CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
(No. 24) A-15
(No letterhead)
... and Benefits Administration, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. will appear in future issues.

(An overview of the budget request for the Labor Department appears in Section E.)

BUDGET REQUEST FOR EEOC IS $210 MILLION; IMPACT ON ADA WILL BE 'DEVASTATING,' OFFICIAL SAYS

President Bush's fiscal 1992 budget request calls for $210 million for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which has started to gear up for a major new enforcement responsibility when the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act go into effect in July 1992.

If the requested budget is appropriated by Congress, it will exceed the commission's fiscal 1991 budget appropriation by only $12 million - essentially a "stay-even" level, considering inflation, and one that would have a "devastating" impact on the commission's efforts to enforce a major new law, according to a key agency official.

The EEOC official, who requested anonymity, declined to say how much money the commission requested from the Office of Management and Budget to enforce the new law, but implied that it was a significant amount.

The lack of resources called for in the president's budget "is devastating for this law's implementation. It's outrageous," the official told BNA. "When our disabled community sees this [budget request], war will break loose."

EEOC will begin enforcement of the ADA for employers of 25 or more employees July 26, 1992, 10 months into the 1992 fiscal year. The commission has estimated that 2,500 complaints of disability discrimination will be filed within the remaining two months of fiscal 1992. The agency "is already getting inundated" with questions about the new law, although its authority to take complaints is more than a year away, said the official, who estimated an eventual 20 percent increase in charges as a result of the new law.

Despite assuming authority for the enforcement of a major new law, the commission also will be operating at about the same level of personnel. The budget request provides for only a marginal increase in employment levels, EEOC said, raising the current 2,853-person staff to a new total of 2,885 employees.

The budget request also states that the administration will propose legislation to establish a separate "technical assistance revolving fund" - an unusual provision for a small agency like the EEOC. The fund would be supported by collections and payments received from recipients of technical assistance training, including employers. The creation of the fund, which would be revenue generating, "might diffuse some of the criticism" over the lack of increased appropriations for enforcing the law, suggested the EEOC aide.

Commission officials will begin meeting with Capitol Hill aides over the budget proposal next week, with the first appropriations hearing scheduled for late February.

$16.9 MILLION INCREASE FOR OSHA PROPOSED IN FISCAL 1992 BUDGET REQUEST

The Bush Administration Feb. 4 proposed fiscal 1992 funding of $302.1 million for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - a $16.9 million increase over estimated 1991 appropriations, but essentially "a stay-even budget," according to an agency spokeswoman.

The administration also sought a modest increase in funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, but requested that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health budget remain at the level of estimated appropriations for the current fiscal year.

Copyright 1991 by THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS INC., Washington, DC 20037