Trump Doubles Down on Labor Department Budget Cuts for 2027 (2)

The US Labor Department would receive $9.9 billion in fiscal year 2027 under President Donald Trump’s budget blueprint, a 26% reduction to current funding levels, after Congress bucked similar cuts to this year’s budget.

The blueprint proposes cutting at least $2.4 billion from programs including the elimination of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and Job Corps. It is largely similar to last year’s proposed budget.

The OFCCP has limited remaining functions after Trump rescinded executive order 11246 last year, which had established the bulk of the agency’s responsibilities to police federal contractors for race and sex bias. The White House proposes moving OFCCP’s remaining functions to monitor bias against disabled workers and veterans to an expanded Office of Civil Rights.

Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair on the Senate Appropriations Committee, vowed Friday to toss the president’s budget “in the trash.”

“Last year, I said I’d rip up President Trump’s budget and make sure Congress wrote a new one instead—that’s exactly what we did and will do again,” she said.

The gutting of Job Corps spawned at least one lawsuit, with a federal judge in New York ruling the move is likely illegal.

Included in the proposed budget is the $3.4 billion Make America Skilled Again framework, which consolidates workforce training programs into one grant scheme.

The framework says it earmarks 10% for registered apprenticeships, noting it’s a “proven model that trains workers.” The proposal echos last year’s, though Congress ultimately rejected the MASA framework and provided mostly flat funding for the programs in the 2026 budget.

Under the DOL’s budget proposal, the Wage and Hour Division would see $235 million as opposed to $260 million for 2026, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would get $582 million down from $629 million. It also proposes $348 million for the US Mine Safety and Health Administration. This translates to a roughly $40 million budget cut from the current fiscal year of the nation’s top mine safety regulator.

The administration says its cuts emphasize outreach and education rather than enforcement of penalties for employers. It mentions elimination of the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Susan Harwood Training Grants, which educate employers and workers on preventing workplace hazards.

The proposal claims the Biden administration weaponized the Harwood funds for workers’ rights training for migrant farmworkers and provided funds to various workers’ rights groups.

The proposal also calls for rehousing the Office of Foreign Labor Certification in the Labor Secretary’s office to promote “faster decision-making.” OFLC enforces requirements on US employers to give right of first refusal for jobs to American workers, the plan said.

The Employee Benefits Security Administration, which oversees hundreds of thousands of private retirement plans and millions of health care plans and recently released a landmark proposal on getting more private assets into 401(k)s, would see a $10 million cut from $191 million to $181 million.

Most of the reduction comes from cuts to personnel compensation budgeted for the agency, which has seen significant staff attrition over the past year.

Non-cabinet workplace agencies would also largely get budgets trimmed under the White House’s proposal.

The National Labor Relations Board would lose $9 million, going from $294 million to $285 million. The Federal Labor Relations Authority’s budget would drop from $30 million to $28 million.

The National Mediation Board would see a slight budget decrease from $15 million in the current fiscal year to $14 million. The Office of the Special Counsel was flat funded at $32 million.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would get a boost of about $20 million from the current fiscal year, totaling $455 million. This would bring the agency back to FY 2025 funding levels.