Testimony on the funding priorities of America's working families that fall within the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. It includes the AFL-CIO's views on the President's fiscal year 2009 budget submission and recommendations on funding for the Workforce Investment Act, Unemployment Insurance, Employment Services, Trade Adjustment Assistance, worker safety and health programs including OSHA, NIOSH, MSHA and the World Trade Center Health Program, and the Office of Labor Management Standards.

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, I would like to thank you for the invitation to testify before your panel. My name is Arlene Holt Baker and I am Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). The AFL-CIO has 56 affiliated unions and represents 10.5 million working people in all sectors of the United States economy.

While every Appropriations subcommittee has jurisdiction over federal spending that is important to our affiliates and members, the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies has jurisdiction over many federal programs that are vitally important to America's working families. This subcommittee is also responsible for funding many of the most important programs that comprise the social and economic safety net that a progressive and compassionate society provides to its most vulnerable citizens.

On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I thank you for the difficult work you do. The scarce resources over which this subcommittee has jurisdiction cannot meet all the needs our country faces after the seven years of abuse and neglect that is the legacy of the Bush-Cheney administration. For the sake of time, I am limiting my testimony to some of the most pressing priorities the AFL-CIO has identified. However, we will continue to engage the Appropriations Committee throughout the remainder of this Congress on a full range of funding issues.

President Bush's eighth and final budget to Congress overwhelmingly ignores the needs and priorities of working Americans. The Bush FY 2009 budget preserves expensive tax cuts for the wealthy and dramatically boosts military spending, while cutting crucial programs for the most vulnerable Americans-children, the elderly, the poor and the sick. The President continues to propose major cuts in domestic appropriations and entitlements over the next five years, starting with $23 billion in FY 2009, totaling a massive $474 billion in cuts over five years.

Even though unemployment is on the rise and our economy is in serious distress, the President's budget contains over $1 billion in cuts for job training and employment security programs. Under this proposal, job training programs for dislocated workers, young people, Native Americans, and migrant and seasonal farm workers will all suffer major cuts, along with a program that enables lowincome senior citizens to work with community-based organizations in neighborhoods across the country.

Although the President has proposed some reforms and a modest increase in funding for the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, his reforms and his budget request fall far short of the essential improvements in the TAA bill already approved by a bipartisan majority in the House of Representatives - a bill he has irresponsibly vowed to veto.

This Bush Administration budget continues to underfund many basic, important programs that have been enacted over decades to protect America's workers from abusive employer practices. Yet at the same time, the Bush Administration continues to seek even further increases in funding for offices of the Labor Department that have been politicized and that have institutionalized the harassment of union activists who are engaged in their fundamental and legal right to belong to a union and participate in the lawful exercise of that right. In particular, the Department should be halted from moving forward with the implementation of the intrusive nine-page disclosure form, the LM-30, which would provide an extreme and unfair burden on rank and file union members who perform representational tasks such as resolving shop floor disputes or conducting safety inspections.

With his budget, the President has also turned his back on the brave men and women who responded to the devastating September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center. Thousands of these workers are now sick, many are disabled and some have died. These workers desperately need medical care, but the President's budget will slash funding for the World Trade Center Medical Screening and treatment program by 77 percent -- from $108 million to just $25 million. This is a cruel and dishonest rejection of the brave men and women who toiled for months on the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site.

And the President's budget puts other workers at greater risk. Funding for the research agency, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), will be cut 10 percent. At the Department of Labor, a small increase in funding has been requested for the federal enforcement program for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but the worker safety and health training program will be eliminated under the Bush budget. And the budget proposes to reduce funding for coal mine safety enforcement and for the development of new mine safety standards at a time when coal mine catastrophes continue and when the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is already failing to meet legal deadlines for issuing new protective standards.

