The House of Representatives has approved a massive consolidated spending bill that would provide increased funding for the Department of Labor (DOL), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), among other agencies for fiscal year 2010. The Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 3288) – which combines six separate spending measures – passed by a vote of 221-202 on Thursday, with no Republican members voting in its favor. Text of the conference report for this bill and joint explanatory statements can be found here.

The increased funding would provide the affected agencies with the financial backing to support the promised boost in personnel, regulatory actions, and enforcement efforts in the coming year. According to a summary (pdf) of the labor funding portions of the bill, of the $13.3 billion in discretionary funding allocated to the DOL, $1.6 billion would be allotted to worker safety and health initiatives. This amount is $121 million more than the total given to DOL worker protection agencies in 2009. The funds would be used to support more than 600 new full-time enforcement and compliance employees at the Employment Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Employment Standards Administration (ESA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).

OSHA, in particular, would receive a comparatively large increase in funding. As noted in the Joint Explanatory Statement on the agency’s funding levels, “Within the funds provided for Federal Enforcement, the conferees intend for the Department to use the increase above the fiscal year 2009 funding level to continue a multi-year process of rebuilding OSHA's enforcement capacity and increasing the pace of standard setting.”

In addition, a total of $283.4 million would be provided to the NLRB, up $20.8 million from the previous year. In terms of employment-related immigration efforts, the bill’s summary claims funds would be used to “modify current authorities to allow the Departments of Homeland Security and Labor to conduct fraud prevention and enforcement programs that focus on industries employing temporary workers using the H-1B, H-2B and H-2A visa programs.”

The EEOC and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will also receive an increase in the coming year. According to a summary (pdf) of the DOJ and EEOC appropriations:

• The EEOC would receive $367 million for FY 2010, $23 million above the amount provided for 2009. These funds would be used to help ease the backlog of more than 70,000 pending employment discrimination cases.
• The Civil Rights Division would receive $145 million, $22 million above the 2009 amount, “to reinvigorate the civil rights program at the Department of Justice.”

Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indicated that the Senate will be in session this weekend to consider this $447 billion spending legislation.