2013 Administration Budget Request for Fed Safety Agencies – NIOSH ERCs and AFF Research Again Targeted
On February 13, the White House released and sent to Congress the Administration’s 2013 Budget Request. The following is from Adele Abrams, who is ASSE’s Federal Representative, summarizes Budget Requests for the workplace safety agencies, OSHA, MSHA, NIOSH and CSB.
NIOSH
The 2013 Budget Request for NIOSH is $249.4 million, compared to 2012 funding of $288 million, with the reductions coming from the elimination of support for ERCs and the NORA research program in Agriculture, Farming and Fishing, which ASSE and NIOSH’s other stakeholders succeeded in protecting in the FY 2012 budget.
According to the DHHS Budget documents, all of the NIOSH funding would come from funds available to the Department of Health and Human Services under section 241 of the Public Health Service Act. In recent years a portion of NIOSH’s funds came from the PHS Act, but the Budget Request for 2013 would apparently shift all of NIOSH’s funding to that source. This change would appear to give the Department (HHS) greater control, since the money would not be directly appropriated to NIOSH but would go to the Department to administer under the PHS Act.
The 2013 Budget Request also proposes that both the Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing Program and the Education and Research programs in NIOSH be eliminated. The White House document on “Cuts, Consolidations, and Savings” states that no funds for these programs are proposed “because these activities are lower-priority programs for CDC’s public health mission.”
OSHA
- The overall budget request for OSHA for 2013 is the same as the 2012 total funding, $565 million.
- Most program areas would be at or very close to 2012 funding levels. The largest increase, $4.8 million (from $16 to $21 million) and 37 FTE would go for the Whistleblower Protection Program.
- Standards would receive a $1 million increase, from $20 to $21 million.
- Programs activities that are proposed for reduced funding are Federal Compliance Assistance, reduced by $2.5 million and 33 FTE, and elimination of the OSHA Data Initiative, which would save $2.2 million.
- In place of the ODI, OSHA plans to develop an electronic data collection capability, to collect both case specific data on targeted establishments and the Form 300A annual summary from 440,000 establishments. (This would apparently require rulemaking though the budget document does not say.)
- In addition, OSHA plans to consolidate regional offices, resulting in a reduction of 3 offices and savings of $1.3 million. The regional offices planned for consolidation are Boston-New York, Kansas City-Denver, and San Francisco-Seattle.
MSHA
- The overall budget for MSHA for 2013 would be reduced by $627,000, to $371.9 million.
- The enforcement budgets for both coal and metal/nonmetal would increase (coal, by $2.8 million, from $165 to $168 million; metal/nonmetal by $1.8 million, from $88 to $91 million).
- Savings would come from the Educational policy and development program line. State Grants would be reduced by $5 million, funds for the National Mine Academy would be reduced by $1.5 million, and the Small Mines Office (to renamed the Small Mines Consultation Program) would be reduced by $303,000.
Chemical Safety Board
The Administration’s 2013 Budget Request for CSB is for the same level of funding as the agency received in 2012, which is $11 million.
The CSB also submits its own separate budget request to Congress; it has requested $11.4 million for FY2013.
A few additional notes from the DOL webcast:
Secretary Solis hosted a webcast to take questions on the DOL’s 2013 budget request. Some of the Q and A’s regarding OSHA and MSHA were:
- Regarding final rules planned in 2012, Dr. Michaels listed GHS, electric power, consultation program changes, and confined space in construction.
- Regarding consolidation of OSHA’s regional offices, Dr. Michaels stated that there were no plans yet on where the consolidated offices would be located.
- Regarding the backlog of contested cases at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, A/S Main said that in 2011 the backlog had been reduced from 89,000 to 67,000 citations. The 2013 budget request continues “backlog” funding for MSHA and FMSHRC.