House appropriations subcommittee proposes cuts to OSHA, MSHA budgets

Washington – OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration would receive modest budget cuts in fiscal year 2019 as part of a draft funding bill proposed June 14 by the House Appropriations Committee’s Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

The draft appropriations bill allocates $545.3 million for OSHA, a decrease of about $7.5 million from FY 2018 and $3.8M from the Trump administration’s proposed funding.

The bill proposes $367.6 million for MSHA, about $6.2 million less than in FY 2018 and more than $8.3 million less than the administration’s budget request.

The subcommittee rejected the Trump administration’s proposed cut to NIOSH’s budget and instead places that agency in line for level funding. The administration had allotted $255 million for the agency for FY 2019, a decrease from $335.2 million in the previous fiscal year.

The Department of Health and Human Services has stated that NIOSH will move to the National Institutes of Health from its current status as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The appropriations bill, however, keeps NIOSH under CDC.

The bill was approved in a subcommittee markup June 15. A full appropriations committee markup was scheduled for June 26 at press time.

The Senate is expected to issue its appropriations bill covering the agencies during the week of June 25.