President Proposes Small Increase in OSHA Budget
The administration is asking Congress to spend $461.6
million on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in fiscal
year 2005, an increase of one percent over the agency's recently enacted 2004
budget. Proposed spending in federal OSHA's major program areas for 2005 when
compared to 2004:
Safety and health standards – up 1.2;
Enforcement – up 3.0 percent;
Compliance assistance – up 6.5 percent.
The compliance assistance area of OSHA’s program has the largest increase in
funding, again, and one of the key programs with this area is the widely
acclaimed, Voluntary Protection Programs or VPP. VPP has proven effective in
enhancing occupational safety and health over the past twenty-two (22) years in
the private sector and it has enjoyed bipartisan support and endorsement in the
U.S. Congress. Congressional budget committees have singled
out the VPP effort at both the Department of Labor – OSHA and the Department of
Energy (DOE) and encouraged its’ continued support in language accompanying
each Department’s budget authorizations over the past four (4) years.
For addition information on this topic, please see article
by James L. Nash with Penton Media on the Occupational Hazards web page at: http://www.occupationalhazards.com/articles/11295.