As the Trump Administration moves aggressively to shrink the federal government and cut its spending, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may be next on the chopping block.
Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican, recently reintroduced legislation to abolish OSHA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. The bill, called the Nullify Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act, has been nicknamed “NOSHA.”
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What would it actually mean to abolish OSHA? Here’s what to know.
What does OSHA do?
OSHA’s objective is to keep Americans safe and healthy at work. “The OSHA law says that employers have the legal responsibility to provide safe workplaces for their employees,” says David Michaels, who was assistant secretary of labor for OSHA from 2009 to 2017 and is now a professor at the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “OSHA’s job is to ensure that employers do that.”
Since President Richard Nixon signed the law that established OSHA in 1970, it has gone on to set standards on a wide range of potential workplace health hazards, from limiting exposure to harmful substances like asbestos and benzene to avoiding falls and other on-the-job injuries. Almost 700,000 lives have been saved by such safety standards since OSHA was established, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, a group of 61 labor unions.
Why do some Republicans want to abolish OSHA?
This isn’t the first time OSHA has been caught in political crosshairs. Biggs first proposed abolishing the organization in 2021, after OSHA began enforcing COVID-19 vaccination measures under the Biden Administration. OSHA’s policy, which was quickly withdrawn after being blocked by the Supreme Court, required employers with at least 100 workers to either mandate COVID-19 vaccination, or require unvaccinated workers to mask on the job and undergo regular testing.
In 2021, Biggs’ bill had nine cosponsors, but it never advanced to a congressional vote. This time, Biggs does not have any cosponsors on his bill.
He is not alone among Republicans in criticizing OSHA, however. Last year, an Ohio contractor—with the support of 23 attorneys general from Republican states—asked the Supreme Court to hear a complaint arguing that OSHA’s far-reaching authority is unconstitutional, The Hill reported. Although the Supreme Court did not take up the case, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas called the question at its heart “undeniably important.”
By reintroducing the bill, Biggs is trying to further the Trump Administration’s goal of reducing the government’s size and scope; stop “federal meddling” in workplaces; and turn regulatory powers over to the states, he said in a YouTube video explaining his motivations.
“I have constitutional concerns about the federal regulation of private workplaces,” Biggs said in the video. “I think most Americans who read the Constitution also have those similar questions.”
The Arizona Congressman specifically mentioned concerns about OSHA’s “one-size-fits-all” standards around outdoor work in hot weather, which he said unfairly penalize states with warm climates, like his. “It makes no sense to set a uniform national standard for heat,” Biggs said.
What would happen if OSHA is abolished?
“There would be a race to the bottom,” Michaels says. Without a legal requirement to do so, companies might decide not to expend the time, effort, and money necessary to keep staff safe—especially if their competitors aren’t doing so. “What would be the impetus to protect workers from [dangerous] exposures?” Michaels asks.
State regulations could fill some of the void. Twenty-two states or territories currently operate federally approved OSHA State Plans. But, Michaels says, it would be a mistake to rely on state-level regulation alone. Current law does not require states to regulate workplace safety; it says only that if states choose to do so, they must set policies that are at least as effective as those spelled out by federal OSHA.
Even still, that doesn’t always happen. Arizona, for example, has an OSHA State Plan—but Michaels notes that its policy has previously conflicted with that set by federal OSHA, including around fall protections for residential construction workers. The safest way to protect workers, Michaels says, is to maintain national workplace protections across the country.