With help from Helena Bottemiller Evich and Rebecca Rainey

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— The Occupational Safety and Health Administration still does not have a federal standard in place to protect workers from extreme heat, a situation that is drawing increased criticism as climate change leads to more excessive temperatures.

— Infrastructure negotiations in the Senate may finally come to a close this week as lawmakers prepare for a vote as soon as tonight, then kicking the responsibility to the House.

— California businesses are rushing to mandate the Covid-19 vaccines, but essential workers on farms and in restaurants may be left behind.

HAPPY MONDAY, AUG. 9! Welcome to Morning Ag, where your host thoroughly enjoyed watching the new “Suicide Squad” despite being more of a Marvel gal. Have I already asked this audience, Marvel or D.C.? Send tips and answers to [email protected] and @ximena_bustillo, and follow us @Morning_Ag.

OSHA GETS HEAT ON TEMP REGS: There is no federal standard protecting workers from heat, a problem that is garnering more attention as climate change leads to hotter temperatures and stronger and longer heatwaves, according to a special report by POLITICO’s Zack Colman and E&E News’ Ariel Wittenberg. A four-month investigation by POLITICO and E&E News found that the agency's reluctance to set rules has dragged on through nine administrations, with bureaucracy and lack of political will causing much of the inertia.

The climate change cause: The Western U.S. is suffering under punishing temperatures this summer, rising higher than they normally would so early in the season. The record-breaking temperatures in the Pacific Northwest would have been “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change,” according to modeling and global observations.

OSHA’s negligence: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is responsible for protecting laborers from workplace hazards. But it has ignored three recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it create a much-needed floor, a temperature level above which conditions are deemed inherently unsafe for worker safety. OSHA has also denied similar petitions from occupational and environmental groups.

Biden administration officials — including Vice President Kamala Harris, Doug Parker, the administration’s nominee to lead OSHA, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack — have expressed support for national heat standards. But after seven months in office, progress has been fitful.

“Clearly we don’t want to put people where they are subject to working conditions that result in exposure that creates serious health problems and death,” Vilsack told reporters on July 21. “We will work with our partners in OSHA — they have the primary responsibility."

He added that USDA "will work in partnership with OSHA to make sure that workplaces whether it's in the farm field or factory floor are safe.”

Continued danger in the Northwest: The National Weather Service is predicting continued excessive heat this week.

Last week, farmworkers in Yakima County, Washington, grieved the loss of Florencio Gueta Vargas, who died while on the job on July 29. Gueta Vargas worked at a hops farm, which is currently under investigation by the state Department of Labor and Industries to determine if any rules were broken. The inquiry could take up to six months.

The Yakima County Coroner’s Office attributed the death to atherosclerotic disease with environmental heat as a contributing factor, according to The Seattle Times. Washington is one of three states to have heat rules, and in July enacted emergency temporary rules after a deadly heatwave hit the region. The emergency rules require shade and 10 minute cool-down rest periods every two hours at 100 degrees and cool water and allow breaks at 89 degrees.

“It could be one degree of difference,” said Elizabeth Strater, director of strategic campaigns for the United Farm Workers. “Some people are saying it was upper 90s that day, some are saying it was triple digits. It shows how arbitrary that rule is. Having a threshold that has to be 100 degrees outside before somebody gives you shade is not a sufficient rule.”

Washington state’s regs: Some states like Washington that have their own labor agencies can create their own rules. Dina Lorraine, public information officer at Washington’s labor dept. told POLITICO that the agency is in the process of crafting new, permanent rules.

The death of Gueta Vargas does not affect the process, and the rules may not be ready by next summer. Strater told POLITICO that UFW and other farmworker unions have not yet been invited to discussion calls.

Pressure again on OSHA: “A federal heat standard establishes a minimum that a lot of states don’t have,” Starter said. “It is really difficult, without a federal standard, for folks who work from state to state to know what rights they have.”

A federal standard and resources, Strater added, would also help to hold non-compliant states or employers accountable.

INFRASTRUCTURE ON PATH TO PASS SENATE: Senators cleared a final filibuster vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package late Sunday night, closing debate and teeing it up for a vote late tonight, report POLITICO’s Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine.

Then what? Once the bill is done, its future is uncertain in the House. Democratic moderates are already pressuring Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take the legislation up immediately, even though Pelosi and many progressives want to wait until a Democratic-only social spending bill also passes the Senate.

