A budget cut is on the horizon for OSHA under the most likely funding scenarios for fiscal year 2014, per a new analysis from the Center for Effective Government. With sequester cuts of 7.2 percent looming for fiscal 2014, which starts October 1, and the House and Senate unable to agree on a federal budget, the center calculated that most compromise solutions will result in OSHA’s budget declining. Once inflation is factored in, OSHA’s budget could end up below its funding for 2010, the first full year of the Obama Administration.
The Senate has proposed a $567 million budget for OSHA, a 6 percent boost over its post-sequester 2013 budget of $535 million. The House has proposed that the budgets for OSHA and other Department of Labor agencies be cut 18.6 percent from their sequestered 2013 budgets, dropping to a department wide budget of $122 billion in 2014, down from $150 billion in 2013.