Virus Worker Safety Rule Tests Biden After Trump DOL Nixed Draft

Career officials at the U.S. Department of Labor drafted an emergency rule last spring to impede the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace, but it was scuttled by Trump appointees—a previously undisclosed development that sheds new light on the Biden administration’s delay in releasing a similar regulation.

As the scope of the public health crisis came into focus during the pandemic’s initial weeks, officials at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration raced to write an emergency temporary standard aimed at preventing workplace exposure, according to two former DOL officials with direct knowledge.

By April 2020, at least three senior Trump ...