Sponsors (6)
The bill expands access to life‑saving naloxone and annual overdose-response training for federal and many workplace employees (including veterans in VHA settings), improving safety, but it relies on voluntary private adoption, creates new recurring costs and administrative burdens, and leaves some federal workers (USPS) with unequal protections.
Federal employees, VHA staff, veterans, and employees at covered workplaces will have greater access to naloxone and will receive annual training to recognize and respond to overdoses, improving on-site emergency response and potentially preventing overdose deaths.
Nonbinding federal guidance provides employers model practices for acquiring, storing, and maintaining opioid overdose reversal medication and conducting training without imposing regulatory penalties, lowering legal barriers and encouraging voluntary adoption.
Explicit inclusion of the Veterans Health Administration restores access to opioid reversal medication in VHA settings, ensuring veterans and VHA personnel benefit despite prior statutory exclusion.
Private-sector workplaces may choose not to adopt the nonmandatory guidance, leaving many employees without naloxone access or training and creating uneven protections across workplaces.
Both employers (private) and federal agencies will incur costs to purchase, store, replenish naloxone and deliver annual training; these costs could be borne by employers, passed to consumers, or increase demands on agency budgets and taxpayers.
Agencies and workplaces must provide recurring annual training, creating ongoing administrative, personnel time, and resource burdens that could require reallocations or hiring of trainers/contractors.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
OSHA must issue employer guidance and require all Federal agencies to stock opioid overdose reversal medication and provide annual employee training within 270 days.
Requires OSHA to publish nonbinding guidance for employers within 270 days on acquiring and maintaining opioid overdose reversal medication and on annual employee training for its use. Separately, it directs OSHA to issue binding regulations within 270 days that require every Federal agency to stock opioid overdose reversal medication and provide annual employee training on its use (the Veterans Health Administration is explicitly covered). The employer guidance is voluntary; the federal agency rule is mandatory.
Official title: Require the Secretary of Labor to issue guidance and regulations regarding opioid overdose reversal medication and employee training.
Introduced February 10, 2026 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress February 10, 2026