The highly anticipated proposed budget released today by the White House included expected budget cuts for the U.S. Department of Labor.  While cutting funds for the DOL, the proposed budget did not resurrect the previously raised possible merger of OFCCP and EEOC.

The President’s FY2019 Budget for the Department of Labor starts with the following introduction:

“Given the budget constraints the Nation faces after decades of reckless spending, and the current need to rebuild the Nation’s military without increasing the deficit, the Budget focuses DOL on its highest priority functions and disinvests in activities that are duplicative, unnecessary, unproven, or ineffective. The Budget also takes steps to reorganize and modernize the Agency’s operations so scarce taxpayer dollars are spent well.

In total, the Budget requests $9.4 billion for DOL, a $2.6 billion, or 21-percent decrease, from the 2017 enacted level.

With respect to OFCCP specifically, the Office of Management and Budget proposes reducing OFCCP’s budget from $104M to $91M, a 12.5% reduction and also proposes reducing the budget of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) from $38M to $27M.

The description of OFCCP in the Budget Appendix, reiterates that the Administration is looking to streamline and simplify the structure of the agency, stating specifically

“The 2019 Budget proposes improving organization efficiency and effectiveness by modernizing the agency’s operational model, aligning staff workload with where financial contractors are located, and establishing Skilled Regional Centers.

We’ll keep you posted with relevant updates as the evolve so, stay tuned.