Trump Signs Labor Dept. Funding Cuts Into Law

President Donald Trump Sept. 28 signed a “minibus” appropriations package that includes a cut to Labor Department funding.

Trump signed the legislation (H.R. 6157) to fund the DOL, the National Labor Relations Board, the Defense Department, the Health and Human Services Department, and related agencies for the next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

The bill includes $12.1 billion for the DOL, down $128 million from FY 2018 funding. The measure keeps NLRB funding at $274 million, unchanged from the current fiscal year for the agency tasked with enforcing the National Labor Relations Act.

Trump signed the legislation despite criticizing the package for not including funds for a proposed Mexico border wall. The minibus also includes a continuing resolution, which would extend funding for agencies not covered by completed appropriations bills through Dec. 7, averting a federal government shutdown at the end of this month.

The president’s signature into law comes days after the House and Senate days ago passed the minibus, which was a compromise of previous House- and Senate-passed versions of the legislation.

The minibus also rejected some of the deep agency cuts the Trump administration sought in its budget proposal released earlier this year. That included reducing the NLRB’s budget to $249 million and shaving the Labor Department’s to $10.9 billion.

The administration budget proposal is seen as a wish list—an opening bid that may or may not influence what congressional lawmakers agree on in appropriations.