The House of Representatives has released the details on worker safety and health funding in the FY 2018 Labor-HHS appropriations bill and it’s very bad news for American workers whose lives and health depend on the ability of OSHA and MSHA to enforce the laws that protect workers.

The House committee bill cuts OSHA’s enforcement budget by $13.5 million, or 6.5% below the FY 2017 budget. This will be a devastating blow to OSHA’s ability to enforce the health and safety standards that keep American workers alive and healthy. The overall OSHA budget is cut 4%, all of which come out of enforcement and the Susan Harwood Worker Training grants which the bill eliminates.

Meanwhile, coal miners fare even worse. MSHA’s coal enforcement budget is being cut by $11 million, almost 7 percent, after taking a $7.9 million cut in FY 2017. Standards would be flat funded, after taking a $2 million (10 percent) hit from FY 2016 to FY 2017. Metal/Non-metal enforcement takes a $2.8 million cut after that same amount was added to the MSHA budget in 2017. And as we noted last week, the NIOSH budget will be cut by (only) $10 million after Trump had proposed a catastrophic $200 million cut.

“Cutting back enforcement funding will result in thousands of totally preventable injuries. There is overwhelming evidence that OSHA inspections prevent serious injuries for several years after OSHA inspects.” — David Michaels

Responding to the budget bill, former OSHA head David Michaels said that “Cutting back enforcement funding will result in thousands of totally preventable injuries. There is overwhelming evidence that OSHA inspections prevent serious injuries for several years after OSHA inspects. ”

The full Labor/HHS Appropriations committee meets tomorrow to mark up the bill.

While OSHA’s ability to enforce the law is slashed, the agency’s federal compliance assistance budget would climb $1.4 million or almost 2% over 2017, and 5.7% over 2016. The small business Onsite Consultation Program would remain flat from 2017 and OSHA’s Susan Harwood grant program are still zeroed out as we reported last week. Because of the elimination of the Harwood Grants, OSHA’s overall FY2018 compliance assistance budget would actually fall 6.7% from FY 2017 to FY 2018 if you add all three compliance assistance programs together. Despite the Administration and Congress’s professed enthusiasm with compliance assistance, they seem to be much more intent on cutting assistance for workers than increasing compliance assistance overall.

These cruel cuts in enforcement are far worse than the Trump administration’s budget proposal, which held OSHA enforcement flat and had only cut $3 million out of coal enforcement. Even with a flat budget, however, OSHA predicted that enforcement staff levels would fall 10% below FY 2016 levels. According to the AFL-CIO, OSHA had only 6.8 compliance officers per million workers in 2016, compared with 7.3 in 2001 and 10.1 in 1990. Based on FY 2016 budget numbers, OSHA would have been able to visit every workplace in the country only once every 159 years. That figure now promises to get much, much worse if the House numbers stand.

And if this news isn’t bad enough, tomorrow’s full committee mark-up allows members to add poison pill budget riders to the bill — possibly affecting OSHA’s ability to enforce its silica, beryllium or recordkeeping rules. Following expected committee passage tomorrow, the bill still has to be voted on by the full House of Representatives and then considered in the Senate. So far, we have not seen the Senate budget bill. It’s unlikely we will know what’s in the Senate bill until after the August recess. Stay tuned.

Job Safety and Health Budget Bill

CATEGORY FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017

Omnibus FY 2018

Request FY 2018

House Ctte OSHA OSHA TOTAL 513,0422 558,620 558,619 564,788 535,246 552,247 552,787 552,787 552,787 543,257 531,470 Safety and Health Standards 17,204 19,569 20,288 19,962 18,918 20,000 20,000 20,000 18,000 18,176 18,000 Federal Enforcement 197,946 223,399 208,146 207,753 207,928 207,785 208,000 208,000 208,000 207,465 194,500 Whistleblower Protection 14,806 15,873 15,043 17,000 17,500 17,500 17,500 17,383 17,500 State Enforcement 92,593 104,393 104,393 104,196 98,746 100,000 100,850 100,850 100,850 100,658 100,850 Technical Support 22,632 25,920 25,868 25,820 24,344 24,344 24,469 24,469 24,469 24,281 24,469 Federal Compliance Assistance 72,659 73,380 73,383 76,355 61,444 69,433 68,433 68,433 70,981 72,351 72,351 State Compliance Assistance 54,531 54,798 54,688 57,890 54,862 57,775 57,775 57,775 59,500 57,665 59,500 Training Grants 10,000 10,750 10,729 10,709 10,149 10,687 10,537 10,537 10,537 0 0 Safety and Health Statistics 34,128 34,875 34,805 34,739 32,922 34,250 34,250 34,250 32,900 34,326 34,300 Executive Administration 11,349 11,536 11,513 11,491 10,890 10,973 10,973 10,973 10,050 10,952 10,250 MSHA MSHA TOTAL 347,003 357,293 361,8443 372,524 353,768 375,887 375,887 375,887 373,816 375,172 359,975 Coal Enforcement 154,491 158,662 160,639 164,500 158,713 167,859 167,859 167,859 160,000 157,026 149,000 Metal/Nonmetal Enforcement 82,427 85,422 87,644 89,063 86,121 91,697 91,697 91,967 94,500 97,875 91,700 Standards Development 3,031 3,481 4,352 4,765 4,547 5,416 5,416 5,416 4,500 5,460 4,500 Assessments 6,134 6,233 6,221 7,103 7,036 6,976 6,976 6,976 6,627 7,457 6627 Education Policy and Development 38,605 38,605 38,148 38,325 31,898 36,320 36,320 36,320 39,320 37,365 39,320 Technical Support 30,117 30,642 31,031 33,613 32,050 33,791 33,791 33,791 35,041 34,330 35,000 Program Administration 15,684 17,391 15,906 16,998 15,974 15,838 15,838 15,838 15,838 19,169 15,838 Program Eval. and Info Resources 16,514 16,857 18,173 18,157 17,429 17,990 17,990 17,990 17,990 16,490 17,990 NIOSH NIOSH TOTAL 360,059 373,171 316,079 292,588 323,059 332,860 334,863 339,121 335,200 200,000 325,200

In thousands of dollars