Republican Congressman Introduces Bill Seeking Abolishment of OSHA
Arizona Congressman Rep. Andy Biggs has reintroduced a bill that seeks to abolish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Biggs views OSHA as part of “the bloated federal government” and believes safety and health issues are better handled by states and private employers.
OSHA is a federal agency part of the Department of Labor that was established by the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, which was signed into law by President Nixon on December 29, 1970. The role of OSHA is to ensure America’s workers have safe and healthful working conditions, free from unlawful retaliation. OSHA sets and enforces workplace safety standards, provides training, and enforces anti-retaliation provisions of the OSH Act. OSHA also works with state programs to improve workplace safety. OSHA recently published data that revealed there were 5,283 workplace fatalities and 1,538,299 injuries and illnesses in 2023.
Biggs was elected to Congress for the Fifth District of Arizona in 2016 and currently serves on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, where he is the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. Biggs first introduced the Nullify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NOSHA) Act in November 2021, seeking the abolishment of OSHA “For usurping states’ authorities and forcing Biden’s vaccine mandate on the private sector.”
“OSHA’s existence is yet another example of the federal government creating agencies to address issues that are more appropriately handled by state governments and private employers,” said Rep. Biggs when first introducing the NOSHA Act. “Arizona, and every other state, has the constitutional right to establish and implement their own health and safety measures, and is more than capable of doing so. It’s time that we fight back against the bloated federal government and eliminate agencies that never should have been established in the first place.”
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President Trump promised in his election campaign to curtail the power of federal agencies and has appointed Elon Musk to head the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” which is currently accessing the facilities and systems of government agencies in an effort to reduce the size of the Federal workforce. Musk has described those efforts as “[a] wholesale spring cleaning of regulation.” The reintroduction of the NOSHA Act coincides with the DOGE activities that commenced within days of President Trump’s inauguration.
President Trump and Elon Musk have agreed to effectively shut down the $40 billion U.S. foreign aid agency USAID, with President Trump claiming the agency is “run by a bunch of radical lunatics” and Musk stating that the agency is “beyond repair.” Musk also said DOGE is shutting down payments by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the faith-based charity Lutheran Family Services which provides social services to refugees. The DOGE staff has been granted access to systems used by the U.S. Treasury, and aides have been installed in the Office of Personnel Management, with some career civil servants locked out of critical data systems. Trump’s Presidential Memorandum ‘Regulatory Freeze Pending Review’ has impacted OSHA, resulting in a pause to its Rulemaking on Heat Illness and Emergency Response and its Emergency Response Standard. OSHA will be scrutinized in the coming days and weeks and significant cuts are expected; however, there are no indications that President Trump plans to eradicate OSHA and make the enforcement of health and safety regulations a state matter.
Rep. Biggs believes that OSHA should be eradicated. “The federal government has expanded far beyond what our founders intended. President Trump, Elon Musk, and congressional Republicans must be dedicated to shrinking the size of the government and ensuring that taxpayer dollars are utilized as efficiently as possible,” said, Rep. Biggs in a statement about the reintroduction of the NOSHA Act. “America voted for major government reform, and Congress must be ready to deliver President Trump’s agenda.”
