Protecting America’s Workers Act
Key claim: The Protecting America’s Workers Act would extend OSHA workplace-safety coverage to federal, state, and local government employees, strengthen whistleblower and victim rights, raise civil and criminal penalties, and expand DOL/NIOSH enforcement and training duties.
Abstract
(HR3036 · 119th Congress) Protecting America’s Workers Act This bill expands the coverage of requirements governing workplace safety and health to include protection for federal, state, and local government employees. However, the bill does not cover working conditions otherwise covered by federal requirements for mine safety and health. The bill revises requirements governing worker protection, including by expanding protections for whistle-blowers, such as protections for employees who refuse to perform work because they reasonably believe the work would result in serious injury or illness and for employees who aid inspections; directing employers to furnish a hazard-free place of employment to all individuals performing work, not just employees; directing employers to report work-related deaths or certain injuries, illnesses, or hospitalizations; establishing rights for victims, or representatives of victims, with respect to inspections or investigations of work-related bodily injuries or deaths; and setting the permitted period for employers to correct serious, willful, or repeated violations while citations for the violations are being contested. The bill also revises enforcement and oversight of workplace safety, including by increasing civil and criminal penalties for certain violations, requiring the Department of Labor to investigate fatalities or significant incidents in the workplace, expanding enforcement requirements relating to state occupational safety and health plans, expanding requirements for workplace health hazard evaluations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and requiring Labor to provide training programs concerning employee rights and employer responsibilities. Latest action (2025-04-28): Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Why this matters
The Protecting America’s Workers Act would close a longstanding gap by bringing roughly 8 million state, local, and federal public-sector workers under federal OSHA jurisdiction, while raising the deterrent value of enforcement through higher civil penalties and felony-level criminal liability for willful violations causing death. For employers—especially public agencies in non-State-Plan jurisdictions—it would impose new compliance, recordkeeping, and whistleblower-retaliation obligations; for workers and their families, it would create formal rights to participate in inspections, contest settlements, and receive information after fatal incidents.