The federal government’s shutdown has now stretched beyond three weeks, leaving uncertainty about when agencies will return to full operation — and what that will mean for workplace safety oversight.
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For the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the pause in activity isn’t just a temporary inconvenience; it’s a serious disruption to the agency’s already tight schedule for inspections, enforcement, and rulemaking. Experts warn that the time lost may have long-term implications for both the agency’s operations and its regulatory goals.
“I think of it in terms of like when I was a kid in school,” said Jim Frederick, principal for Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm NexusHSE and former deputy assistant secretary of OSHA under President Joe Biden. “If it’s a snow day, you miss that whole day.”
Frederick added that the agency can’t easily recover from the lost time: “They’re missing whole days right now. This is just weeks out of the calendar that will no longer be there.”
While the shutdown has left most federal offices dark, a fraction of OSHA’s staff — roughly 20%, according to Frederick — remains on duty for the most critical safety-related functions, such as responding to imminent hazards or fatal workplace incidents. Still, even that limited presence can’t prevent disruptions.
Key enforcement timelines continue to tick, which could complicate how employers handle citations or inspections. OSHA is legally required to issue citations within six months of an inspection, a mandate that the shutdown could jeopardize if the deadline expires during the closure.
“OSHA is required by mandate to issue any citations within six months of inspection. If that deadline falls within the shutdown period and OSHA doesn’t take action, the inspection is moot,” said Phillip Russell, an OSHA and employment lawyer at Ogletree Deakins in Tampa, Florida.
Russell also noted that employers should remain vigilant: “You need to pay attention to it, even if the government is not working, that doesn’t mean the deadline goes away.” Employers still have 15 days to contest citations, even if communication with OSHA is limited.
Beyond enforcement, the shutdown has frozen progress on several high-profile rulemaking efforts — most notably, OSHA’s proposed heat injury and illness standard, which was published in mid-2024. The rule had a comment period set to close on October 30, 2025, giving stakeholders one final opportunity to weigh in after public hearings earlier this year.
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Much of that review process may now be lost to the shutdown. “This is just weeks out of the calendar that will no longer be there,” Frederick reiterated, underscoring that missed deadlines in the regulatory process can’t simply be made up later.
The Biden administration had prioritized the heat rule as a centerpiece of its worker protection agenda, but with President Donald Trump now in office, its future looks uncertain.
Even at an accelerated pace, “it took three and a half years to publish a rule that, ultimately, has not gone into effect,” said Heather MacDougall, corporate safety attorney and former vice president of safety for Amazon. “The clock is ticking. It’s probably not an easy lift to promulgate a rule, especially a rule like that heat rule, in the next three years.”
Critics have argued that the draft proposal was overly prescriptive and burdensome, favoring a performance-based or “business-friendly” approach instead. MacDougall believes an altered version could still materialize, but only if the Trump administration acts swiftly once OSHA reopens.
The shutdown comes as OSHA faces broader structural challenges. Since returning to office, President Trump has pursued federal workforce reductions, with recent reports citing about 4,000 government layoffs. OSHA has not yet been a target of cuts — but not because it’s well-funded.
“OSHA’s broke, right?” Frederick said. “I mean, the budget is too small, they’re broke.” Cutting staff further, he added, “doesn’t save much money.”
However, attrition is already taking a toll. MacDougall noted that several senior OSHA officials accepted “fork in the road” buyout offers, potentially creating leadership gaps. “It would be really hard for it to not impact the work of OSHA,” she said. “They lost a lot of people and their ability to hire backfill, I think,
Originally reported by Zachary Phillips in Construction Dive.
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