This week the Senate confirmed the new leaders of OSHA and MSHA. David Keeling is the new Assistant Secretary of OSHA and Wayne Palmer is the new Assistant Secretary for MSHA.
Wayne Palmer is a returning figure to the Trump administration as, during Trump’s first term, Wayne Palmer served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the agency. Prior to his tenure at the Trump administration, Palmer served as the Executive Vice President of the Essential Minerals Associations, a trade association that represents the interests of companies that mine or process minerals that are critical to manufacturing, energy, agriculture, infrastructure, transportation, and technology interests. Palmer served as an Advisor to the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Critical Minerals & Nonferrous Metals at the Department of Commerce from 2023 to 2025. He was a senior manager of congressional relations at the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition and spent numerous years as a congressional staffer, including as chief of staff to then Senate Republican Conference Chairman Rick Santorum. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Penn State and a Master of Government Administration from the University of Pennsylvania.
David Keeling began his career as a member of the Teamsters union at UPS in 1985, eventually becoming Vice President of Global Health and Safety from March 2018 to July 2021. Most recently, he served as Director of Global Road and Transportation Safety at Amazon from July 2021 to May 2023. During his confirmation hearing, Keeling spoke about his goals for OSHA: (1) Modernization in regulatory oversight and rulemaking; (2) increasing OSHA’s cooperation and collaboration efforts; and (3) using data to enhance onsite safety efforts through predictive analytics.
Additionally, Marco Rajkovich was confirmed as a member of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
Please contact a member of the Husch Blackwell Workplace Safety & Health team with any questions about these confirmations.