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Republican Andy Biggs introduced a bill on Sunday that would abolish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a Department of Labor agency tasked with overseeing workplace safety.
The Arizona representative argued that OSHA's role should be taken over by "state governments and private employers."
Newsweek contacted Biggs and the Department of Labor for comment on Tuesday via email.
Why It Matters
Following his second inauguration on January 20 President
Donald Trump has taken a number of steps to combat what he regards as overregulation by the federal government. On January 31, he issued an executive order which requires that when an agency comes up with a new regulation it must "identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed."
Trump also authorized the creation of the
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under tech billionaire
Elon Musk, who previously suggested that federal government spending could be
cut by up to $2 trillion.
Representative Andy Biggs questions Attorney General Merrick Garland as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on September 20, 2023, in Washington. Win McNamee/GETTY
What To Know
Biggs' bill, titled the Nullify the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (NOSHA) Act, states: "The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 is repealed. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is abolished."
In an accompanying press release published on Sunday, Biggs said: "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.
"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.
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Donald Trump
"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. I will not let OSHA push Arizona around with their bureaucratic regulations and urge my colleagues to support my effort to eliminate this unconstitutional federal agency."
Biggs introduced a near identical bill into the House in November 2021, though it failed.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970 following a series of high-profile workplace disasters, including the deaths of 21 workers when a drilling barge capsized in 1964 in the Gulf of Mexico and the deaths of 78 workers in the 1968 Farmington Mine disaster in West Virginia.
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