EEOC Budget Update, 6/27/05

FY '06 Senate Appropriations Language

Last week, EEOC's Senate Appropriations Committee "marked up" EEOC's budget and made the following recommendations regarding the amount of EEOC's funding and instructions regarding how the funding should be used. The House side has already gone through the this process. Like the House, the Senate subcommittee recommended that EEOC be allocated the exact amount it asked for in its FY '06 request. While this is good news, the amount is the same that the EEOC received last year, prior to across the board recisions which brought the amount down a couple million. It would not be unlikely for recisions to occur again this year. Therefore, EEOC's budget will probably be less than level funding, when you include inflationary increases. Also, please note the Senate subcommittee's appropriations language regarding EEOC restructuring.

The Committee recommends an appropriation of $331,228,000. The recommendation is $4,425,000 above the fiscal year 2005 funding level and identical to the budget request.

The Committee remains concerned over the pending Equal Opportunity Employment Commission [EEOC] repositioning plan and its impact on the Commission's ability to perform its investigations and enforcement duties. The Committee includes bill language that prohibits implementation of any workforce repositioning, restructuring, or reorganization until the Committee has been notified of the proposal, in accordance with section 505 of this Act.

The Committee further directs that the repositioning plan not result in a reduction in salary for any EEOC employee or in a reduction in the number of officers or employees serving as mediators, investigators, or attorneys at any Commission office except in the case of voluntary reassignment or voluntary separation.

The Commission is directed to submit to the Committee, prior to implementation of any repositioning, restructuring, or reorganization plan, a comprehensive analysis of current investigations and enforcement levels and the full impact of the repositioning plan on all core services. The analysis should be conducted for each district, field, area, and local office. The Committee understands that the EEOC plans to solicit public comment on the proposed plan and expects that this process be thorough and continue until all interested parties have an opportunity to have their comments heard. The Committee also expects the Commission to take into consideration those public comments prior to any vote of the Commissioners on implementation of any repositioning, restructuring, or reorganization plan.