Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 10/25/21

The White House budget office last week wrapped up its review of a Labor Department proposal that would establish the first-ever national rules to protect workers from heat stress on the job. The “prerule” from DOL’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is set to be released any day now that the White House review is complete.

Reminder for regulatory nerds: A prerule goes through an additional layer of public input. Amit Narang, a regulatory expert at the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, explained on Twitter that the prerule will be “published for comment and then moves to the proposal stage.” A prerule is “just like a proposed rule but it’s the 'scenic’ route when it comes to rulemaking,” Narang tweeted.

Why it matters: There’s no uniform set of rules to protect workers from heat hazards, despite decades of pushing from activists, workers’ rights groups and public health officials, a POLITICO and E&E News investigation found. The government also likely undercounts the number of workplace deaths and injuries that result from heat stress each year.

Only three states have heat safety standards (California, Minnesota and Washington), even as global warming makes extreme heat a more widespread danger to workers. Oregon enacted temporary emergency heat rules this summer amid a deadly heatwave, as your host reported. Washington tightened its rules this year, too, but the changes are also temporary.