As reported previously, President Biden’s first proposed budget request to Congress calls for a big increase in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 budgets of the federal agencies responsible for regulating the workplace, including the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Whether and when that happens is up to Congress, however, which has the last say on how much government agencies will be funded each year.
To the surprise of no one, given the stark partisan differences that are driving national policy today, Congress once again failed to come to agreement on any of the annual spending bills to fund the government in FY 2022, which began on October 1. Instead, legislators reached a last minute deal – known as a continuing resolution (CR) – that will fund the government through December 3, 2021.
Because the CR funds the government at current FY 2021 levels, its practical impact is that the workplace enforcement agencies must continue operating as if they will not receive any budget increase, which limits their ability to hire new investigators and enforcement personnel. That in turn is likely to delay for now the Administration’s ambitious plans to beef up worksite enforcement.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.