WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 10, 2026) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, released a statement opposing a new plan to finalize the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Heat Standard. Proposed in 2024 under the Biden Administration, the proposed OSHA Heat Standard applies to indoor and outdoor work settings with limited exemptions and would impose significant new compliance burdens and red tape on nearly all small businesses nationwide.

“The efforts to finalize the proposed OSHA heat standard are deeply concerning for small businesses who would be disproportionately impacted by its particularly burdensome and costly new one-size-fits-all mandates,” said Dylan Rosnick, NFIB Director of Federal Government Relations. “It would punish small businesses over big businesses by adding more mandates and regulatory burdens that would likely force small business owners to hire additional staff to comply with the rule, increase prices to account for these new costs, and could force some small businesses to close their doors or sell off to a larger competitor. NFIB urges OSHA to reverse course and ditch the heat standard proposal altogether.

“NFIB also strongly supports the Heat Workforce Standards Act to protect small businesses from the looming one-size-fits-all mandates and regulatory compliance burdens the proposed Heat Standard would implement. Given this recent announcement, Congress needs to step in by swiftly enacting this legislation.”

In April, NFIB led 50 trade associations in sending a letter to sponsors of the Heat Workforce Standards Act, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Mark Messmer (R-Ind.), urging Congress to pass their legislation to eliminate this burdensome rule and prevent increasing compliance burdens on millions of America’s job creators.

According to a recent NFIB Member Ballot, 89% of NFIB members oppose the federal government regulating and restricting business operations when temperatures are above 80 degrees Fahrenheit at the worksite. NFIB released an issue brief outlining why small businesses oppose the regulation.

###

For over 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.