As part of an agency reorganization, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired the research team at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health tasked with studying the deadly effects of high temperatures and how to safeguard against them. The heat team was fired just days before the Small Business Administration (SBA) is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) proposed rule on “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” that SWACCA submitted comments on with the Construction Industry Safety Coalition back in Janaury 2025. Advocates of the heat rule are concerned that without the NIOSH heat team’s testimony at the hearing, the Trump Administration will be more likely to kill OSHA’s proposed rule.
