Democratic President Barack Obama’s proposed Labor Department spending plan for the year starting Oct. 1 cuts the DOL budget by $40 billion.  But that cut may be an illusion: Virtually all of it is in mandatory spending programs, such as jobless benefits, whose actual dollars flowing depend on the state of the economy.
 
            Still, Obama’s DOL budget blueprint – part of his larger $3.75 trillion proposal for the entire government in fiscal 2011 – drew a cool reception from both parties on Capitol Hill, just before the fireworks start.
 
            That’s because the GOP-run House plans to vote during the week of Feb. 14 on a spending bill for the rest of this fiscal year that would cut – depending on whom you talk to – anywhere up to $100 billion from this year’s figures, with more to come in 2011.
 
            Democrats damned Obama’s plan with faint praise because it hacked away at some programs for the poor, such as aid to help low-income people pay their heating bills.  The GOP hated it, first because Obama proposed it, and second because Obama did not – as the GOP wants – cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
 
            AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka reserved comment on both the president’s proposals and the GOP alternative until his staff had a chance to comb through both. 
 
            But Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said her department made some “tough choices” when faced with a presidential order to hold spending on non-mandatory programs – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), payments to ill former nuclear power plant workers, the Job Corps, etc. – flat. 
 
In just one example of contrast, Obama wants to give OSHA $25 million more next year, to $583 million.  The House GOP wants to cut it this year, by $99 million.
 
            “Clearly, cuts will mean reduced services,” assistant labor secretary for employment and training Jane Oates told a public web chat on the budget.
 
“This budget is based on our belief that to win the future, we can not cut in a way that will undermine our ability to out-educate, out-innovate, or out-build our economic competitors,” Solis said in the web chat.
 
“Many American workers, particularly those experiencing long-term unemployment need our help to obtain the skills and credentials for the jobs that will open up as the economy recovers.  Our request is an investment in our future to train hardworking, unemployed Americans to upgrade their skills.  We are committed to discovering programs that work best and providing resources to replicate them,” Solis said.
 
Besides the $25 million increase for OSHA, other Obama administration Labor Department proposals include:
 
         * $46 million, up from $25 million this year, for a multi-agency initiative within the department to fund state grants “that address worker misclassification within the context of the unemployment insurance program.” 
 
Worker misclassification, as independent contractors, is particularly rife in trucking, construction and food processing.  It lets unscrupulous and venal employers escape paying Social Security, Medicare and workers comp for their workers – and classifying workers as “independent contractors” bars them from unionizing. 
 
“This initiative will help level the playing field for employers who abide by the law and provide employees with their rightful pay and benefits,” DOL said.  Wage and Hour Division assistant secretary Nancy Leppink added her agency would, as part of it, “enforce labor violations that result from the misclassification of employees as ‘independent contractors’ and to deter such violations in the future.”
 
            * $860 million, down $1 million, for adult employment and training, targeted to low-income workers to get them into middle-class-paying occupations.  The budget anticipates serving 6 million such workers next year, down from 6.95 million this year.
 
            * $1.4 billion to retrain just over 1 million dislocated workers who lost their jobs due to plant closings and mass layoffs. That’s down $10 million – and 120,000 retrained workers – from this year.
 
            * $1.67 billion to retrain workers who lost their jobs due to unfair competition from foreign imports.  That’s down $147 million from this year’s actual spending.
 
* $23 million to give grants to states that adopt paid family leave laws.  Obama proposed that last year, for this year’s spending – but with double the funds ($50 million).  The then-Democratic-run Congress didn’t adopt it.
 
OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels said in the web chat his agency’s spending request includes money to work on new rules on combustible dust, infectious diseases, making walking and working surfaces safer, silica exposure and getting firms to communicate hazards to workers. He did not say what would happen if the GOP’s planned $99 million cut passed.