ORLANDO, Fla. —
Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling told the Washington Reporter in an exclusive interview that the Labor Department is examining a proposed federal workplace heat rule that was introduced under the Biden administration.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule that was announced during the Biden administration in July 2024 would establish nationwide standards requiring employers to mitigate heat-related risks across indoor and outdoor workplaces.
Critics of the rule told the Reporter that it was part of the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government” approach to climate change.
Sonderling told the Reporter in an interview that “there’s a lot of issues” with imposing a nationwide heat rule standard. He added that “the lens we’re looking for is how do we balance the need to protect workers versus also not putting companies out of business [because] they can’t actually operate due to weather conditions.”
“The most important mission is to make sure that every worker goes to work and comes home safe every single night,” Sonderling said. “In everything we do in the OSHA health and safety space, we’re ensuring that workers have safe, healthy work conditions.”
Sonderling emphasized that worker safety remains a priority, but acknowledged ongoing concerns about the scope and feasibility of the Biden-era rule. “Stay tuned,” he said about a possible repeal, which has been pushed by many Republican lawmakers.
Should Sonderling repeal the rule outright, he’d likely find major support from Republican lawmakers. Earlier this year, Sens. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.), Ted Budd (R., N.C.), Bill Cassidy (R., La.), John Cornyn (R., Texas), Mike Crapo (R., Idaho), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), Joni Ernst (R., Iowa), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R., Miss.), Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), James Lankford (R., Okla.), Jim Risch (R., Idaho), Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), Tim Sheehy (R., Mont.), Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), and Katie Britt (R., Ala.) wrote a letter to Sonderling’s predecessor, then-Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, calling on the Trump administration to protect American workers from the Biden administration’s proposed heat rule.
The senators wrote that “protecting workers from a common and easily understandable workplace hazard does not require a prescriptive rule that will cause confusion and, in several circumstances, may even undermine worker safety.”
On the other hand, proponents of the Biden-era OSHA heat rule include the left-wing group Public Citizen. In 2024, David Arkush, the director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program co-wrote the Harvard Environmental Law Review article “CLIMATE HOMICIDE: PROSECUTING BIG OIL FOR CLIMATE DEATHS.” Arkush wrote that American energy companies could be “prosecuted for every type of homicide short of first degree murder.”
Public Citizen is funded by various groups including the Open Society Foundations, Rockefeller Fund, New Venture Fund, Tides Foundation, and the Omidyar Network.
