The Trump administration has told a council of agency heads and union leaders established under federal law to help prevent and reduce workplace injuries that it can no longer meet, according to an email to members obtained by NOTUS.
The directive is yet another move from the Trump administration to consolidate the power of political appointees in the executive branch, which experts say enters a legal gray area.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Labor issued a memo putting a pause on the Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health’s activities indefinitely, according to the email circulated to its members. The council is intended to give recommendations to the secretary of labor and help develop and maintain programs across agencies to keep workers safe on the job.
“All federal advisory committee meetings and activity must be immediately paused. Thus, FACOSH will not meet, including subcommittee conference calls, until we are given further direction,” the email read.
The president is allowed to shut down some of the approximately 1,000 advisory committees across the government, groups within agencies that give advice or recommendations to cabinet officials to assist in regulations. In certain cases, these committees are created intentionally to only last for a couple of years.
But if a president tries to eliminate committees created through law — like the OSHA council — they are violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
“This is unusual, this is not how administrations would normally behave,” said Daniel Schuman, the executive director of the American Governance Institute and expert on the federal government.
“And let’s not get caught up on the language, a pause is just a cancellation with different language,” he added.
The law states that Congress is supposed to be notified if any advisory committee is disbanded — or even if it cannot meet on its regular timeline.
GOP Rep. Rick Allen, chair of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions said he and his staff had not been notified of the council’s indefinite pause, but said he would bring it to the subcommittee staff when notified of the pause by NOTUS.
“I know things are moving fast, but we’ve got to be notified, and we’ve got to follow the law,” Allen said.
The Department of Labor did not respond to a request for comment.
The pause of the OSHA advisory council does not appear to be isolated to the Department of Labor. Reports of similar pauses have popped up at Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health and Homeland Security.
The OSHA council is composed of representatives from eight major unions and members of eight federal agencies: Homeland Security, Defense, Agriculture, Interior, Social Security Administration, NASA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Smithsonian Institution.
The council had begun a new session in January, and was expecting to meet next month. The email Monday was a surprise to council members.
“Stuff happens every day where we need to address something that keeps workers safe. So it’s shocking to me, and I think it’s irresponsible,” said council member Gay Henson, the secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers.
The union includes employees at NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Government Accountability Office, along with employers that contract with the government, like Boeing.
Trump has long had his eye on suspending or eliminating federal advisory councils. In 2019, Trump signed an executive order to dissolve one-third of all federal advisory committees across the government.
Joe Biden ultimately revoked that order. Trump then reinstated the order on his first day in office. But with or without the executive order, Trump does not have the authority to dissolve an executive order created by law, like FACOSH.
The Department of Labor’s order pausing the council’s activities comes as Republicans zero in on OSHA. Rep. Andy Biggs reintroduced a bill to abolish OSHA entirely this week. He introduced a similar bill in 2021 that never went up for a vote. Nine Republicans co-sponsored that bill.
Henson said that the council was essential for addressing the safety of thousands of federal employees.
“Leadership of the unions and leadership of management at these agencies can come together in a forum where it’s safe to talk about all the things that are of issue and try to put together solutions and move forward,” Henson said.
“The current administration is interested in dismantling everything and building it back,” she said. “But you know, some things have to keep going.”
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Katherine Swartz is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.