Manufacturers Join Senators to Push Back Against Unworkable Heat Regulation
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Jim Risch (R-ID) have introduced an NAM-supported measure to halt a proposed heat standard from 2024, which would put an unnecessary burden on manufacturers.
What’s going on: “The Heat Workforce Standards Act will help ensure overburdensome and costly regulations don’t hinder manufacturers’ ability to make things in America,” the NAM said Wednesday in a press release put out by Sen. Cassidy’s office to announce the legislation.
- The bill seeks “[t]o prohibit the Secretary of Labor from finalizing, implementing or enforcing a proposed standard with respect to heat injury and illness prevention,” according to its text.
- The new legislation arrives after nearly two years of strong advocacy by the NAM and allied groups resisting implementation of the previous administration’s proposal, Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings.
- That proposed rulemaking “would require employers in general industry and construction, manufacturing, maritime, housing and agricultural sectors to identify heat hazards, implement engineering and work practice heat control measures, implement a heat illness and emergency response plan, train personnel, retain extensive records, actively supervise employees and add new paid break mandates,” the NAM and some 50 other industry leaders told Sens. Cassidy and Risch on Wednesday.
Why it’s crucial: The 2024 proposal lacks the flexibility required by the manufacturing industry and would impose needless strain on U.S. business, the NAM and its allies have long said.
- “We recognize that excessive heat can adversely affect the health of an individual,” the NAM and allied groups continued. “That’s why business owners across the country are already taking steps to prevent these types of incidents. Yet, the proposed Heat Standard … imposes new unworkable one-size-fits-all mandates and paperwork requirements.”
Relief for manufacturers: As the NAM posted on X, the “new Heat Workforce Standards Act will relieve manufacturers of a one-size-fits-all regulation with burdensome compliance costs while allowing for flexibility to adequately protect their workforce from excessive heat exposure.”
- “Manufacturers appreciate Sens. Cassidy and Risch’s leadership and urge Congress to assert its authority and pass this legislation.”