The U.S. Labor Department is sitting on $135 million of leftover emergency funding from the pandemic rescue packages, providing a small lifeline for the agency’s enforcement arms after subagencies saw meager funding increases for fiscal 2022.
The Senate passed a full year $1.5 trillion federal funding bill earlier this month that provided the Labor Department with $13.2 billion in discretionary funding for the current fiscal year, which officially started on Oct. 1. Beneath the topline, most subagencies saw increases of 3% or less.
The relatively paltry increases amid rising inflation have already triggered calls for more funding ahead of the ...