OSHA’s Heat Program to Expire While Heat Standard Stalls

Quick Hits

• OSHA’s heat-related illness and injury prevention NEP is set to expire on April 8, 2026, with no public indication that the current administration intends to extend or replace it.
• OSHA’s proposed permanent heat illness prevention rule has stalled with no target date for finalization and appears unlikely to advance in the near term.
• OSHA retains citation authority under the OSH Act’s General Duty Clause and multiple states already enforce their own heat illness prevention standards.

Expiration of the Heat National Emphasis Program

Federal OSHA’s national emphasis program (NEP) on outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards, originally launched on April 8, 2022, is set to expire on April 8, 2026. The NEP was extended for one year in January 2025 by then-president Joe Biden’s OSHA assistant secretary, Douglas Parker, just days before the transition to the Trump administration. The extension directive stated that the NEP would remain in effect until April 8, 2026, “or until superseded by an updated directive.”

Under the NEP, OSHA dramatically increased its focus on heat-related hazards in the workplace. The program targeted more than seventy high-risk industries—including construction, manufacturing, landscaping, restaurants, retail, and agriculture—and authorized proactive inspections whenever the heat index reached 80°F or when the National Weather Service issued a heat warning or advisory. The NEP also prioritized on-site responses to heat-related fatalities, complaints, referrals, and employer-reported hospitalizations. By its terms, the program required employers to demonstrate measures such as providing cool drinking water, shaded rest areas, acclimatization plans for new or returning workers, training on heat stress symptoms, and monitoring of environmental conditions.

OSHA’s notice extending the NEP includes valuable enforcement data. Between April 2022 and December 2024, OSHA conducted approximately 7,000 heat-related inspections—a dramatic increase from the roughly 200 annual heat inspections conducted between 2015 and 2020. The agency issued sixty citations for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act’s General Duty Clause, distributed 1,392 hazard alert letters, and reported removing nearly 1,400 employees from hazardous heat conditions.

As of the date of this article, OSHA has not publicly announced any intention to extend or renew the NEP beyond its April 8, 2026, expiration date. Whether the current administration will allow it to lapse, extend it, or replace it with a different directive remains to be seen.

Status of OSHA’s Proposed Heat Illness Prevention Rule

Separate from the NEP enforcement initiative, OSHA has been engaged in a multi-year rulemaking effort aimed at establishing a permanent federal standard for heat injury and illness prevention. On August 30, 2024, OSHA published a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) titled “Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings..” The proposed rule would apply across general industry, construction, maritime, and agriculture and would require employers to develop substantial written heat injury and illness prevention plans, monitor workplace heat conditions, implement controls at two trigger levels (an initial heat trigger at a heat index of 80°F and a high heat trigger at 90°F), provide mandatory rest breaks, establish acclimatization protocols, and train employees and supervisors.

The public comment period closed on January 14, 2025, and an extended post-hearing comment period closed on October 30, 2025. However, no further steps toward finalizing the rule have been taken since. The most recent entry in the federal unified regulatory agenda did not include a target date for final action on the heat rule, leaving its timeline uncertain.

In sum, while the proposed heat standard has not been formally withdrawn, its path to finalization under the current administration appears unlikely in the near term.

Practical Takeaways

Even with the NEP set to expire and the proposed rule stalled, employers may want to consider continuing heat illness prevention measures as summer approaches.

First, the General Duty Clause of the OSH Act, Section 5(a)(1), remains fully in effect and provides OSHA with independent authority to cite employers for failing to protect workers from recognized heat-related hazards. OSHA has used this authority to issue heat-related citations during the NEP period, and it can continue to do so regardless of whether the NEP is renewed.

Second, multiple states with OSHA-approved State Plans—including California, Colorado, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—already have their own heat illness prevention standards, and other states have proposed similar standards. Employers operating in those jurisdictions must comply with state-specific requirements regardless of what happens at the federal level.

Employers that invest in these measures now may be better positioned to demonstrate good-faith compliance, reduce the risk of heat-related injuries and fatalities, and prepare for whatever regulatory framework ultimately emerges at the federal level.

Ogletree Deakins’ Workplace Safety and Health Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and provide updates on the Workplace Safety and Health blog as additional information becomes available.

Follow and Subscribe
LinkedIn | Instagram | Webinars | Podcasts