Although 47 million Americans lack health insurance and millions more with coverage struggle to meet rising costs, the Bush tax proposal will actually make those who have coverage pay more, while providing no real help for the uninsured. Unconscionably, the proposed budget will also cut more than $196 billion over five years from Medicare and Medicaid, shift more costs to the states and limit eligibility for children who now receive coverage under the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

In short, the Bush budget is dangerously unmindful of our shaky economy and the perilous hold by many working families in our nation's middle class. It shortchanges the vital needs of America's workers, while giving priority to special interests and an anti-worker political agenda.

In my full written testimony that follows, I have singled out a few of the many priority areas in which the committee should do everything in its power to address important disparities.

PROGRAMS FOR JOB TRAINING AND JOBLESS WORKERS

Workforce Investment Act Programs

The President's FY 2009 budget proposes to eliminate Workforce Investment Act adult, youth and dislocated worker programs and consolidate funding into state block grants to be used for unproven Career Advancement Accounts that will provide less help to unemployed workers. Additionally, the budget will cut the total commitment to all training and assistance programs immediately.

Our nation's workforce training programs are often the last resort for low-income and disadvantaged workers who have been neglected by their employers and the underfunded student financial aid system. These are the workers who will be hurt most by these cuts. The President's continued cutting ofjob training funding and assistance for unemployed workers compounds the labor market problems working families have experienced since 2001 and worsens their economic anxiety.

Unemployment Insurance and Employment Service Programs

The FY 2009 budget proposes to cut Employment Security programs that support state Unemployment Insurance and Job Service activities, national activities and one-stop/labor market information programs by $685 million in real dollars compared to FY 2008. The FY 2009 budget represents a $1.5 billion cut from FY 2001 for these programs. Such cuts will significantly impair the ability of our nation's workforce system to provide career information to jobless workers and reduce the capacity to link employers and jobseekers in an effective manner.

President Bush's plan to eliminate the Employment Service will undermine the principle of an unbiased, nonpartisan agency to administer job referrals and assist in the payment of VI and Trade Adjustment Assistance benefits. The president's plan will lead to the privatization and contracting out of vitally important employment security functions, thereby compromising control over and accountability for federal resources.

The elimination of the Employment Service will hurt millions of unemployment insurance claimants and other jobless workers as well as employers seeking job applicants. It will have a particularly devastating effect on trade-impacted workers and veterans, as well as low skilled, minority and longterm unemployed workers who rely on the Employment Service for help.

The AFL-CIO urges the Committee to support our nation's public labor exchange system not only by turning back the administration's attempt to eliminate it, but also by providing resources to begin rebuilding that system, which has suffered from many years of disinvestment.

Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Programs

Unfair and inequitable trade policies are shrinking the middle class and fostering the flight of good jobs overseas. Between 2001 and 2006, an average of 159,000 workers per year were certified as eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), a program designed to provide income support and training to workers who lose their jobs due to trade with certain countries.

Renewed in 2002 and combined with the NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program, the new TAA program increased the number of workers potentially eligible for training and income support when they lose jobs because of international trade. It also extended some health care coverage to eligible participants. Lack of resources and funding, however, has resulted in significant problems in the adequacy and responsiveness of the program. The President's FY 2009 budget proposal will only worsen those problems. Assuming the President's trade policies continue to eliminate jobs for American workers, nearly 40,000 affected workers will not receive assistance because of the limited resources the administration proposes to make available in the FY 2009 budget.

Worker Safety and Health Programs

President Bush's FY 2009 budget request for worker safety and health programs is a very mixed picture. Funding for some programs, including federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforcement, is increased. But other programs, including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), suffer major cuts. Those programs designed to expand and improve knowledge about hazards and protections, including research, standard setting and training, are being cut or neglected. With this latest budget, the nation will fall further behind in efforts to address many serious safety and health problems workers face on the job.

The President has proposed a reduction in funding for the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) over FY 2008 levels. The coal enforcement program will be cut by nearly $10 million and the standards development office by $350,000, at a time when coal mine catastrophes continue and when MSHA is failing to meet legal deadlines for issuing new protective standards.

