7-21-06,1:19pm

The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved most of the Bush administration’s budget proposals that would freeze or eliminate funding for several health, education and worker safety programs. The cuts prompted a top Republican lawmaker to question whether the government really is committed to the welfare of America’s workers.

Sen. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, says the proposed cuts, approved unanimously by the committee:

…constitute what I view as the disintegration of the appropriate federal role in health, education and worker safety.

Specter says he is concerned the legislation includes only $800 million in fiscal year 2007 for adult training programs authorized under the Workforce Investment Act, some $64.2 million less than this fiscal year, although it is $88 million more than the Bush administration requested.

Since he took office, President Bush has cut inflation-adjusted investment in training and assistance programs to help unemployed and underemployed workers by 31.3 percent, including cuts in programs for adults and dislocated workers and youth as well as the Employment Service.

Despite the administration’s recent rhetoric about increasing job training resources, the president’s fiscal 2007 budget would cut inflation-adjusted funding for job training and Employment Service programs by 14.3 percent from the fiscal 2006 level, even taking into account those few programs for which additional or restored funding is proposed.

The Senate committee also strongly criticized the Bush administration’s Labor Department for trying to reduce funding by $60 million for the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), which works, among other things, to combat child labor. The ILAB received $72.52 million in 2006, but the administration proposed spending less than $12.4 million in fiscal 2007. The committee rejected the proposed cut, saying:

The Committee is disappointed that the Department of Labor has once again put forward a budget for the coming year that drastically reduces funding for … ILAB, [and] in particular, those initiatives working with the International Labor Organization to combat abusive and exploitative child labor.

The reduction in ILAB funds could have been particularly devastating, since the international anti-child labor campaign by the ILO, an arm of the United Nations, and global unions and activist groups is beginning to reduce the level of child labor worldwide.

An ILO report released in May says child labor is declining worldwide for the first time—and its worst forms could be eliminated in 10 years. Although the number of children at work worldwide declined 11 percent between 2000 and 2004, the report said 218 million children still labor, many in life-threatening fields, factories, brothels and battlefields. Twenty-six percent fewer 5- to 17-year-olds are performing hazardous work, although the number of them—126 million in 2004—remains appalling.

Other levels of funding approved by the Appropriations Committee include:

$491.17 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an increase of $18.74 million. Worker safety experts and union leaders had sought a larger increase. Since 2001, the Bush administration has cut OSHA’s budget by $14.5 million in real dollars (adjusted after inflation) or 3 percent. At the same time, it has increased funding to help businesses voluntarily comply with safety rules and eliminated funds for outreach and safety training of workers. $302.44 million for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), nearly $25 million more than this fiscal year. Following the deaths of 33 coal miners this spring—the highest number killed on the job in any full year since 2001—Congress passed legislation to strengthen and improve mine safety. $721.69 million for Employment Service activities, a $27.6 million cut from this year. $80.66 million to provide training and other services to seasonal and migrant farm workers. The Senate proposal adds the funds, even though the Bush Labor Department has been trying to eliminate the National Farm Worker Jobs Program for the past two years.