Late last week, Congress finally came to an agreement and approved “omnibus” spending legislation to keep government operations funded through the end of fiscal year 2018, which expires on September 30, 2018.
The final spending agreement spares the agencies responsible for regulating the workplace – namely the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and Wage and Hour Division (WHD), and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – from significant budget cuts. Indeed, the EEOC actually received a notable increase.
Among other provisions worth noting, the bill increases the funding for both Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), prohibits the Trump Administration from moving forward with any attempt to merge OFCCP into the EEOC, extends (but does not make mandatory) the E-Verify program, and omits funding for President Trump’s paid leave initiative.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.