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OPA News Release: [02/05/2007]
Contact Name: Office of Public Affairs
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
Release Number: 07-0192-NAT
U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao Outlines Budget for FY 2008
Emphasis on Worker Protection and Workforce Competitiveness
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today outlined the president's fiscal year 2008 Labor Department budget, which provides added resources for protecting workers' health, safety, pay and benefits. The budget also proposes new job training reforms to make federal-state training programs more flexible and effective and calls for passage of several legislative initiatives related to the department's agencies and programs.
"The president's budget will allow us to continue our record-setting enforcement of worker protection laws," said Secretary Chao. "And it will provide innovative programs to help America's workers remain competitive in the 21st century economy."
Details of the department's FY 2008 budget include the following:
Worker Protection
To build on the Wage and Hour Division's success in collecting back wages, the FY 2008 budget provides $182.4 million, a $16.7 million increase that includes funding for 36 new investigators. The budget also proposes legislation designed to further strengthen worker rights and protect families by increasing the amount of civil monetary penalties that can be assessed against employers who willfully violate child labor laws.
The FY 2008 request increases Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) funding by $17.9 million, for a total of $490.3 million, which will fund 89,700 federal and state safety and health inspections. Utilizing vigorous enforcement and compliance assistance, OSHA will focus on high-hazard industries which typically employ large numbers of non-English speaking workers. All elements of OSHA's intervention strategies — enforcement, training, compliance assistance, outreach, cooperative programs and guidelines — will be brought to bear to protect this vulnerable population. OSHA will also expand the Voluntary Protection Programs. Employers in these programs achieve lost-time injury and illness rates 51 percent below non-participating employers.
In 2006, the president signed into law the historic MINER Act, the most sweeping mine safety legislation in 30 years. Under the FY 2008 budget, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) would be funded at $313.5 million, an increase of $35.8 million, including $16.6 million to support 170 additional coal enforcement personnel. The FY 2008 budget builds upon the MINER Act, allowing further improvements in mine safety and health. MSHA will finalize a rule on mine rescue teams by the end of the first quarter of FY 2008 and the budget allows for vigorous enforcement of increased penalties. MSHA expects to publish its final rule on increased penalties in the early part of 2007.
Last year, President Bush signed the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006, enacting significant reforms that will help protect Americans' retirement security. The president's FY 2008 request includes an additional $13.9 million for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), bringing EBSA's budget to $147.4 million.
The budget will also allow EBSA to increase the quality, timeliness and transparency of pension information disclosed to the public, as well as to maintain the strong enforcement record of recent years. The budget includes additional proposals to help reduce the $18 billion shortfall at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and strengthen the solvency of the pension insurance system. For example, the budget proposes that the directors of the PBGC be allowed to set the variable rate premium.
An additional $11.2 million will boost Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) funding to $56.9 million and strengthen union financial integrity protections and Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act compliance.
The FY 2008 budget request of $78.7 million for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) includes a $7.6 million increase and 18 additional FTEs for the labor racketeering program. In FY 2008, the OIG will continue to uncover construction fraud, which is especially important to the long-term reconstruction process in the Gulf Coast region. In addition, the FY 2008 budget again calls for legislation that will help close the loopholes that contribute to improper unemployment insurance payments.
Job Training Innovations
The FY 2008 budget includes $3.4 billion for the administration's new Career Advancement Accounts job training proposal. Funds for these self-directed accounts would be targeted toward individuals in need of employment assistance — primarily out-of-school youth, low-income adults and dislocated workers — but could be used by others as well, for example, current workers and part-time students. This funding also would be used by states to provide basic employment services to job seekers and employers either through a network of community-based career centers or in partnership with the private sector. This reform, along with a $26 million increase for the president's Community-Based Job Training Grants initiative, continues to build on efforts to offer flexible, effective training options to educate and prepare workers for the competitive global economy.
The FY 2008 budget includes $39.6 million for the department's portion of the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Program, which is administered jointly with the Departments of Justice and Housing and Urban Development.
The balance of the department's FY 2008 budget is comprised of benefits payments, including unemployment insurance and workers' compensation. Under the president's budget, total Department of Labor budget authority (discretionary and mandatory) for FY 2008 would be $50.4 billion, up from $46.7 billion in FY 2007.
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