January was anticipated to mark the beginning of change for the Department of Labor (DOL) and its safety agencies, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). President Donald Trump nominated Andrew Puzder as the next secretary of labor, but Puzder withdrew as a nominee. President Trump then nominated Alexander Acosta, a former member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and former United States attorney.
What changes will Acosta bring? Several factors make it hard to predict those changes: he was a law clerk for the now Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito; he prosecuted a multitude of white collar fraud and civil rights cases; and while on the NLRB, he garnered praise from both sides of the aisle.
