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It’s that time of year again…when OSHA tells us what is on the horizon for rulemaking activity. Earlier this week the fall semiannual regulatory agenda for federal agencies was published. This Regulatory Agenda provides a complete list of all regulatory actions that are under active consideration for promulgation, proposal, or review and covers regulatory actions for over 60 federal departments, agencies, and commissions.
The Regulatory Agenda for the Department of Labor includes a total of twenty-one regulatory entries for OSHA specific actions. In this year’s regulatory agenda there are nine regulatory actions in the pre-rule stage, which is consistent with the spring regulatory agenda. These pre-rule stage regulatory actions include Communication Tower Safety, Emergency Response and Preparedness, Mechanical Power Press Update and Prevention of Workplace Violence in Health Care and Social Assistance. Five regulatory actions are in the proposed rule stage including Amendments to the Cranes and Derricks in Construction Standard, Exposure to Beryllium NPRM to Review General Industry Provisions and the addition of Puerto Rico as a State Plan and seven regulatory actions are in the final rule stage, which is up from only four in the spring regulatory agenda. So despite a promise on regulatory rollback, OSHA is moving ahead with finalizing seven regulatory actions. These include: Occupational Exposure to Beryllium and Beryllium Compounds in Construction and Shipyard Sectors, Crane Operator Qualification in Construction, Rules of Agency Practice and Procedure Concerning OSHA Access to Employee Medical Records and Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses. Two of the agency’s final regulatory actions are non-substantive changes to rules, such as Standards Improvement Project IV, which is intended to remove or revise duplicative, unnecessary, and inconsistent safety and health standards and Technical Corrections to 35 OSHA Standards and Regulations, which corrects typographical errors and inaccurate graphics in OSHA standards.
Some of OSHA’s regulatory actions under consideration:
|
RULE |
ANTICIPATED AGENCY ACTION |
|
Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica; Revisions to Table 1 in the Standard for Construction |
Request for Information in December 2018 |
|
Updates to Hazard Communication Standard |
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in March 2019 |
|
Lock-out/Tag-out Update |
Request for Information in October 2018 |
|
Crane Operator Qualification in Construction |
Final Rule November 2018 |
|
Occupational Exposure to Beryllium and Beryllium Compounds in Construction and Shipyard Sectors |
Final Rule June 2019 |
|
Rules of Agency Practice and Procedure Concerning OSHA Access to Employee Medical Records |
Final Rule June 2019 |
|
Tree Care Standard |
SBREFA Small Business Review in June 2019 |
The full federal Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan can be found online at:
