benign neglect.

Republican administrations traditionally are opposed to new regulations and seek regulatory relief. This is reflected in the OSHA Standards Improvement Project for 2025, listed on the latest  reg agenda, which centers on a number of de-regulatory actions and a included a regulatory freeze earlier this year.

According to Barab, the last standard issued by a Republican administration (that was not ordered by the court) occurred in 1993 – the bloodborne pathogens rule.