House Republicans Attempt to Kill OSHA Heat Standard

As we once again melt into the hottest summer ever recorded (but probably the coolest summer we will ever experience for the rest of our lives), it’s high time to take action to protect the workers who are risking their health and their lives to put food on the table and make this country livable.

And “action” — to ensure working people have no protection from heat —  is just what Republican members of the House Education and Workforce Committee, nestled in their nice air-conditioned hearing room, are going to take on tomorrow morning.

At 10:15am EST, tomorrow, the House Education and Workforce Committee will boldly tackle the workplace heat issue by marking up — and likely passing, with only Republican votes — H.R. 6213, a bill to stop OSHA from issuing a workplace heat standard. Or at least a standard that that protects workers. (A markup is where the committee of jurisdiction amends and votes on a bill before bringing it to the floor of the House for a final vote.) You can watch it here.

H.R. 6213 is short:

SECTION 1. Short title.

SEC. 2. Prohibition against finalizing, implementing, or enforcing a proposed standard with respect to heat injury and illness prevention.

“Substantially similar” is not defined in the bill so it’s not clear what a future worker-friendly administration would be able to issue if this bill passed.)

The bill has 59 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, all Republicans. Over half are from the South (where it gets really hot).  The bill was introduced on November 20, 2025 when the high temperature in Washington DC was a cool 48°F.

The “Heat Workforce Standards Act of 2025” was introduced on November 20, 2025 by Indiana Rep Mark Messmer. It is intended to “repeal the sweeping and unworkable Biden Administration heat standards that had threatened to impel unnecessary mandates and excessive federal penalties upon American businesses and institutions.” (How you can repeal an OSHA standard that hasn’t been issued yet is a question for another day. Also, “impel” unnecessary mandates? Did his P.R. staff miss that day in high school when they taught grammar and vocabulary? But I digress..)

The main purpose of the bill is, as always, to save this nation’s poor small businesses who are suffering under the yoke of of over-regulation. According to Messmer, “As a small business owner myself, I’ve seen how unwarranted, heavy-handed regulations can crush innovation, increase costs, and undermine the productivity of American institutions.”

Republicans have been claiming that OSHA standards will kill small businesses for the past 55 years. It’s amazing that any small businesses still exist in this country, what with OSHA taking every opportunity to crush innovation, increase costs and undermine productivity.

(Ironically, Messmer is co-owner of the family air conditioning business, so he knows heat and what to do about it.)

Same Old, Same Old

Republicans have been claiming that OSHA standards will kill small businesses for the past 55 years. It’s amazing that any small businesses still exist in this country, what with OSHA taking every opportunity to crush innovation, increase costs and undermine productivity.

And maybe you naively believed that the Biden administration was sincerely interested in protecting workers from excessive heat. But you would be wrong.

Actually, according to Messmer,  “the Biden Heat Rule was never about safety, but was rather, unsurprisingly, focused upon expanding federal bureaucratic control over hard working Americans.” Color me surprised.

But never fear, Messmer assures us, “My Heat Workforce Standards Act empowers employers to maintain safe and realistic workplace standard parameters which allow for both their workers and the business to thrive.”

(Actually, we need to empower workers. Employers are already empowered to maintain safe workplaces. Unfortunately, too many are using that power to endanger workers, not protect them.)

Messmer, and Education and Workforce Committee Chair Tim Walberg, from the cool state of Michigan, and others continuously trot out the same old tired “one-size-fits-all” trope. (In fact, the phrase one-size-fits-all is repeated no less than five times in the Press Release.)

According to Messmer, “In practice, the rule would have forced nearly every American business and institution to follow rigid, one-size-fits-all, federal workplace standards based on predetermined temperature thresholds, regardless of industry, climate, or existing safety protocols.”

Walberg adds on:

Americans deserve safe workplaces—yet the Biden-Harris administration’s heavy-handed approach to heat safety will hurt workers instead of helping them. Needless to say, California, Florida, and Michigan are miles apart when it comes to heat, and heat hazards in construction are very different from the hazards in manufacturing or agriculture. That is why any standard intended to prevent and reduce heat-related injuries must be flexible and keep workers safe in ways that best address their unique environments and challenges.

As I’ve explained before, Republicans and the business community have been using the same sad old accusation against every OSHA standard since the agency was created in 1971.  But, as I’ve also explained before, it’s just wrong — especially for heat.

The “one-size-fits-all” argument infused OSHA’s hearing  on the Biden heat standard last year. Industry reps argued that workers in the hot south are some already acclimated to heat and their employers know how to handle it, so they don’t need no stinkin’ government mandates.

Most heat-related illnesses and death occur in the hottest states.  And no, immigrant workers from hot countries are not some kind of heat-resistant supermen (or women). In fact, Hispanic workers have the highest level of exposure to workplace heat hazards and death.

Yet most heat-related illnesses and death occur in the hottest states.  And no, immigrant workers from hot countries are not some kind of heat-resistant supermen (or women). In fact, Hispanic workers have the highest level of exposure to workplace heat hazards and death. Twenty-three of 55 reported heat-related deaths in the United States in 2023 were Hispanic or Latino workers.  Compared to U.S. citizens, immigrants have more than three times the risk of dying from heat-related illness – with the majority of deaths occurring in just three states, according to a recent study.

It may be true that “California, Florida, and Michigan have different climates,” but As far as the human body is concerned, ninety degrees in Miami, Florida is exactly the same as 90 degrees in Detroit, Michigan. Earlier this month, temperatures in Detroit reached a high of 97 and the heat index (what it feels like) hit 105 degrees.

Messmer doesn’t understand how OSHA works, nor how the standard would work. He claims for example that “State governments already have the authority to establish their own occupational safety and health standards and are required to have their plans be “at least as effective” as Federal OSHA standards.”

