NOTE: This story has been updated to include information pertinent to recent changes to the Senate’s confirmation process.
Washington — The Senate has confirmed David Keeling as the new leader of OSHA.
Legislators approved S. Res 412 with a 51-46 vote on Oct. 3, then voted 51-47 on Oct. 7 to confirm Keeling and more than 100 other nominees, including Wayne Palmer for head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Keeling, a former UPS and Amazon safety executive, had been awaiting Senate confirmation since the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved his nomination in a 12-11 party-line vote on June 26.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate HELP Committee in June, Keeling shared his three main goals for OSHA.
Modernization in regulatory oversight and rulemaking: Using technologies and predictive analytics to move beyond “simple regulatory compliance and post-injury response to injury prevention and informed design.” Keeling said this would involve taking advantage of existing global industry consensus standards, “which have gone through much more rigorous review, regular updating and continuous improvement than have many of OSHA’s existing rules.” He didn’t say, nor did his written testimony expand on, which consensus standards the agency would use.
Expanding OSHA’s cooperation and collaboration efforts: Keeling specifically mentioned the agency’s potential collaboration and cooperation with professional groups, companies and unions. “We all want the same thing,” he said, “although we differ sometimes on what the best road is to get there. We must move beyond existing silos and self-imposed barriers to achieve real improvement.”
He also talked about modernizing and updating OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Programs. “The current VPP programs provide a basic platform, but it’s only a start. Critical work needs to be done in this area to achieve successful outcomes.”
During the Sept. 16 Occupational Keynote at the 2025 NSC Safety Congress & Expo, then-acting OSHA administrator Amanda Wood Laihow announced some planned changes to VPP as part of the agency’s new Pathway to Safety and Health Success program.
OSHA’s “enforcement transformation”: Keeling said the agency could harness existing data to “greatly enhance onsite safety efforts through predictive analytics.” He didn’t specify what kind of data and what type of predictive analytics. He also said OSHA must engage “at-risk employers and employees through proactive risk mitigation and reduction programs before a worksite tragedy has taken place or a fatality has occurred.”
He concluded: “We should never get to a worksite after it’s too late. If confirmed, I’m committed to working with each of you so that no family sits down at the dinner table to an empty chair.
“I believe that by working with this committee and the stakeholders across ideological spectrum, we can achieve real and meaningful progress, and I hope to achieve these goals with your help.”
In a statement congratulating Keeling on his successful nomination, National Safety Council CEO Lorraine M. Martin calls him a “proven safety leader who will help continue the agency’s long legacy of protecting the health and well-being” of workers, adding that the nonprofit “looks forward to partnering with OSHA to continue to exert strong leadership on issues impacting workplace safety.”
Palmer and other confirmations
The Senate HELP Committee didn’t conduct a confirmation hearing for Palmer before approving his nomination with a 12-11 party-line vote on May 22.
Per his LinkedIn page, Palmer most recently was a senior advisor in the Department of Labor Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs. He was executive vice president at the Essential Minerals Association from July 2021 until this past January.
Palmer was nominated on Feb. 11. His LinkedIn bio also says that he’s “proudly descended from miners of Pennsylvania anthracite coal, Colorado silver, New Jersey iron ore, and Cornwall (UK) copper and tin.”
The Senate also confirmed Jonathan Snare to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission and reappointed Marco Rajkovich to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
