The new Administration has issued numerous executive orders addressing COVID-19, racial and gender equality, climate issues, the economy, immigration, and other issues.
The following are a few key orders of particular interest to manufacturers and other employers:
Protecting Worker Health and Safety (click here). This order instructs OSHA to update employer guidance on how to protect workers from the spread of Covid-19, and to consider issuing an emergency temporary standard (ETS) by March 15 if the agency finds such a move is warranted. It also directs OSHA to review and make necessary changes to enforcement efforts and coordinate with states to ensure that all workers are covered by any new OSHA standards or rules.
Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers (click here). This order directs agencies to review and strengthen requirements about purchasing products and services from US businesses and to “close loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while still qualifying for domestic preferences.”
Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain (click here). This order directs agencies to review the availability of “pandemic response supplies” and identify shortfalls, with the goal of developing an informed strategy for prioritization, acquisition, and distribution, potentially to include invocation of the Defense Production Act (DPA).
Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation (click here). This order reverses previous executive actions that governed how federal agencies make regulatory changes, including the so-called “two for one” measure requiring agencies to rescind two regulations for every new one proposed.
Modernizing Regulatory Review (click here). This order instructs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) “to modernize and improve the regulatory review process” which “should be informed by public engagement with relevant stakeholders.”
Additional information about these and other executive orders impacting employers will be provided as warranted, but if you have any questions contact us at info@aivt.org.