Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/819351
palletcentral.com PalletCentral • March-April 2017 29 are phased in over multiple years), and the beryllium rule (which has already had its effect date delayed by OSHA voluntarily). As this is written, OSHA, and most of the other non-defense agencies, has funding for FY 2017 (which started October 1, 2016) through a continuing resolution that expires on April 28, 2017. Congress will have to either enact another "CR" and kick the can down the road either to the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2017, or enact another short-term funding bill, or enact stand- alone appropriations bills for each agency, including the U.S. Department of Labor (which houses OSHA). Meanwhile, President Trump's FY 2018 budget was released to both cheers and howls, due to its cuts in domestic-side agency funding. The Department of Labor would receive a 21 percent reduction, but no real detail pertaining to individual agencies such as OSHA has been released yet, other than it calls for total elimination of funding for OSHA research grants, the "Harwood" program, which go to academic, labor and industry organizations to conduct studies on emerging hazards, create training materials and other programs. If OSHA does take a roughly one-fifth cut to its overall funding, the agency will have some discretion and input to Congress on how that money should be apportioned. Expect to see sharp cutbacks to funding for the enforcement and standards offices, with greater funding for cooperative compliance programs, outreach and training, and some of the cuts accomplished through personnel reductions-in-force and attrition due to retirements, voluntary quits and other departures. It's unlikely that Congress appropriators will want to tackle both a FY 2017 bill (midway through the year) and a new FY 2018 bill for each agency concurrently. Therefore, the current CR will likely remain in place, which for OSHA maintains funding at basically the same levels as during the Obama administration. However, OSHA (like most non-defense or security agencies) is under a hiring freeze, which means that vacant positions generally cannot be refilled. The result is that inspectors who retired at the end of 2016 cannot be replaced, and internal agency personnel vacancies in all departments are increasing and being left void. So, even without specific congressional action targeting OSHA For F Y 2017/2018, prospective riders could force OSHA to stall enforcement of any Obama-era final rules that are currently in litigation or have not yet taken effect.