CONSULTANTS ROUNDTABLE
CONSULTANT ROUNDTABLE
Regulatory Proposals and Expectations How the new administration’s policy proposals may impact GAWDA members BY TOM BADSTUBNER, MARILYN DEMPSEY, MICHAEL DODD, RICK SCHWEITZER AND STEVE GUGLIELMO
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n the First Quarter 2021 issue of Welding & Gases Today¸ GAWDA’s consultants discussed how the incoming Biden administration may differ from the outgoing Trump administration. Now that the new Congress and White House have assumed power and cabinet secretaries continue to be confirmed and policy proposals start to take shape, the consultants revisited the topic of how a new ruling party could impact the day-to-day business of GAWDA members. Thank you to Tom Badstubner, GAWDA’s FDA and Medical Gases Consultant, Marilyn Dempsey, DHS, EPS and OSHA Consultant, Michael Dodd, DOT Consultant, and Rick Schweitzer, Government Affairs and Human Resources Consultant, for lending their time and expertise to discuss these important topics. The following is a lightly edited transcript of that conversation. WELDING & GASES TODAY: When we spoke last time, it was after the election but before the inauguration. Now that we’re well into the Biden Administration, I’d like to talk about some of the changes and potential changes that we’re seeing in the regulatory agencies. Whether that’s new philosophies or new regulations or potential regulations. What are you seeing? MARILYN DEMPSEY: OSHA is considering a COVID-19 standard. Currently, Virginia is the only state with an emergency COVID standard, so I would expect to see a similar standard come through OSHA this year. 14 • Spring 2021
RICK SCHWEITZER: What is a COVID-19 standard? What does that mean? MARILYN: It means that there will be rules for how to deal with people who are ill, how long employees must be out of work after a COVID exposure and criteria for PPE. In addition to the potential emergency standard from OSHA, the CDC has stated on their update calls that they’re all expecting the current recommendations to be in place for at least the next two years. RICK: I just read a report from another expert today that said we’re already down 77% in the reported cases and that we’re going to have herd immunity by April. MARILYN: That’s interesting. There’s a new variant coming out of South Africa and England and it has that S-protein that I was concerned about. They’re saying it’s much more infective and much more dangerous. Similar to the original variant that was out. But we’ll see. I think we’re all waiting to see. WGT: Marilyn, when you say, “new standards,” are you talking about best practices or would these be mandated things, like the two-mask practice that you mentioned, that you have to abide by? MARILYN: The standard will be mandated. I don’t know exactly what is going to be in the standard, but I do know that they’re taking a hard look at Virginia. With the rumors of an OSHA emergency standard and the fact that OSHA seeks to hire more inspectors, they will, in all likelihood, take bigger, more stringent look at COVID inspec-
