Situational Awareness
The House of Representatives is in session this week while the Senate is gone for a two-week recess. Lawmakers are scheduled to consider three FY 2025 spending measures, including the House Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which includes language that would require the Department of Homeland Security to issue 64,000 additional H-2B visas once the annual cap is met. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up its Labor-HHS-Education spending bill.
White House Announces New “Parole-in-Place” Program
Last week, the Biden administration announced a new “parole in place” program that could protect more than 500,000 immigrants from deportation and make it easier for immigrants living in the country illegally to apply for visas amid ongoing labor shortages. Noncitizens who’ve been in the United States at least 10 years and are legally married to American citizens would become eligible to seek legal permanent residence without first leaving the country. Applicants must also meet all other eligibility requirements for legal status. The Department of Homeland Security is expected to review applications on a case-by-case basis.
DOL Provides Update on OSHA Heat Hazard Enforcement in Climate Adaptation Plan
Last week, more than 20 federal agencies released updated Climate Adaptation Plans (CAP) that expand agency efforts to ensure their facilities, employees, resources, and operations are increasingly resilient to climate change impacts. Agencies released inaugural CAPs in 2021. In their 2021 CAP, the Department of Labor (DOL) identified five activities as priority adaptation actions, including OSHA’s work on occupational heat hazards. In the updated CAP, DOL provides the following update on this work:
OSHA continues to address longstanding occupational heat hazards through enforcement efforts. OSHA enforcement initiated a National Emphasis Program (NEP) for Outdoor and Indoor Heat-Related Hazards in April 2022 to address these longstanding and ongoing heat hazards. Since then, OSHA has performed 4,143 heat inspections. Of those inspections, OSHA found violations in 1,166 inspections, including 27 heat citations under OSHA’s General Duty Clause (as of November 7, 2023). Citations address the deficiencies of the employer’s heat illness program. If the employer chooses not to correct the deficiencies, they are subject to a significant increase in penalties from a repeat or willful citation.
OSHA continues developing strategies to identify workplaces that expose workers to an imminent danger of heat illness. When there is an imminent danger, the employer must immediately remove workers from the danger and implement controls. OSHA enforcement is also seeking to find workplaces where vulnerable workers are exposed to hot conditions by working with the ETA to identify workplaces with H-2A visa programs.
Lawmakers Call on DOL for More Employer Health Plan Disclosures
Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) and Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee Ranking Member Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su and Employee Benefits Security Administration Assistant Secretary Lisa Gomez to strengthen disclosure requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) for group health plans. The letter cites a March 2023 ProPublica investigation into widespread denials of health benefits by insurers and third-party administrators.
Under ERISA, employee benefit plans, including group health plans, must submit an annual report to the Department of Labor regarding their financial status and operations. The two lawmakers are requesting that DOL amend the report, known as Form 5500, to ensure that all necessary data regarding benefit denials is collected and to close loopholes that currently exempt millions of ERISA-covered plans from compliance with certain transparency requirements included in ERISA.
North Carolina Landowner Loses Bid to Block EPA Wetlands Rule
The US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina denied a North Carolina landowner’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block the EPA’s post-Sackett WOTUS rule. In an order filed June 18, the federal judge assigned to the case said that the plaintiff didn’t meet the “exceedingly high” burden to stop the Biden administration’s wetlands rule from being imposed on his coastal property. The landowner, Robert White, argued that the “adjacent” wetlands provision of EPA’s amended rule is inconsistent with Sackett’s test for jurisdiction over wetlands as derived from the text of the Clean Water Act.
The Biden administration’s amended wetlands rule removed the previous significant-nexus standard that was used to decide if a body of water or wetland was federally protected, instead defining an “adjacent” water to mean “having a continuous surface connection” to a navigable, protected WOTUS. In its filing against the lawsuit, the Department of Justice held the position that the river and the wetlands specific to White’s case just need to touch, or “abut,” to qualify for federal protections. A physical—not hydrological—connection between larger waters and wetland is all it takes, the DOJ said.
Register to Upcoming Summer Webcasts
NCA is presenting a series of critical webcasts this summer covering topics such as club culture, real estate tax assessments and the state of restaurants. Register to upcoming webcasts, or watch previous presentations, by clicking here.
- Thurs., July 11 | 2 pm ET. Club Culture: How to Define It and Why You Need to Understand It. Register Here.
- Thurs., July 18 | 2 pm ET. Understanding and Managing Your Club’s Real Estate Tax Assessment. Register Here.
- Thurs., July 25 | 2 pm ET. H-2B Visas 2025: Trends, Updates and Opportunities. Register Here.
- Thurs., Aug. 8 | 2 pm ET. State of the Restaurant Industry. Register Here.
- Thursday, Sept. 12 | 2pm ET. Unlock the Potential of Your Back-Office Staff: Using AI to Transform the Finance Function. Register Here.