The Senate will immediately proceed to a budget, setting up that massive bill on filibuster-proof ground after it completes its work on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

A GOOD JOBS DAY: The economy added 943,000 jobs in July, pushing the unemployment rate down to 5.4 percent, a sign that labor market growth is gaining the steam needed to get back to where it was before the pandemic.

Two-thirds of the job gain, over 253,000, was in food services and drinking establishments. However, despite recent growth, employment in leisure and hospitality is down by 1.7 million, or 10.3 percent, from its level in February 2020.

But, but, but: The survey week for the jobs report is typically taken in the second week of the month, meaning that the economic concerns over the Delta variant likely didn’t show up in the figure.

SENATORS INTRO RESTAURANT AID BILL: Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) introduced a bill late last week to increase the funding to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund by $48 billion. The Small Business Administration recently closed the RRF application which left thousands of restaurants and bars without assistance.

By the numbers: The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which was authorized by the March Covid-19 relief bill, was flooded with 186,200 applications within the first two days, Biden told reporters at the start of May. Some 97,600 came from businesses owned by women, veterans, and socioeconomically and historically disadvantaged individuals.

NEW IPCC REPORT OUT TODAY: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish its sixth assessment report today, so you can expect to see a lot of headlines with dire climate predictions. The worst assessment is expected to say that there is no way that the world can avoid breaching the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius that the U.S., EU and several other countries have set as a target. That means an extreme heatwave that once would have occurred only twice a century would instead hit about every six years, write POLITICO’s Zack Colman and Karl Mathiesen.

The IPCC's sixth major climate assessment since 1990 comes as Congress moves on a sweeping infrastructure package that makes historic investments in climate initiatives that experts are already warning fall short of what’s needed. The report offers glimmers of hope if aggressive changes are adopted — such as if carbon-storing forests are drastically increased and technology that can draw carbon from the air is developed.

One thing to watch: methane, which is produced by livestock as well as the energy sector. Methane doesn’t get as much attention as CO2 but it is much more powerful in terms of its warming potential.

STAFFERS FLY OUT: Staffers for over a dozen House members — including Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.), and Rick Allen (R-Ga.) — are landing in Idaho today for the return of the Leadership Idaho Agriculture Tour. Led by the Leadership Idaho Agriculture Foundation, the tour will take staffers through multiple agricultural operations in the state including Simplot, dairy farms, Chobani, dams, and dinner with Gov. Brad Little.

“The overall goal is to give congressional staff a first-hand look at how modern agriculture operates and introduce them to the people who produce our country’s food supply,” said Brad Griff, LIA Tour Committee chair, who hopes the tour will help provide first-hand background and education as lawmakers prepare for appropriations and farm bill negotiations.

CALIFORNIA ESSENTIAL WORKERS STILL BEHIND ON VACCINES: While many California employers are pushing to mandate the Covid-19 vaccines, essential workers at the highest risk for the disease are being left behind, report POLITICO’s Victoria Colliver and Alexander Nieves.

MA readers may remember that Tyson Foods announced it would require its employees to get vaccinated, a move that could lead other meatpacking companies to do the same

Tough on farmworkers: But such requirements are “just not feasible” in California’s agriculture industry, which has lost about 25 percent of its workforce since the start of the pandemic, said Hernan Hernandez, executive director of the California Farmworker Foundation. He said workers are likely to flee to a nearby employer if such conditions are imposed.

About half the state's farmworkers have been vaccinated, with another 15 percent undecided and 35 percent refusing, according to Hernandez.

Restaurants affected: Expect the next few weeks to be messy as companies weigh whether to implement vaccine mandates, said Jim Araby, director of strategic campaigns for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5.

Araby suggested that businesses should first consider giving incentives for workers to get vaccinated, including paid time off and gift cards, as Walmart did on July 30 for its store and warehouse staffers.

In San Francisco, which has some of the highest vaccination rates in the nation, nearly 58 percent of restaurant owners are already requiring their staff to be vaccinated, according to a survey by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. Asked if they would support an indoor vaccination mandate, 63 percent said yes.

— Sanderson Farms is close to selling itself to Cargill and Continental Grain Co. in a potential $4.5 billion deal, according to The Wall Street Journal.

— Tractor maker Deere & Co. announced its plans to purchase Bear Flag Robotics, an agriculture tech startup, with the goal of developing a driverless tractor. Reuters has more.

— A worsening Covid-19 crisis in Vietnam is hurting the food and agriculture sector, rippling to affect exports to the U.S. Bloomberg has the story.

— McDonald’s and other restaurants are finding ways to work around a shortage of to-go packaging caused in part by the continued high rates of orders to take. The Wall Street Journal has more.

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