Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump has nominated FedEx Ground safety head Scott Mugno to lead the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), according to Commercial Appeal.
- Mugno has been with FedEx since 1994 and is currently vice president of safety, sustainability and vehicle maintenance of the delivery company's ground service. At FedEx Ground, Mugno leads four departments and a team of 200 in overseeing approximately 95,000 drivers' safety.
- OSHA has not had a permanent chief since Trump took office in January. Mugno, according to EHS Today, has expressed interest in phasing out, or "sunsetting," certain OSHA standards.
Dive Insight:
Trump has promised fewer regulations and a more business-friendly environment since his 2016 campaign. And Mugno, with his desire to "free OSHA" from what he has called "its own statutory and regulatory handcuffs" is likely to approach his new position with the president's interests in mind.
Despite new leadership, OSHA still has a lengthy review process for rule changes, a juggernaut of committees, and hearings and approvals that can go as long as a decade or more.
The crane operator rule that the agency has proposed postponing until November 2018 began the rulemaking process in 2008. While the crane industry generally favors some form of operator certification, industry players have requested more employer input on operator qualifications and the elimination of the lifting capacity certification.
After numerous delays, the agency's contentious silica rule is now being fully enforced. OSHA pushed back enforcement of the rule to Sept. 23, giving employers guidance and another 30-day period to comply as long as they made a good faith effort to adjust to the new requirements. Some contractors, led by industry organizations like the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), have said the new rules are too burdensome and expensive, but their attempts to block the rule, so far, have been unsuccessful.
Early on in his term, Trump signed an executive order mandating a review of certain rules in an effort to reduce the number of federal regulations. That led OSHA to delay implementation and then recommend revisions to its beryllium exposure standard for the construction and shipyard industries. The proposed changes would keep exposure limits to beryllium dust at 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air, but could put some employer requirements, like medical surveillance and the provision of personal protective equipment, up in the air.