The U.S. Senate has confirmed Keith Sonderling as Secretary of Labor of the United States. The vote concluded on September 30, with 47 votes in favor and 41 against. Sonderling had already been leading the department in an acting capacity since April 20, following the resignation of his predecessor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer. President Trump nominated him in July as the permanent candidate for the post.
Who Is Keith Sonderling?
Sonderling served on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the U.S. agency that oversees equal employment opportunity, from September 2020 to August 2024. He then worked at the Department of Labor as acting and deputy administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, which oversees wage and working-hour rules. In March 2025, the Senate had already confirmed him, by a vote of 53 to 46, as Deputy Secretary of Labor. Before his government career, he was a labor and employment attorney in the U.S. state of Florida and taught at the George Washington University Law School.
What Does This Mean for OSHA?
During the July 16 hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Sonderling received one question on workplace safety, from Senator Andy Kim. Kim pointed to staffing levels at OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration), the U.S. workplace safety regulator: according to the department’s Office of Inspector General, OSHA had 736 inspectors for 11.6 million workplaces in 2025, compared with 846 inspectors in February 2024. Kim asked how a smaller budget and reduced capacity at OSHA could be reconciled with improved workplace safety.
Sonderling replied that OSHA has hired more than ninety new inspectors and that recruitment continues through the federal jobs site USAJobs.gov; that figure has not been independently confirmed. He said staffing at the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is also being increased. According to Safety+Health Magazine’s account, he made no concrete commitments on a budget, a target number of inspectors, or a timeline.
Context
OSHA sets and enforces workplace safety and health standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The law applies to most private-sector employers and their employees in the United States, and to part of the public sector. The agency is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. It is led by the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, who reports to the Secretary of Labor. The Secretary of Labor, in turn, is a member of the U.S. president’s cabinet. As Secretary, Sonderling now heads the department that OSHA falls under. For HSE professionals outside the United States, this is mainly relevant when they work for organizations with U.S. operations that fall under OSHA’s oversight.
Source: Senate Confirms Keith Sonderling As Labor Secretary, October 8, 2026
Also researched: Safety+Health Magazine, OSHA.gov
