OSHA Letters of Interpretations (LOI) a practice in place since its formation in the 1970s are published responses to employers who write the agency with questions about certain regulatory requirements. The Biden Administration issued LOIs at least twice per month as a way for employers to get official guidance on specific regulations. This practice came to an abrupt halt following the June 2024 SCOTUS decision on the Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo case which challenged the power of all federal agencies to interpret laws. This ruling effectively ended the “Chevron deference”, a 40-year-old legal principle requiring courts to defer to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous laws. Post Loper Bright, the courts must now use their independent judgment to find the “single best meaning” of a statute, shifting power from agencies back to the judiciary and emphasizing textualism in statutory interpretation, meaning agencies have diminished power to implement broad policy through rulemaking.
The Trump Administration, in an effort to refocus OSHA toward helping employers meet compliance requirements, has opted to issue LOIs addressing recurring questions. In early December 2025, OSHA restarted the program by issuing a bundle of seven LOIs highly focused on repeatedly asked questions about:
- Hazard controls under the Permit-Required Confined Spaces Standard
- The enforcement stay of the COVID-19 recordkeeping and reporting requirements under 29 CFR 1910.502
- The use of software to generate equivalent OSHA Forms 300 and 300A
- Engineering controls under the Benzene and 1,3-Butadiene standards
- Requirements for powered industrial truck training program implementation
- Audiometric testing of a worker who may have a cochlear implant
- Stair angle and tread depth requirements
Interestingly, while the Administration’s stated emphasis is to ensure the consistent and transparent application of federal workplace safety and health standards, the letters clearly offer an overarching theme demonstrating that OSHA’s expectations will require employers to apply the Standards to the specific workplace situations and hazardous conditions, as opposed to generally expected conditions.
Starting with the premise that the role of OSHA Standards is to be preventative—reducing exposures to hazards, thereby reducing injury, illness and possible death the LOIs emphasize four practices that employers must exercise:
- Proactive, effective and thorough Hazard Identification: OSHA will test the quality and completeness of hazard assessments, including JHAs and Exposure Monitoring, and the effort must be site or operation specific.
- Proactive, effective and hazard-specific Employee Training: OSHA will look to see if employees were fully trained in understanding how to recognize, reduce or mitigate hazards for all the tasks they perform.
- Thorough, accessible and clear recordkeeping of Data: OSHA will be looking through data and records showing that employers identified hazards and did everything necessary to mitigate employee exposures. Defensible Data will be the rule.
- Best Practices: They are called Best Practices for a reason. The LOIs markedly stressed that if an employer was unsure if hazards were properly identified and controlled, they should seek Subject Matter Experts to help.
Novisal has over a decade of helping employers identify, control or remove workplace hazards in all types of workplaces. We can help you navigate OSHA’s many Standards and how they should be applied in your operations.