The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) fiscal year 2013 budget request continues many priorities emphasized in the previous year’s budget, such as the effort to combat worker misclassification, while ending or consolidating some programs aimed at helping women and veterans find jobs.
The DOL’s 2013 budget request comes in at $12 billion. The 2012 request was for $12.8 billion.
Included in the budget is $10 million for the Wage and Hour Division to fight misclassification of workers as independent contractors and other violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
The request also includes $16.9 million to cut back on what the DOL calls “an unacceptably large case backlog at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.” Also, the budget requests an additional $5 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s enforcement of laws protecting workers and others from retaliation for reporting unsafe and unscrupulous practices.
The budget also proposes to give the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) authority to adjust premiums and directs it to “take into account the risks that different sponsors pose to their retirees and to the PBGC itself,” according to a DOL statement. The DOL says taking that action “will encourage companies to fully fund their pension benefits and ensure the continued financial soundness of the PBGC.”
The budget request also includes $125 million for a Workforce Innovation Fund, with $100 million from the DOL and a $25 million contribution from the U.S. Department of Education. The DOL says the fund “will utilize competitive grants to support innovative, systemic, and evidence-based reforms in the workforce system.” The DOL and the U.S. Department of Education also will work together on a new $8 billion Community College to Career Fund to help community colleges “provide pathways to high-skilled jobs in high-growth industries.”
The statement from the DOL says the 2013 request “reflects many difficult choices and strategic consolidations.” The budget request discontinues the Women in Apprenticeship in Non-Traditional Occupations Program and the Veterans Workforce Investment Program. But the DOL says the budget strengthens other veteran-focused activities, expands Registered Apprenticeships, and “improves service delivery innovation” for all employment training programs through the Workforce Innovation Fund.
The DOL budget request is part of President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget, which is meeting resistance from business interests. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) released a statement critical of the budget.
“Making difficult budget decisions in a time of slow growth, high unemployment, and serious fiscal challenges is an opportunity for leadership,” NAM Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Relations Aric Newhouse said. “Now is the time for a pro-growth, pro-jobs reform of our tax code and entitlement programs to put manufacturers back to work and put the country on a path toward fiscal stability. Unfortunately, the president’s budget does not pursue that path.”
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka praised the budget proposal. “America has to choose between repeating the same mistakes that led to the financial crash of 2008 or learning from those mistakes and rebuilding our economy on a stronger foundation. For the short term, we have to extend unemployment benefits and the temporary middle class tax cut to avoid putting recent job gains at risk,” Trumka said.