BUDGET/LOBBYING/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A proposal in President Donald Trump’s budget to eliminate a regulator and cut government spending is drawing criticism from an unexpected source: Washington’s business lobby.
Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is expected to outline the administration’s plans for reducing spending at the agency at a budget hearing Wednesday [6-7-17]. One proposal put forth is to merge the department’s body that oversees government contractors into the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an independent agency that enforces antidiscrimination laws among all employers including those with no government ties.
Some conservatives groups, including the Heritage Foundation, see the department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the commission as redundant. Both agencies enforce labor rules, overlap in jurisdiction and have coordinated on gathering of information in the past.
The contract office received $105 million in funding for the current fiscal year. The president’s budget proposes cutting that to $88 million for the next fiscal year, before combining the two agencies in the 2019 fiscal year. The commission’s funding for the next fiscal year was left unchanged.”
-Eric Morath, “Plan to Eliminate a Regulator Draws Criticism from Business Group,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 6, 2017 04:29pm