After months of advocacy from pro-labor groups and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) union members, members of Congress have included a modest funding boost for the NLRB in the must-pass omnibus funding bill, which the NLRB union says will help stave off major funding problems in the short term.
The bill proposes a $25 million budget increase for the agency tasked with carrying out union elections and protecting workers’ rights, bringing the agency’s total budget shy of $300 million for next year. This will be the first budget increase for the agency in nine years.
The NLRB union says that this funding boost will help stave off budgetary disaster for the agency, but points out that it is still far from enough to fix the agency’s current staffing needs and deficits.
“After nine long years, our national nightmare is over: a $25 million budget increase for the National Labor Relations Board has been included in the omnibus bill. If passed by both chambers, the funding Armageddon we warned of has been avoided — for at least this year,” the union wrote.
“To be clear, we were hoping for more funds,” the union continued. “As we have documented, the NLRB has been left dramatically understaffed after nearly a decade of flat funding, and this is not enough to replenish the agency. But breaking the streak is a tremendous accomplishment for Board advocates.”
NLRB leaders and union members have been warning for months that the agency is underfunded and has been for many years, thanks to conservative cuts and anti-labor backlash.
Due to inflation, the real cuts to the agency’s budget amount to 25 percent since fiscal year 2014. This has forced the agency to cut its staff by 39 percent, including a 50 percent cut in field staffing.
The NLRB union warned lawmakers in November that Democrats may not have another chance to boost the agency’s budget for several years if it isn’t increased before Republicans take control of the House in January. This would cause further problems for an agency already facing several funding crises, and almost certainly lead to furloughs that would severely impair the agency’s ability to carry out work that is crucial to supporting the rapidly growing labor movement in the U.S.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden requested an NLRB budget of $319 million, an amount which the NLRB has backed with evidence; Democrats and progressives in Congress have pushed for a budget of $368 million, which they say would fully fund the agency and come much closer to meeting its administrative needs.
And even the Democrats’ proposal still falls short of what the budget would be if it kept pace with inflation over the past decade or so; according to NLRB union legislative director and NLRB lawyer Mike Bilik, if the budget had tracked with inflation since Fiscal Year 2010, it would be $374 million this year.
“Don’t get me wrong we are relieved, but it was quite literally the least they could do to keep the lights on,” Bilik wrote on Twitter.
Labor advocates have also pointed out that such a boost to the NLRB budget would be absolutely miniscule compared to the defense budget — a $368 million budget would be about 0.004 percent of this year’s defense budget ($858 billion).
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 143 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy