Small agency, big job: Biden tasks OSHA with vaccine mandate

By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines. Charged with keeping America’s workplaces safe, it sets and enforces standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders. Now the tiny Labor Department agency has been tossed into the raging national debate over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates. President Joe Biden directed OSHA to write a rule forcing employers with at least 100 workers to require staff get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free. The assignment will surely test the underfunded, understaffed agency that has struggled to defend its authority in court.