Senate Confirms Keeling, Palmer for OSHA, MSHA

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Senate confirmed David Keeling and Wayne Palmer to lead OSHA and MSHA, respectively. The two men were among 56 nominees confirmed as a block by a 51–47 vote.

Keeling is the former director of global road and transportation safety for Amazon and a former vice president of global health and safety for UPS. At his hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in June, Keeling said that OSHA’s proposed standard for emergency response would need to be revised to address concerns from volunteer fire departments and acknowledged that the agency would be challenged to fill gaps in occupational health and safety research stemming from staffing cuts at NIOSH.

Palmer served as acting head of MSHA during President Trump’s first term until the November 2017 confirmation of David Zatezalo. At that time, Palmer became the agency’s principal deputy assistant secretary. He has also worked for the Essential Minerals Association and served as an advisor to the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor.