WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 21, 2026) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, issued a statement following today’s U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce full committee markup of H.R. 6213, the Heat Workforce Standards Act. This legislation would prevent the Biden Administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Heat Standard from being finalized and would prevent a future administration from undertaking a similar rulemaking.

“Small businesses go to great lengths to ensure the safety of their employees, and a federal Heat Standard would only add unnecessary regulatory requirements that could force them to close or sell off to a larger competitor,” said Dylan Rosnick, NFIB Director of Federal Government Relations. “The Heat Workforce Standards Act would protect small employers from being disproportionately impacted by particularly burdensome and costly new one-size-fits-all mandates. NFIB appreciates the committee for advancing this legislation to protect small businesses from the looming burdens a proposed Heat Standard would implement.”

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.

NFIB opposes the proposed Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Heat Standard and published an issue brief outlining the burdens this regulation would place on small businesses across the country.

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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.