For FY 2009, President Bush has proposed a $28 million cut in the NIOSH budget, reducing the nation's commitment to researching and preventing workplace injuries, diseases and deaths. With this combined budget request of$1.08 billion for the federal job safety agencies, in FY 2009, the Bush Administration proposes to spend only $7.39 per American worker to protect them from job injuries, illnesses and death.

The Bush Administration proposes to totally eliminate funding for OSHA's worker safety and health training and education programs, as it also proposed in FY 2008. Indeed, every year since taking office, the Administration has sought to slash or eliminate funding for worker training. But each year the Congress has rejected these proposed cuts and maintained funding for worker safety training programs. At the same time, the Administration has proposed significant increases in funding for compliance assistance programs for employers, requesting a total of $131.1 million, which represents 26 percent of the overall OSHA budget.

For FY 2009, the Bush Administration has also proposed to slash funding for the World Trade Center (WTC) Screening and Treatment Program for 9/11 responders who are now sick as a result of exposures at Ground Zero. Only $25 million is requested for this program in FY 2009, compared to $108 million appropriated by Congress in FY 2008. This does not include emergency funding appropriated in earlier years for this program carried over to FY 2008. NIOSH, which administers this program, has estimated the annual cost of the program at $218 million. The President's FY 2009 budget proposal will leave thousands of sick workers without access to necessary medical treatment for their 9/11 conditions.

The AFL-CIO urges the Committee to increase the investment in worker safety and health programs. In particular, we ask that funding for worker safety and health training programs be maintained, that funding for OSHA and MSHA standard setting be increased so protections for major workplace hazards can be issued in a timely manner, and that funding for federal and state enforcement be enhanced. In addition, we urge the committee to increase funding for NIOSH, and include adequate funding for the World Trade Center Health Program, so those who are sick and at risk of disease can receive the medical treatment and health monitoring they need.

Labor Department Programs to Audit, Investigate and Prosecute Unions

Finally, we would like to address the efforts of the Department of Labor, under this administration, to harass, intimidate, and persecute unions and union activists who seek to engage in the lawful pursuit of representative duties. Despite its cuts in programs protecting workers, the Bush administration continues to seek funding increases in its FY 2009 budget for programs that audit, investigate and prosecute unions. New and proposed DOL reporting requirements dramatically increase the time, effort and expense to labor unions, their officers and employees of complying with disclosure requirements.

The FY 2009 budget proposed a $13.3 million increase in funding from FY 2008 for the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS). This represents a 29.6 percent increase from FY 2008 (a 26.7 percent increase in real dollars) and an increase of 91.0 percent from FY 2001.

Additionally, the Department continues to move forward with the implementation of a burdensome and intrusive nine-page disclosure form. For almost 50 years, Department of Labor has required a simple two-page report known as the "LM-30." This new rule dramatically increases the number of people who are covered by the an LM-30, now reaching rank and file union members who perform representational tasks such as resolving shop floor disputes, or conducting safety inspections during their workday without a loss of pay. This affects at least 100,000 union members not previously subject to the rule. If these members spend more than 250 hours per year on these activities, they must report all other personal financial information required by the new LM-30.

These newly covered workers now are required to disclose arms-length personal financial transactions that create no conflicts of interest. These now reportable transactions include: savings accounts or personal loans with union-sponsored credit unions and personal loans (such as home mortgages and student loans) to the union member or any members of the immediate family from banks that do any business with the worker's union or a union-sponsored benefit plan or do substantial business (10 percent or more) with a union-represented employer. This private and personal information will be posted on DOL's website for public inspection.

The AFL-CIO believes that it is fair and appropriate for Congress to put a halt to this onerous regulation and force DOL to return to the reporting requirements in place for 50 years.

Again, on behalf of the AFL-CIO, I wish to thank the committee for all of the work it does. I am greatly honored to have been allowed to testify before you.