OSHA Public Hearing on Emergency Response Standard is Underway

November 19, 2024

Since November 12, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been holding a virtual public hearing on its proposed Emergency Response Standard. This hearing provides an additional opportunity for stakeholders to weigh in on the proposed standard, which could have a damaging impact on the volunteer fire service if adopted as-is.

The hearing will be held from 9:30am to 4:30pm ET for the remainder of this week and on December 2 and 4. A full hearing schedule can be found here. Viewing links for each day of the hearing can be found on the NVFC’s OSHA Landing Page. You can watch a recording of a given day’s hearing from the same links after that day’s testimony has taken place.

The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) had five witnesses testify at the hearing on November 12. The witnesses summarized the NVFC’s written testimony, which was based on five topics: the structure of the volunteer fire service, economic burdens, administrative burdens, the impact of incorporating consensus standards by reference, and the input of the volunteer fire service during the formation of the proposed standard. You can watch the testimony here starting at timestamp 3:29:30. Additionally, 30 other NVFC directors will be testifying at OSHA’s public hearing on behalf of their departments and state organizations.

The NVFC has put together an updated hearing guide to answer questions about the hearing’s procedure. On November 7, the NVFC also hosted a webinar on the hearing; view the recording here. After the conclusion of this hearing, OSHA will hold an additional public comment period through January 17, 2025. Anyone will be able to submit comments during this comment period.