The U.S. Department of Labor has begun working on federal extreme heat exposure labor rules that are inspired by the emergency heat rules adopted in Washington State earlier this summer.

On September 20, President Biden announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) would begin working on new national labor rules for protecting outdoor workers from extreme heat. The rules are in response to record-breaking heat across the country this summer and reports that increasing frequency of extreme heat have led to more outdoor worker deaths over the last decade. The push for federal heat rules was partially inspired by the Washington Department of Labor & Industries’ (L&I) emergency heat exposure rules that we wrote about earlier this summer. The federal heat rule rulemaking will take place through the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) in the DOL.

The President said that the rules were necessary given that extreme heat events are becoming more common due to climate change. Federal agencies have confirmed that extreme heat is now the leading weather-related cause of death in the America. Most states have no extreme heat-related labor rules on the books. 21 states, including Washington, directly oversee worker safety at the state level. However, the remaining 29 states rely on the federal OSHA to oversee workplace safety, meaning federal rules are needed to reach much of the country.

OSHA announced that it will begin drafting the new federal heat exposure rules in October, starting the rulemaking process and taking public comments. In addition to the rules, OSHA is initiating a “National Emphasis Program” with increased enforcement efforts directed at heat related workplace safety inspections, additional training for employers on heat related illnesses and prevention, and greater prioritization of heat related workplace complaints.

In Washington, L&I has started the rulemaking process for making extreme heat rules permanent. The current set of extreme heat exposure rules were only emergency rules and they expire on September 30. Stay tuned for the stakeholder meeting dates, which have yet to be released.