The Trump administration has removed specific goals to increase workplace inspections from a Department of Labor program aimed at protecting workers from extreme heat.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Friday released a revised version of its National Priorities Program on Heat. The program was launched by the Biden administration in 2022 with the goal of increasing on-site inspections in “high-risk” industries where workers are exposed to heat. The 2022 document sets a goal for each OSHA field office to increase on-site inspections by 100 percent above the baseline from 2017 to 2022.
The revised program released Friday removes that language and does not set out an alternative indicator.
Instead, the document states, “heat-related outreach and compliance support activities, field consultation visits, and planned enforcement efforts continue to be needed to reduce reported deaths, hospitalizations, complaints, and referrals to OSHA.”
OSHA did not immediately respond to questions about why it removed the inspection indicators from the program.
The document says on-site inspections will be prioritized if a worker becomes ill or dies from extreme heat, but it’s unclear whether OSHA will continue to aggressively inspect hot workplaces under the program as before.
Inspecting workplaces to ensure that employers are allowing employees access to water and breaks before someone gets sick was a key objective of the program, which began in 2022.
Heat is the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, and can be especially dangerous for workers. This is because workers have difficulty keeping their bodies cool due to exertion.
Health experts have long criticized authorities for not having specific regulations to protect workers from the heat. Instead, workers are broadly protected by OSHA’s so-called general duty clause, which requires employers to ensure that the workplace is safe from “recognized hazards.” OSHA recommended that employers comply with the General Duty Clause by providing water breaks and shade to workers, but enforcement proved difficult without specific standards, and OSHA primarily inspected workplaces and named employers only after workers became sick or died from the heat.
The National Priority Program has significantly increased the number of tests that exceed the number of deaths.
Before the program was introduced, OSHA conducted only 200 inspections a year, including about 15 inspections related to workplace fatalities, the agency said. In contrast, OSHA conducted approximately 7,000 heat-related inspections between April 2022 and December 2024 under its priority program. Of those, only 147 were related to on-the-job deaths. As a result of the inspection, 60 warnings were issued for breaches of the General Duty Clause and 1,392 hazard warning letters were sent to employers outlining measures to be taken to protect worker safety.
It’s unclear how many heat-related tests were conducted during the first year of the Trump administration.
Although OSHA does not release such data, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released information showing that total OSHA inspections from April 2025 to September 2025 were 19% lower than the same period in 2024.
The new focus program appears to prioritize OSHA consulting with employers and advising them on how to follow OSHA’s heat guidance.
Doug Parker, who led OSHA in the Biden administration, said it was important to prioritize inspections over consultations because it would allow OSHA officials to speak directly to workers and conduct their own investigations.
“There’s nothing wrong with compliance assistance, but there are things you should do if you discover violations during inspections,” he said.
This focus program served as a stopgap while OSHA drafted heat-specific regulations.
OSHA proposed a heat rule in July 2024 that would require employers to increase the frequency of providing water and cool rest areas to workers when the combined heat and humidity exceeds 80 degrees.
The Trump administration has not taken any action on the proposal since two weeks of public hearings last June. Industry representatives then asked OSHA to finalize a weaker version of the rule.
