The President’s FY 2013 Labor Department Budget: Keeping the Focus on America’s Workers

With 23.5 million Americans currently unemployed or underemployed, the number one job for Congress and the President remains putting them back to work. NELP just released a briefing paper that contrasts the stark differences between the President’s FY 2013 Budget, specifically the USDOL portion, with the cuts proposed in the Ryan budget.

Despite restrictive appropriations caps for FY 2013 set by last summer’s Budget Control Act, the President’s budget for USDOL still invests in workforce training and re-employment services while improving protections for workers on the job.  It does so by reviving many of the policy proposals from his FY 2012 budget and building on last year’s American Jobs Act of 2011.  Conversely, what we know about the Ryan budget’s treatment of workers is cause for alarm. The cuts in the FY 2013 Ryan Budget would not only wipe out all of these investments, but would lead to levels of job loss that could plunge us back into recession.

Click below to get the report (in PDF format).