Government Affairs Updates

FY 11 Budget Season for Safety and Health Agencies Begin

Wednesday, February 10th


The Department of Labor has announced its Fiscal Year 2011 budget requests. A memorandum that highlights yesterday’s presentation by the Department of Labor and OSHA and MSHA, along with some information on the CSB and EPA, can be found at (link to attached). In short, this Administration is requesting nearly $574 million for OSHA for FY 11, up from last year's nearly $559 million; more than $10 million more for enforcement to $233.445 million, with an additional 60 FTEs are proposed; nearly $106 million for state programs, up from $104.4 last year; $70.3 million for federal compliance assistance, down from $73.4 last year but $1 million more for state consultation to nearly $555.8. Standards gets an increase of $4.2 million to $233.5 million. The biggest news, however, is the intent to back away from OSHA’s commitment to VPP and look to stakeholders for ways to fund the program, as EH&S Today reported at http://ehstoday.com/standards/osha/dol-budget-request-osha-increase-focus-enforcement-2414/ --

“We think the Voluntary Protection Program is making a valuable contribution to workplace safety,” Solis said during the chat. “But we are facing some very difficult budget choices. We need to decide whether we will spend our limited resources on supporting those companies who really ‘get it,’ who are doing a great job at protecting their employees, or do we spend our scarce resources on companies that disregard workplace safety and allow workers to die in situations that could easily have been prevented.” Michaels stressed during the live chat that OSHA will work with stakeholders “to identify new or alternative funding sources” for VPP. “In the meantime, we will be shifting field inspection staff from VPP programs to enforcement activities because the need in that area is particularly great,” Michaels said. “We recognize that VPP companies do an excellent job; OSHA resources need to be focused on employers who don't understand the importance of protecting their workers, particularly small employers.”

Please keep in mind that these requests go to Congress, which holds the purse strings in our government. Given the recent change in party balance in the US Senate, the debates on the budget will be long and drawn-out and may not look like these requests in the end. The Department of Labor’s information on its request for OSHA and MSHA can be found at http://www.dol.gov/budget/, including a 96-page OSHA budget justification document at http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/2011/PDF/CBJ-2011-V2-11.pdf and one for MSHA at http://www.dol.gov/dol/budget/2011/PDF/CBJ-2011-V2-12.pdf. HHS budget request info can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/asrt/ob/docbudget/index.html CSB’s budget justification is at http://www.csb.gov/assets/news/document/CSB_FY_2011_Final_Budget_Request.pdf. EPA’s budget request info is at http://www.epa.gov/budget.


In this update: