Now that President Obama has made his nomination for the top post at the EPA official, anticipation is mounting over whether or not she’ll face Congressional opposition – or more accurately, how much Congressional opposition she’ll face – during the confirmation process.

During the holiday break, on December 27, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced her departure from the Obama administration cabinet after the President’s State of the Union address in late January. Jackson issued this statement:

At least one advocacy group is hoping that, with the presidential election out of the way, the Obama administration will move to strengthen health, safety, and environmental protections that got stalled during the administration’s first term.

Shortly after taking office, the head of the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) acknowledged the troubling slow pace at which new worker safety regulations are put in place. 

The American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) President Richard A. Pollock, CSP, released the following statement on the results of the 2012 election:

Two summers ago, Wyatt Whitebread drowned in corn at the age of 14. It happened on a hot July morning, while he was working at a grain handling operation in Mount Carroll, Ill. Soon after Whitebread climbed inside a storage bin to help empty it, equipment whirring nearby created a downward force, essentially turning the corn beneath the boy’s feet into quicksand.

A Statement by the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO: The Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Mine Safety and Health Act promise workers the right to a safe job.