Actually, only states with OSHA state plans have programs that are required to be “at least as effective” as Federal OSHA standards. And it’s not hard to be “at least as effective” as an absent federal standard. And any state, even non-federal states, can pass laws to protect workers from heat (at least until there’s a federal standard that would pre-empt standards in non–state plan states. But those states without OSHA programs have little staff or infrastructure to enforce workplace standards.

Republicans forget that OSHA standards benefit not just workers, but also businesses who want to do the right thing and invest in protecting their employees.  OSHA standards prevent high-road employers from having to compete with low-road employers who cut costs by cutting corners on health and safety. Everyone must operate on the same playing field.

Messmer also claims that

If it had been implemented, the Biden’s Heat Rule would:

• • Place redundant and egregious regulation requirements with little variance considered for industry-specific outdoor and indoor heat variables and differences in outdoor climates between all 50 states. (Actually, the standard is a flexible programmatic standard. If it doesn’t get hot, there’s not much you need to do. Construction employers and agricutural employers would be required to develop programs suited to their specific work. Not sure what he means about “redundant” or “egregious.” And as discussed above, “differences in outdoor climates” are an irrelevant red herring. Heat is heat. Humans are humans.)
  • Fail to recognize employers who already have heat injury prevention measures in place. (Actually, as long as the employer’s program satisfies the basic elements of the standard — accessible and adequate water, shade, rest, acclimatization, training and emergency response — they’re pretty much already there. If their programs don’t have these elements, they aren’t adequately protecting workers.)
  • Mandate federal intervention and costly fines should small businesses not match the federal criteria. (OSHA’s maximum penalty for a serious violation is only $16,550, but they average only $4,678 for federal OSHA and only $2,720 for state plans. Plus, OSHA is  already required to consider significant penalty reductions for small businesses. Also, if small business owners are not knowledgeable enough to develop a program and cannot afford consultants, each state has an OSHA Onsite Consultation Program that provides free assistance to small businesses,)
  • Remove state governments’ ability to create targeted Heat Rules that are specific to their climate and local industries. (As Messmer notes above, states are required to have standards that are “at least as effective as OSHA’s,” but they can also be more effective if they believe that workers need additional protection. They just can’t have standards that are less effective than federal OSHA’s. This requirement is important so we don’t have a “race to the bottom” where every state tries to attract business by issuing weaker worker protection requirements than competing states.)

Republicans may be acting less out of the goodness of their hearts than the hunger of their wallets.  There are lots of contributors organizations supporting the bill and ready to fund legislators who do their bidding. As Messmer boasts, supporters include:

Alliance for Chemical Distribution, American Bakers Association, American Building Materials Alliance, American Craft Spirits Association, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, American Supply Association, Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, Global Cold Chain Alliance, Heating, Air-conditioning, & Refrigeration Distributors International, Independent Electrical Contractors, Inc., Job Creators Network, Mason Contractors Association of America, National Apartment Association, National Association of Electrical Distributors, National Federation of Independent Business, National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association, National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, National Restaurant Association, National RV Dealers Association, National Small Business Association, NATSO, Representing America’s Travel Centers and Truck Stops, North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers, Pool & Hot Tub Alliance, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Steel Manufacturers Association, and Steel Tank Institute/Steel Plate Fabricators Association.

A Better Alternative

If Republicans are really interested in passing legislation that would protect workers from excessive heat, there’s already a bill that would do that: H.R.4443 – the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act of 2025. It would require OSHA to issue an effective heat standard — with the same element of the Biden proposal — within one year. The bill has 144 co-sponsors, over twice as many as the Republican bill, yet the Education and Workforce Committee has ignored it.  (A similar bill, S.2298, has been introduced in the Senate.) The bill is named in honor of Asunción Valdivia, a California farmworker who died in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours straight in 105-degree temperatures. Mr. Valdivia passed out, but  his employer told Mr. Valdivia’s son to drive his father home, instead of calling an ambulance. Asunción died of heat stroke on the way home — at the age of 53.

What is to be Done?

Higher heat is not going away; in fact, it’s getting worse. Unions and public health advocates have been advocating, with some success, for more states and localities to issue heat standards and ordinances. Virginia and New Mexico are working on state OSHA standards, and Boston and New York recently issued rules to protect their cities’ workers.  Activists need to keep lobbying their state and local legislators for more protections and to empower workers to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, you can watch tomorrow’s markup live here at 10:15.  Call your legislators, especially if they’re on the Committee. Public Citizen is also seeking organizational sign-ons to a letter opposing H.R. 6213 and urging members of Congress to reject any efforts to undermine OSHA’s authority to protect workers from dangerous heat exposure. If your organization is able to join this effort, please sign on to the letter by 12pm EST today. If you have any questions regarding the bill or the letter, contact Aishah Johnson at AJohnson@citizen.org. You can sign on here.

The Future

What can we expect? (Aside from temperatures to keep rising and workers to keep dying?)  The Committee will likely pass the bill on a straight party-line vote and move it to the House floor. It seems unlikely that it will get a vote on the floor (at least any time soon), given the approaching August break, the upcoming midterm elections and all of the more important legislation that must be considered — like next year’s budget, all the voter fraud garbage and funding for Trump’s forever war in Iran. But even if the bill gets a vote by the full House before the end of the year, and Republicans succeed in passing it, it will be Dead-on-Arrival in the Senate where 60 votes would be needed for final passage and a trip to Donald Trump’s desk.

But most Republicans probably don’t live under the illusion that this bill will make it to the President’s desk.  It’s more a message bill to the Department of Labor — Hands off Heat.

Workers are on their own.