Washington — President Donald Trump has nominated former UPS and Amazon safety executive David Keeling to lead OSHA.
Keeling was most recently the director of global road and transportation safety at Amazon, filling the role from July 2021 to May 2023. The Kentucky native began working at UPS in 1985 and was vice president of global health and safety from March 2018 to July 2021.
Keeling’s nomination is with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which he’ll likely appear before sometime soon. A nomination hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet, according to the committee’s website.
A nomination hearing for Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump’s nominee for labor secretary, scheduled for Feb. 12 was postponed until Feb. 19 because of a snowstorm in the nation’s capital.
“I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to President Trump for nominating me to be the next OSHA administrator at the U.S. Department of Labor,” Keeling wrote on his LinkedIn account. “It is an incredible honor, and if confirmed, I am excited about the opportunity to work with Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling to further OSHA’s mission to enhance workplace safety and health.”
If confirmed, Keeling would succeed Doug Parker, the former head of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health who led the federal agency from October 2021 until Jan. 20.
Keeling also would be the first head of OSHA confirmed by the Senate during a Trump administration.
Former FedEx executive Scott Mugno was nominated to lead OSHA during Trump’s first term, but the nomination languished in the Senate for around 19 months before Mugno withdrew from consideration. Loren Sweatt served as acting leader for nearly four years – OSHA’s longest period with an acting administrator.
