Yesterday the Supreme Court stayed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard (ETS), resolving months of legal uncertainty over its fate. In blocking the...more
On November 5th, 2021, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an emergency regulation that assigns US employers a central role in the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 pandemic response. Several...more
11/9/2021
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Biden Administration ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Comment Period ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Employer Mandates ,
Motion for Relief ,
OSHA ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Preemption ,
Public Comment ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Stays ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Tenth Amendment ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing
On September 24, pursuant to President Biden’s September 9 Executive Order, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force published its anticipated guidance regarding the vaccination mandate and COVID-19 safety requirements for...more
10/1/2021
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Certification Requirements ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Masks ,
OSHA ,
Safety Precautions ,
Social Distancing ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
In response to one of the worst outbreaks in the COVID-19 pandemic, attributable largely to the highly contagious Delta variant, President Biden on September 9 announced his six-prong Path Out of the Pandemic plan. To...more
9/13/2021
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Infectious Diseases ,
OSHA ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
In the face of criticism for its recently proposed standards about mask wearing and social distancing, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“Cal/OSHA”) has now announced revised amendments to its...more
As COVID-19 vaccinations become increasingly available to the general public, employers are considering whether to mandate or encourage their workers to get vaccinated. Below we share some common vaccine-related questions we...more
2/10/2021
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Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
OSHA ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Religious Accommodation ,
Religious Exemption ,
Vaccinations ,
Workplace Safety
On January 29, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued updated guidance aimed at helping employers implement COVID-19 Prevention Programs to better identify workplace risks that could lead to...more
2/3/2021
/ Biden Administration ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Executive Orders ,
Infectious Diseases ,
New Guidance ,
OSHA ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Workplace Hazards ,
Workplace Safety
Hours after his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed 17 executive actions covering a wide range of issues, including several focused on discrimination and racial justice, immigration, and environmental...more
2/1/2021
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Biden Administration ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Census ,
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Civil Rights Act ,
Climate Change ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
DACA ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Environmental Policies ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender Identity ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Immigration Reform ,
Muslims ,
National Environmental Policies ,
Presidential Proclamations ,
Race Discrimination ,
Race Relations ,
Sexual Stereotyping ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration ,
US-Mexico Border Wall
On January 21, 2021, President Biden issued an Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety (Order) directing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take “swift action to reduce the risk that...more
With the Biden Administration set to take over, COVID-19 priorities are expected to change. To assist with identifying and anticipating the Administration’s priorities, we outline below the Administration’s key initiatives....more
1/19/2021
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Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
FEMA ,
Government Investigations ,
Public Private Partnerships (P3s) ,
Regulatory Standards ,
Relief Measures ,
Small Business ,
State and Local Government ,
USAID ,
Vaccinations ,
World Health Organization
On December 27, President Donald Trump signed a $1.4 trillion appropriations package funding the government through September 2021 and a $900 billion fiscal stimulus law for coronavirus aid. Media attention has focused on the...more
12/31/2020
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Carbon Capture and Sequestration ,
CARES Act ,
Climate Change ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Energy (DOE) ,
Energy Sector ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
HFC Emissions ,
Investment Tax Credits ,
Popular ,
Production Tax Credit ,
Renewable Energy ,
Renewable Energy Incentives ,
Solar Energy ,
Wind Power ,
Zero-Emission Vehicles
Wildfire season is upon the American West, with fires blazing in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, and Washington. With a somewhat delayed onset this year, wildfire season came roaring in with a...more
On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued new COVID-19 related guidance to assist businesses deemed “non-essential” as they reopen their workplaces. The...more
In recent weeks, many businesses have resumed or expanded operations to varying degrees as states and local jurisdictions have issued reopening orders. That means many “non-essential” employees have been or soon will be...more
On May 7, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced in a press conference that the state was moving into Stage 2 of a four-stage plan for reopening California that he had put forth only last week. He characterized this transition...more
Six weeks ago, California issued the nation’s first statewide shelter-in-place order in response to the growing COVID-19 pandemic. Although nearly every other state eventually followed suit in taking significant measures to...more
In response to the lifting or relaxing of shelter in place orders in a number of states, many businesses plan to resume certain operations during the pendency of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health, safety, and well-being of...more
Adding to the many regulatory initiatives undertaken to aid the nation’s COVID-19 response and provide enforcement relief to the regulated community, on April 10, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued...more
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a number of rapid-fire legislative, executive, and regulatory responses in the U.S. States, counties, and cities have issued shelter-in-place and other emergency orders, causing certain...more
On March 18, 2020, we published an alert informing employers that, due to the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak, they could lawfully take employees’ body temperatures as a condition of their entering the workplace. At that...more
After days of intense negotiation, last night the Senate passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package to respond to the economic fallout from the coronavirus (COVID-19)...more
In the wake of the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), California state and local authorities have been at the forefront of issuing executive orders to institute measures to slow the spread of the virus....more
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected nearly all individuals and businesses in the United States. With over 350,000 cases confirmed worldwide, including over 30,000 cases in the United States, federal,...more
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) is affecting U.S. businesses in a variety of ways and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Impacts include telework and employee absenteeism, changes in consumer demands,...more