Report on Dept. of Labor calls for Congress to add more funding for Office of Labor Management Standards and Senate to end recess filibuster

Nov. 8, 2018, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government Foundation today released a report, “Make the Department of Labor Work Again: Congress Must Increase Funding for OLMS and Allow Recess Appointments.”

The report by Americans for Limited Government Foundation Director of Research Richard McCarty urges to the Senate to end the recess filibuster and to add more funding to the Office of Labor Management Standards that prosecutes labor union corruption.

The report states, “Congress must address the inadequate levels of staffing and funding at the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), which fights union corruption and helps ensure that union elections are free and fair.”

McCarty added, “The Trump Administration requested over $46 million for OLMS for FY 2019, but even that is short of the funding necessary to enable the agency to conduct as many audits as the agency did during the latter part of the George W. Bush Administration. Instead of appropriating more funding for OLMS than was requested, Congress appropriated less – only a little more than $41 million. But while Congress appropriated less than requested for OLMS, it appropriated more than a billion dollars more for the entire Labor Department than the Administration requested.”

On Senate Democrats filibustering recess appointments McCarty wrote, “because far too many senior DOL positions are either vacant or filled with an acting official, the Senate must immediately end the filibuster of adjournment resolutions and take a ten-day recess to allow President Trump to make recess appointments before the new Congress is sworn in. Currently, Democrats can filibuster such resolutions forcing the Senate to hold pro forma sessions every three days to prevent the President from making recess appointments.”

On Nov. 6 in the Congressional midterms, Senate Republicans added three net seats, bringing them to a 54-seat majority.

Attachments:

“Make the Department of Labor Work Again: Congress Must Increase Funding for OLMS and Allow Recess Appointments,” By Richard McCarty, Nov. 8, 2018 at http://algresearch.org/2018/11/make-department-labor-work-congress-must-increase-funding-olms-allow-recess-appointments/ and https://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Make-the-Department-of-Labor-Work-Again-11-8-18.pdf

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