As Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds faces pushback over his support for data centers, the Republican Congressman and presumed frontrunner in the race for Florida governor has also co-sponsored a bill — along with seven other Florida Republicans — that seeks to block heat safety protections for U.S. workers.
The bill, HR 6213, would prevent the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration from finalizing or enforcing a heat safety standard proposed under the Biden administration — or any “substantially similar” standard — that seeks to establish basic safety requirements to protect workers. Such requirements, under the OSHA proposal, would include providing rest breaks, and access to shade and clean drinking water when temperatures exceed 80 degrees.
The Biden-era rule, introduced in 2024, is intended to prevent heat-related illness, injury and death on the job — as many parts of the country, including parts of Florida, experience record-breaking heat and deadly heat waves.
It has faced backlash from the business community, however, including some of the most powerful lobbying forces in the country, with critics making the decades-old argument that it’s a “one-size-fits-all” mandate that would unduly burden employers.
“As a small business owner myself, I’ve seen how unwarranted, heavy-handed regulations can crush innovation, increase costs and undermine the productivity of American institutions,” said Indiana GOP Rep. Mark Messmer, the lead sponsor of HR 6213. “The Biden Heat Rule was never about safety, but was rather, unsurprisingly, focused upon expanding federal bureaucratic control over hard-working Americans.”
If finalized, the OSHA rule Messmer opposes would be the first-ever federal safety standard established to protect U.S. workers against extreme heat exposure on the job.
OSHA has estimated that heat exposure kills at least 559 workers annually, and causes heat-related injuries or illness in nearly 25,000. The proposed standard, according to OSHA, would prevent nearly all heat-related deaths on the job and 65 percent of heat-related injuries each year.
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“Workers have no control over extreme heat, and many are unable to refuse hazardous assignments without jeopardizing their livelihoods. Congress should not respond to an escalating occupational hazard by permanently removing the Department of Labor’s authority to address it,” reads a letter prepared by the progressive nonprofit Public Citizen in opposition to HR 6213, signed by 65 political, labor, healthcare and social advocacy groups.
Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds — Trump’s pick to succeed outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — is one of 60 co-sponsors (all Republican) of the bill that seeks to undermine the proposed heat protections. HR 6213 was first introduced in the U.S. House last November and passed its first hearing by the U.S. Education and Workforce Committee this Tuesday in a 18-15 vote along party lines.
The only two Florida representatives on the House committee — GOP Congressman Randy Fine of Brevard and chronically MIA Democrat Frederica Wilson of Miami-Dade — were absent for the vote.
“The Biden-Harris suggested rule must be stopped before it causes significant harm to American businesses, without any evidence that it will create one iota of improvement for existing workplace safety efforts,” said Rep. Messmer in defense of his bill, speaking to his House colleagues Tuesday. “A construction company in South Florida should not face the same requirements as a manufacturer in Indiana or a landscaping business in Michigan, because they all operate under very different conditions.”
Former OSHA official Jordan Barab, however, recently pointed out in his blog, Confined Space, that whether it’s 90 degrees in Florida or Indiana, the body doesn’t care what state you’re in. Higher temperatures outside, or in hot restaurant kitchens or warehouses, can place workers at risk for heat-related illnesses such as heat exhaustion and heatstroke, particularly with prolonged exposure.
“When it comes to any OSHA standard, I too want to make sure that it’s workable for businesses to understand and to follow, but throwing out the entire standard altogether is wrong and puts people at continued risk,” said Rep. John Mannion, a Democrat from New York, during Tuesday’s hearing on the bill.
“Throwing out the entire standard altogether is wrong and puts people at continued risk”
U.S. House Rep. John Mannion (D-NY)
Messmer and other opponents to the OSHA rule argue that federal workplace safety law already has what’s known as a general duty clause in place that requires employers to maintain a workplace free from recognized hazards — including but not limited to extreme heat — “that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”
He has also argued that states have the authority to establish workplace safety regulations themselves. Florida, unfortunately, hasn’t been particularly protective on this issue.
Florida’s GOP-controlled state Legislature in 2024, with the final blessing of DeSantis, barred local governments in the Sunshine State from enacting their own workplace heat safety rules at the urging of politically influential business lobbyists.
The Florida bill (HB 433) was widely perceived as an effort to block a heat safety ordinance that had been proposed in Miami-Dade County to help protect thousands of agricultural and construction workers in the county who face prolonged heat exposure on the job.
Florida, like nearly two-dozen other states in the U.S., also doesn’t have its own state workplace safety agency, leaving enforcement of workplace safety requirements up to an understaffed federal OSHA. According to an annual report from the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest federation of labor unions, there is only one federal OSHA inspector for every 93,877 workers in the U.S.
And because federal OSHA only regulates the private sector, Florida’s lack of a state OSHA agency leaves public sector employees outside of these federal safety protections — and enforcement — altogether.
Donalds, who’s leading in the polls for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, did not respond to a request for comment on his cosponsorship of HR 6213 after Orlando Weekly contacted both his gubernatorial campaign and his legislative office.
Congressman Greg Casar, a progressive Democrat from Texas — a state that has also preempted local heat protection rules — pointed out Tuesday how ironic it was that members of Congress, working indoors, were seeking to block protections for those who don’t have luxury of laboring in an air-conditioned space.
“To me, it’s just so sad to see here in Congress — where we get to work indoors, get paid a fat salary — us prioritizing wiping out those heat protections, basically because industry lobbies are asking for it.”
According to the Florida Policy Institute, there are at least 611,100 workers in Florida who work outdoors, predominantly concentrated in agriculture, amusement and recreation, construction, and landscaping work.
The OSHA proposal, if finalized, would cover an estimated 36 million U.S. workers. Although proposed in 2024, the rule has largely stalled under the Trump administration. On average, the standard rule-making process for OSHA (consisting of various steps, including public hearings) takes more than seven years.
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