2025 has now come and gone, and Washington, D.C. has seen what some might call "a smidge of change."
Starting in January with the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th (and 45th) President of the U.S., followed immediately by the establishment of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) the normally staid D.C. crowd was confronted by sudden, drastic change.
And that was just the first couple of months.
What followed can only be described as … chaotic. Much good came with the whirlwind of outsiders upending the status quo (and some not-so-good, but, because this is a positive column, let’s focus on the positive). Chief among them, when it comes to workplace safety and health, has been the leadership installed at the Department of Labor and OSHA.
Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling have refocused the Department of Labor to promote collaboration with stakeholders in job creation, workforce development and safety. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, David Keeling, has extended that vision to OSHA in the form of an agenda heavily focused on promoting his agency’s role in working alongside front-line workers and management to develop pathways to improved safety performance across industries.
After one year of the Trump administration, one thing has become abundantly clear: the focus is on collaboration, not confrontation, when it comes to developing a safe, welltrained and effective American workforce.
Which means, at least from OSHA’s point of view, cooperative programs.
For those unfamiliar, OSHA’s cooperative programs are no-cost programs where businesses and organizations can work together with OSHA to help prevent fatalities and injuries in the workplace through implementation of effective safety and health management systems. The goal is to help companies and sites from all industries embark upon a journey of continuous safety improvement that not only yields improved lagging indicator performance but also builds a sustainable culture where front-line employees work alongside management to implement systems and processes that become the foundation of longterm success, leading to VPP-level performance if not VPP Star or Mobile Workforce achievement.
2026 will be a pivotal year when it comes to enacting this vision. Why? Simply put, the Michael Enzi VPP Act.
VPP is the flagship of OSHA’s cooperative programs, with nearly 1,900 workplaces nationwide taking part in the program. Many have been part of VPP for ten or more years, meaning that they’ve maintained the program’s core value of continuous improvement and achievement. OSHA has supported VPP, and its other cooperative programs, for years, but has been faced with shrinking budgets and competing priorities under other administrations — constraints that have limited growth.
The VPP Act changes this.
Not only does the legislation, currently nearing a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and hearings in the U.S. Senate, provide a set funding level for these programs, but it also makes VPP permanent, allowing for OSHA and stakeholders like VPPPA to commit resources to modernizing and growing participation, central to the administration’s vision for OSHA. Companies looking to invest in strengthening their EH&S programs through OSHA’s Pathways to Safety & Health Success, or VPPPA’s Journey Toward Safety Excellence, will be able to do so with the knowledge that support for their continuous improvement journey will be there for years to come.
2026 will be pivotal in deciding the future of OSHA cooperative programs. Will the VPP Act become law and provide long-term stability to one of the best examples of publicprivate cooperation, or will we continue to face the possibility of these programs, proven to save lives, being eliminated in the face of budget cuts or competing priorities?
The time to act is now. Congress — do the right thing.
For more information, visit vpppa.org.
