WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 14, 2026) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, submitted testimony for the record to the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections ahead of its hearing entitled “Building a Safer Future: Private-Sector Strategies for Emerging Safety Issues.” The testimony shares how small businesses protect their workers from workplace safety hazards and urges Congress to prevent a proposed Heat Standard from being finalized.

“Every day we hear amazing stories of NFIB members going the extra mile to ensure their workers are taken care of in all temperatures,” said Dylan Rosnick, NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations. “Small businesses across the country are taking steps to prevent heat-related injuries including by providing cold refreshments, offering as needed breaks to cool off, rearranging work schedules to avoid peak heat, creating shaded break areas, purchasing fans to increase air flow at worksites, providing breathable uniforms to avoid overheating, training their employees in heat safety, adding additional supervision to monitor for any heat-related symptoms, and even having an extra vehicle with air conditioning at the job site in case anyone starts overheating. Across all the stories we hear one thing is consistent, small businesses care about their employees and take precautions to prevent any injuries or illnesses.

“Small businesses do this on their own, without the heavy hand of government dictating them to. They do not need bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. or state capitals to tell them how to take care of their employees. Business owners know their workers and the risks at their job sites better than politicians and bureaucrats. They are much better equipped to create and tailor workplace safety programs that make sense for their business and employees, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach coming from Congress or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).”

Read NFIB’s full testimony here.

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 protect small businesses from the looming one-size-fits-all mandates and regulatory compliance burdens a proposed federal Heat Standard would implement.