On Feb. 13, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs announced a new policy directive to establish a voluntary compliance program for high-performing federal contractors. The Voluntary Enterprise-wide Review Program provides contractors with an alternative to OFCCP's establishment-based compliance evaluations and instead focuses on recognizing contractors that demonstrate comprehensive corporate-wide compliance and model diversity and inclusion programs.
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On Feb. 7, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a temporary enforcement policy for the crane operator evaluation requirements in the 2018 Cranes and Derricks in Construction: Operator Qualification final rule. The evaluation and documentation requirements became effective on Feb. 7, 2019.
On Jan. 31, President Trump signed an executive order, “Strengthening Buy-American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects,” which expands the administration’s preferences for American products in federal procurements and federal financial assistance awards on critical infrastructure projects.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of the Army announced plans to host a public hearing on the new “Waters of the United States" proposed rule in Kansas City, Kansas, Feb. 27-28. The hearing was previously scheduled for Jan. 23 but was postponed due to the lapse in appropriations at the EPA.
On Jan. 25, OSHA issued the Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule, which eliminates the requirement for establishments with 250 or more employees to electronically submit information from OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) to OSHA annually.