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Washington — As expected, the Trump administration’s full fiscal year 2026 budget proposal – released May 30 – includes cuts to OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The White House also proposes to allocate $73 million to NIOSH – a nearly 80% cut from the agency’s approximately $363 million budget in FY 2025 – and eliminate the Chemical Safety Board.
As always, Congress will have the final say, and will seek to agree on legislation before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
OSHA
Under the Department of Labor’s FY 2026 budget proposal, the White House is seeking to trim roughly $50 million from OSHA’s coffers and reduce the agency’s full-time equivalent workforce by 223 – to 1,587 from 1,810.
OSHA had a $632.3 million budget in FY 2025. The $582.4 million proposal would represent about a 7.9% cut.
The agency would be expected to achieve some of that reduction by spending around $23.7 million less than the $243 allotted in FY 2025 for enforcement efforts, focusing more on compliance assistance.
DOL also seeks to eliminate $12.8 million for the Susan Harwood Training Grant program, claiming the grants “are wasteful and unnecessary given there is limited evidence of success, and the agency has other compliance assistance programs and tools that are more effective than Harwood Grants.”
MSHA
The DOL budget proposal for MSHA includes an approximate 10% cut (around $40 million), to $348.2 million from $387.8 million.
The department proposes to cut around $14 million in educational and policy development, including the elimination of the Brookwood-Sago Mine Safety Grant program “due to administrative inefficiency and insufficient evidence of success.”
Another $14.2 million in budget cuts would come out of MSHA’s mine safety and health enforcement.
The agency would have 47 fewer full-time equivalent employees, going down to 1,590 from 1,637.
During a Senate budget hearing on May 22, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said MSHA and OSHA inspectors are among those who are exempt from taking part in the department’s voluntary resignation program.
NIOSH
The White House announced in March that NIOSH would join four other agencies in the Administration for a Healthy America:
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
- Health Resources and Services Administration
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
No details were provided on what NIOSH would cut in FY 2026 because AHA’s budget request was listed as “forthcoming” at press time.
CSB
Although not mentioned in the White House’s “skinny budget” released on May 2, CSB’s proposed elimination is in an appendix to the FY 2026 budget proposal.
“The board shall be permanently cancelled not later than Sept. 30, 2026,” according to appropriations language in that appendix.
In the budget request on its website, CSB would use around $844,000 in emergency funds to cover the cost of shuttering the agency, but “exact closing costs will be determined upon consultation with [the Office of Management and Budget] and Congress.”
A statement in that budget request reads: “CSB duplicates substantial capabilities in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate chemical-related mishaps. CSB generates unprompted studies of the chemical industry and recommends policies that they have no authority to create or enforce.
“This function should reside within agencies that have authorities to issue regulations in accordance with applicable legal standards.”
During President Donald Trump’s first term, his administration proposed to eliminate CSB each year, but Congress didn’t oblige. The agency had a $14 million budget in FY 2025.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
The administration seeks to house the Bureau of Labor Statistics within the Department of Commerce instead of DOL.
“The BLS request is included in the department’s budget materials, but the budget proposes to reorganize the BLS, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Department of Commerce, under the policy direction of the under secretary for economic affairs,” DOL’s Budget in Brief states. “This reorganization proposal aims to leverage data collection and analysis synergies, increase cost effectiveness, improve data quality, and reduce respondent burden.”
BLS publishes data on worker fatalities and injuries/illnesses toward the end of each year.
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication