WASHINGTON, D.C. (Nov. 21, 2025) – The National Federation of Independent Business, the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, sent a letter to Rep. Mark Messmer in support of his legislation, the Heat Workforce Standards Act of 2025. This proposal 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.

“The proposed OSHA Heat Standard fails to recognize the fact that employers already are combating heat-related injuries or illness. Small businesses offer as-needed breaks to cool off, drink water, or simply use the restroom,” said Dylan Rosnick, NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations. “Instead, the proposed regulation would punish businesses who already work without government intervention to protect their employees with more mandates and regulatory burdens that could force them to close or sell off to a larger competitor.

“NFIB strongly supports the Heat Workforce Standards Act to protect small businesses from the looming one-sized-fits-all mandates and onerous new regulatory compliance burdens the proposed OSHA Heat Standard would implement. NFIB urges Congress to promptly enact this legislation to reduce onerous regulatory compliance burdens and red tape.”

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. Unfortunately, on August 30, 2024, the Biden Administration proposed a one-sized-fits-all OSHA Heat Standard that would add new onerous one-sized-fits-all mandates on small businesses across the country when temperatures are at or above 80 degrees Fahrenheit at the worksite.

View the full letter of support to Rep. Messmer here.

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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.