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OSHA Extends Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Proposed Rule OSHA has provided a 15-day extension to the comment period for its heat injury and illness prevention proposed rule. The comment period now ends on January 14, 2025. We requested an extension until March 31, 2025, at least this extension gets us past the holidays. Return to the ASAtoday…

DOL Appeals District Court Ruling on Overtime Rule On November 26th, the Department of Labor appealed the District Court’s ruling vacating the overtime final rule to the 5th Circuit. It remains to be seen whether they will seek a stay pending appeal or move to expedite the appeal. We will keep you updated as we learn…

The 2024 Election Impact on Washington, D.C. Now that November 5th is behind us as we move forward with President-elect Trump and the Republican control of both chambers of Congress, it’s only natural during a time like this to begin playing what-ifs, taking past statements, genuine policy concerns, and anxieties about the road ahead, and…

The Case for and Against the Annual Year-End Christmas Bonus It is a traditional practice that most businesses, no matter how small, will provide their employees with a year-end “production” or Christmas bonus. There are many different reasons for doing so and in this article, we will explore the pros and cons of this traditional…

This Week in Congress Congress returned for the last week of work before the Thanksgiving-week recess.  The House voted on bills that would boost government geothermal lease sales (H.R. 1449) and to strip the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that support designated terrorist groups and ensure that American hostages will not face tax penalties for late…

Government Funding? Government funding runs out on December 20th and last Sunday, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) said that the House will pass another temporary spending bill before the end of the year to extend current levels of government funding into March of next year. This is the same approach Republicans took going into 2017. The GOP…

Budget Reconciliation / Tax Code / and the 119th Congress Republicans have won 218 seats in the House, giving the party a majority in both chambers of Congress next year.  The Republican’s electoral sweep will allow it to use a special “budget reconciliation” process to pass tax, spending, and debt limit legislation in the Senate…

Recess Appointments? President-elect Trump is pushing Senate leaders to allow for recess appointments. Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the Recess Appointment Clause, provides that, the President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate. These recess appointments are valid through, in this case,…

President-Elect Trump’s Cabinet Nominations and Appointments I will continue to update cabinet nominations and other appointments as they are announced. The nominations and appointments, to date, are as follows: Secretary of Commerce: Howard Lutnick, the chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and is also currently serving as co-chair of the Trump transition. Secretary of Defense:…

Click Here to Register for this Webinar! Upcoming Webinar – Trust but Verify: Prequalifying Project Owners and GCs Join us on January 9th, 2025 at 1pm Eastern for the upcoming webinar, “Trust but Verify: Prequalifying Project Owners and GCs.”   Be sure to register for this valuable webinar on a critical risk management action—prequalifying owners and…