Coalition Urges EPA and OSHA to Establish a Single Federal Framework for Worker Chemical Safety

WASHINGTON (July 22, 2026) - The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and a coalition of 75 organizations representing a broad cross-section of the U.S. economy today sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to work with them to use Section 9 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to establish a single, consistent federal framework for worker chemical safety.

In the July 20 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Keeling and OMB Director Russell Vought, the coalition explained that EPA's current TSCA implementation is creating overlapping workplace chemical requirements alongside OSHA's longstanding worker-safety programs. There is a unique opportunity for employers to avoid conflicting federal obligations that make compliance more difficult without improving protections for workers.

Coalition members are deeply committed to worker health and safety and support effective federal protections for workers. But when two federal agencies set different regulatory obligations for the same worker in the same workplace for the same chemical, the result is confusion - not stronger protection. EPA's Workplace Chemical Protection Program, established in recent TSCA risk management rules, has created this kind of overlap, producing dueling federal frameworks between EPA and OSHA.

Congress anticipated this problem and authorized EPA in Section 9 to coordinate with OSHA on worker safety matters, enabling a unified regulatory approach under one consistent federal standard.

Congress reinforced that direction last year. In House Report 119-215, accompanying the Fiscal Year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, lawmakers directed EPA to revise its Memorandum of Understanding with OSHA to "meaningfully delineate between each Agency's role and clearly articulate the areas of collaboration between the agencies," and reminded EPA of its Section 9 obligations.

Building on that direction, the coalition urged EPA and OSHA to operationalize Section 9 through targeted steps that draw on each agency's expertise, including:

• Establishing one federal framework for occupational chemical safety;
• Strengthening EPA-OSHA coordination;
• Aligning responsibilities with each agency's expertise; and
• Eliminating duplicative or conflicting requirements that create facility-level confusion.

"The coalition and its members stand ready to support this effort and engage constructively with both agencies to advance a more effective, coordinated and durable framework," the coalition wrote.

View and download the coalition letter.

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