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Douglas L. Parker

Official · Labor

Type
Person
Role
Official · Labor
Updated

The profile

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health in the Biden administration. He held the post during the administration's COVID-19 vaccine-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard.

Identity and role

Douglas L. Parker is the former Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. He is a different person from Doug Parker, the American Airlines chief executive. He was the OSHA head whose agency issued and defended the COVID-19 vaccine-or-test Emergency Temporary Standard for large employers.

Biography / career arc

Parker led Cal/OSHA before his federal appointment. The Senate confirmed him as Assistant Secretary for OSHA in 2021.

Pandemic-relief / PPP-EIDL role

OSHA's COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standard required large employers to adopt vaccination-or-testing policies, with exceptions and implementation rules. Business groups, states, and challengers sued. On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court stayed the large-employer ETS. Its unsigned opinion found the challengers "likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Secretary lacked authority to impose the mandate," because Congress had given OSHA "the power to regulate occupational dangers" but not "the power to regulate public health more broadly."

Their own relief

No PPP or EIDL loan to Parker personally is established in the public record.

The litigation was about the ETS and the Supreme Court stay, not any personal-misconduct allegation against Parker.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Parker stepped down from OSHA in early 2025.

  • Larry D. Turner — Labor Department inspector general during the same period.
  • Michael Horowitz — PRAC chair; pandemic worker-safety spending sat inside the committee's oversight universe.

Sources

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