The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is speaking out against a proposed Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Heat Standard. The standard, proposed in 2024 under the Biden Administration, would apply to indoor and outdoor work settings with limited exemptions and impose significant new compliance burdens on small businesses nationwide.

Concerns Over Regulatory Burdens

According to Dylan Rosnick, NFIB Director of Federal Government Relations, the proposed standard would disproportionately impact small businesses, adding more mandates and regulatory burdens that could force small business owners to hire additional staff, increase prices, or even close their doors. NFIB urges OSHA to reverse course and ditch the heat standard proposal altogether.

NFIB also strongly supports the Heat Workforce Standards Act, which aims to protect small businesses from the looming one-size-fits-all mandates and regulatory compliance burdens the proposed Heat Standard would implement. The organization led 50 trade associations in sending a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to pass the legislation and prevent increasing compliance burdens on millions of America’s job creators.

A recent NFIB Member Ballot found that 89% of NFIB members oppose the federal government regulating and restricting business operations when temperatures are above 80 degrees Fahrenheit at the worksite. NFIB has released an issue brief outlining why small businesses oppose the regulation.

Original reporting: NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business) — read the source article.