{"id":9613,"date":"2025-04-21T02:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T06:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oshadefensereport.com\/?p=9613"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:33:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:33:41","slug":"fed-osha-heat-illness-rulemaking-next-steps-for-employers-heat-illness-prevention-rulemaking-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/osha-defense-report\/fed-osha-heat-illness-rulemaking-next-steps-for-employers-heat-illness-prevention-rulemaking-coalition\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed OSHA Heat Illness Rulemaking – Next Steps for Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric J. Conn<\/a> and Beeta B. Lashkari<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

We are providing an update on federal OSHA\u2019s Heat Illness Prevention rulemaking<\/a> and hopefully starting a meaningful dialogue with the employer community about potential next steps for this controversial rulemaking.\u00a0 Conn Maciel Carey\u2019s national OSHA Practice organized the Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition<\/strong> in 2021, and has worked closely with industry leaders for the last five years to advocate to OSHA for a reasonable, flexible, performance-oriented Heat Standard through OSHA’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, \"Heat<\/a>Small Business review process, and the notice-and-comment period for federal OSHA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (\u201cNPRM\u201d) stage last year, with a comprehensive set of written comments<\/a>.\u00a0 We are engaging with Industry now to float our thoughts on potential paths forward, to see if employers and trade groups may be interested in joining the Employers Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking Coalition now, with a new, unique opportunity to influence OSHA\u2019s heat rulemaking.<\/p>\n

Status of OSHA\u2019s Heat Illness Prevention Rulemaking<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

On December 2, 2024, former President Biden\u2019s OSHA announced<\/a> a public heat illness rulemaking hearing that will begin on June 16, 2025.\u00a0 Last week, President Trump\u2019s OSHA issued a press release<\/a> stating that the Heat Injury and Illness public rulemaking hearing will proceed as scheduled.\u00a0 Going through with the hearing will bring the proposed rule one step closer to final \u2013 essentially to the one-yard line.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the decision last year to schedule the hearing in June reflected, to us, an effort by the Biden Administration to maintain momentum for this rulemaking.\u00a0 This maneuver placed the new Administration in a position where it had to take an affirmative action to stop the hearing, which could have drawn public criticism.\u00a0 At the very least, it limited the ability of Pres. Trump\u2019s OSHA to quietly sideline the heat illness rulemaking \u2013 if that was going to be its intention.\u00a0 Hearing or no, we find it nearly impossible that OSHA will promulgate the rule as proposed, at least not in the next four years. \u00a0It is still quite likely that OSHA will still move the heat rulemaking to \u201cLong Term Action\u201d (i.e., the backburner) after the hearing.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, states with their own State OSHA agencies are producing heat illness standards left and right.\u00a0 For example, in addition to existing standards in California (outdoor), Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota, several more states, including California (indoor heat<\/a>), Maryland<\/a>, and Nevada<\/a> have adopted heat standards, and a rule in New Mexico<\/a> has also been proposed.\u00a0 Without a federal OSHA heat standard to provide a framework or baseline, these State OSH Plan standards are wildly different and in several incompatible.\u00a0 What\u2019s worse, some states that are covered by federal OSHA jurisdiction are also developing heat illness requirements through their state legislation, which laws would be preempted if there was a federal OSHA standard on the books.\u00a0 Indeed, the state of Illinois<\/a>, a federal OSHA state for private employers, is doing just that with a proposed extreme heat and cold workplace safety law.<\/p>\n

Potential Path Forward<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

That brings us to today. While we could sit back and see how this all unfolds, without any real risk that the rule as currently proposed by fed OSHA will get promulgated in the near term, we could instead take a more proactive approach and advocate now for promulgation of a rule that looks more like the one for which we advocated in our public comments in January<\/a> of this year<\/strong>. That is, one that is considerably more performance-based, simpler, more flexible, etc., while still protective of workers. To that end, we have been analyzing the pros and cons of pushing OSHA under a Trump Administration to take up the rulemaking and produce a heat standard we could all live with vs. letting the current, flawed proposed rule to sit idle for the next four years.<\/p>\n

Pros<\/u><\/strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n