California safety regulator Doug Parker is set to lead the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration after the Senate voted Oct. 25 to confirm him.
Mr. Parker, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, was confirmed by a 50-41 vote, making him the first confirmed assistant secretary of labor for OSHA since January 2017, according to a Senate news release.
Mr. Parker most recently served as chief of California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health during the pandemic. He also has experience as attorney for the United Mine Workers, as a partner at a Washington, D.C.-based labor and employment law firm, and as a senior official at the Labor Department's Mine Safety and Health Administration.
In his new role, he will head a workplace safety agency with about 1,800 employees. He is taking on the role as President Biden called on OSHA to issue an emergency temporary standard that would require employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their staff are fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.