In his second go-round at running the executive branch of the United States, President Donald Trump has made it clear that whatever policies the Biden administration adopted, he plans to go in the opposite direction. While much of the headlines so far this year have focused on Trump’s global aspirations – tariffs, annexing Greenland and Canada, converting Gaza into a luxury resort, renaming the Gulf of Mexico – his influence on reshaping the narrative for occupational health and safety could be as profound as it is chaotic.
The truth is, at this writing in February, nobody really knows which executive orders will survive judicial review and which clearing-the-decks initiatives by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will be challenged or reversed. What’s clear, though, is that as the Trump 2.0 administration moves forward, the next four years are shaping up to look quite different from the previous four.
In one of his first executive orders, President Trump restricted the ability of OSHA (and the EPA and all other federal agencies) to propose or issue any new regulation until that rule was approved by an agency department head appointed or named by the President. There’s also the “Ten-for-One provision” which requires that for every new regulation enacted, 10 existing rules must be repealed. He’s also ordered all federal offices to eliminate their DEI programs; ordered the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants; withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement; laid off USDA and FAA inspectors (though some had to then be rehired if they had been working on bird flu, airline safety or other vital programs); and the list goes on.
If EHS professionals are like the rest of the voting population, chances are quite good that many of you voted for Trump in the last election, and you might very well be applauding the speed at which things are getting done in Washington. EHS Today’s readers are very much a part of the EHS profession, and you’ve made it clear over the years that our coverage of regulatory compliance is something you value, so we’ll continue to do so. Our role, as we've always seen it, is not to debate the merits of every decision that the government makes, but rather to report on emerging situations that could have an impact on workplace safety.
From all appearances, one of the driving inspirations behind Trump’s deregulation efforts is reminiscent of the philosophy that economist Milton Friedman suggested decades ago: “The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” If you look at what the Trump administration is doing from that perspective, everything else kind of makes sense. It’s expensive, after all, for companies to purchase new equipment and design new processes to reduces their carbon emissions. It’s expensive to train workers on how to properly run a forklift. It's expensive to upgrade the PPE your employees wear on a job site or in a factory so that it fits properly and is appropriate to the specific task. It’s expensive to invest in ergonomics solutions. It’s expensive to protect workers from falling from heights.
But then again, as all safety professionals know very well, it’s even more expensive – in the long and the short run – to NOT invest in safety. When it comes to workers’ compensation claims, medical expenses, legal expenses, lost time, lost customers, reputational damage, difficulty in attracting and retaining new workers, the costs of a serious injury or fatality can be astronomical. And how do you put a value on a human life? There’s no balance sheet that can adequately quantify such a loss.
Now it’s quite possible that this focus on corporate efficiency could work out just fine, and in a vindication of the belief that “a rising tide lifts all boats,” all of these executive orders could result in higher wages, lower inflation, a significant improvement in physical and mental health, a drastic reduction in workplace violence, the achievement of zero injuries in the workplace, and an overall higher quality of life for all.
But until we see an executive order or passage of a bill that makes it harder for companies to pollute the environment, harder to avoid reporting serious injuries and fatalities, and harder to underpay or fail to promote employees because of their gender, age, ethnicity, or skin color, then it’s difficult right now to envision or understand how exactly we’re going to be making America safe again.
