President Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget would toughen up scrutiny of labor leaders by bulking up the Office of Labor-Management Standards, the watchdog agency for union activities.
Trump’s proposed budget, released Monday, would increase the OLMS budget to $49 million, up from $44 million from last year. That would happen despite cuts in the department’s budget overall, funding it at $10.9 billion, down $1.2 billion or about 10 percent, from the previous year.
The proposed budget would, the White House says, “restore the Office of Labor-Management Standards’ investigative workforce, which has fallen by more than 40 percent during the past 10 years. The Budget would strengthen protections for union members by supporting more audits and investigations to uncover flawed officer elections, fraud, and embezzlement.”
The OLMS’ annual budget was $48 million in 2007 near the end of the Bush administration. It fell to a low of $39 million during former President Barack Obama’s administration, which rolled back financial disclosure regulations for union leaders. The administration stated a 2010 Federal Register announcement that this was “to avoid overburdening unions and their officials with unnecessary reporting requirements.”
A spokesman for the AFL-CIO could not be reached for comment.
