The U.S. Congress last week gave final approval to a massive spending bill that will fund the federal government through Fiscal Year 2016 (October 1, 2015 – September 30, 2016). President Obama signed the bill into law on December 18.
Although earlier in the process it appeared that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) faced a potential budget cut of anywhere from 6% to 10%, OFCCP ended up with only a $1 million decrease from the previous year, or 0.9%.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was funded at the previous year’s levels. In both cases, the EEOC and OFCCP will continue to operate with essentially flat budgets for the sixth straight year. Although this has permitted the agencies for the most part to continue doing business as usual, the flat funding has largely prevented them from implementing significant new initiatives.