The “OFCCP Week in Review” is a simple, fast and direct summary of relevant happenings in the OFCCP regulatory environment published weekly. Here are the latest developments:
Thursday, June 9, 2016: U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Proposes to Again Reduce OFCCP’s Budget: On a 29-1 vote, the United States Senate Appropriations’ Committee approved on Thursday the first bi-partisan funding bill during the Obama Administration for the US Department of Labor. In so doing, however, the Committee reduced OFCCP’s budget by $1M (exactly) dropping its annual spending to only $104,476,000.
The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations’ Committee is in the process of releasing its proposed budgets every couple of days now, but has yet to release its U.S. Department of Labor budget. If the House proposes a funding level different from the Senate, the two houses go to conference and negotiate a compromise budget. The House has recently been more hostile to OFCCP than the Senate, so the future does not bode well for OFCCP.
If OFCCP were to lose only $1M in budget, combined with an estimated $2M of increased expenses (rent/payroll/IT, etc.) OFCCP expects in FY2017, it would represent the equivalent of a loss of approximately 30 Compliance Officers (although OFCCP could take the loss in any expense line item such as travel, research, or IT, etc.). OFCCP suffered a $1M loss of budget for this year (FY2016) while the budgets of all other federal employment and discrimination agencies stayed even or increased. Another tough year for OFCCP appears to be in the offing given the bi-partisan nature of this latest potential budget cut for OFCCP.
THIS COLUMN IS MEANT TO ASSIST IN A GENERAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE CURRENT LAW AND PRACTICE RELATING TO OFCCP. IT IS NOT TO BE REGARDED AS LEGAL ADVICE. COMPANIES OR INDIVIDUALS WITH PARTICULAR QUESTIONS SHOULD SEEK ADVICE OF COUNSEL.
Reminder: If you have specific OFCCP compliance questions and/or concerns or wish to offer suggestions about future topics for the OFCCP Week In Review, please contact your membership representative at 866-268-6206 (for DirectEmployers Association Members), or email Candee at candee@directemployers.org with your ideas.
