DOL’s Solis plays fast and loose on MSHA budget

 

A little more than  year ago, I kinda took at shot in a news story at the Bush administration, when the folks running MSHA and the Department of Labor tried to make it look like they were proposing to increase spending on mine safety enforcement — when they were actually doing the opposite.

I say “took a shot,” well, what I mean is I tried to point out how the way they spun the numbers was misleading.

What happened was this:

MSHA issued a news release that announced the Bush administration’s budget for the 2009 federal financial year proposed to increase by 6 percent spending on mine safety. But, what they did was compare their budget proposal for 2009 to their budget proposal for 2008. They left out the part about how lawmakers — led by West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd — increased MSHA’s budget for the 2008 financial year from Bush’s proposal that year of $313.5 million to nearly $334 million.

When you compared the Bush proposal for 2009 to the actual MSHA budget for 2008, what was really being recommended by the Bush White House was a cut of about 0.6 percent.

So what should I make of the way Labor Secretary Hild Solis tried to spin the Obama administration’s proposal to — when adjusted for inflation — pretty much flat-line MSHA spending for the next financial year?

As I reported, Obama proposed a slight increase, of about 2 percent, in MSHA’s spending for the 2010 financial year that starts on Oct. 1.  That’s what it amounts to, anyway, if you compare Obama’s proposal to the enacted figures for 2009 (See the more detailed budget figures here).

But when I asked Solis about the MSHA budget during her online chat yesterday, I got a different answer:

The president is requesting $353,693,000, an increase of $6,690,000 above the fiscal year 2009 appropriated level for the Mine Safety and Health Commission (MSHA). That amount represents a 6.5 percent increase above the FY 2009 request. The budget includes $1.3 million and 15 full time employees in new funding to strengthen the agency’s metal and nonmetal enforcement program. The request level will allow MSHA to vigorously enforce safety and health laws and complete its inspection mandate.

What?

So, is Solis resorting to the same numbers games that the Bush administration did? Or, has the Obama administration set its bar for MSHA so low as to be comparing itself to Bush’s budget proposals, which the Interior Department’s Inspector General said led to serious staffing problems and missed inspections at a time when mining activity was on the rise.

Well, a couple of folks on the Hill told me that it’s common for administrations from both parties to compare budget proposal to budget proposal. Maybe it is. But I think it’s misleading — especially when doing so makes a 2 percent increase appear to be a 6 percent increase.

After yesterday’s Web chat, I got a follow-up e-mail message from Amy Louivere, MSHA’s public affairs spokeswoman.

The department is committed to transparency and integrity in its budget discussion.  The FY 2010 request for MSHA is $353.7, compared with the FY 2009 enacted level of $347 million, and the FY 2009 request level of $316 million.  The comparison that we provided was between the FY 2009 enacted and FY 2010 proposed levels.

If you really want to parse it out, Solis in one sentence compared 2010 proposed numbers to 2009 appropriated numbers. Then in the next sentence, she compared 2010 proposed numbers to 2009 proposed numbers.

And another thing that folks who care about mine safety and health might look at: In their budget materials — the slide show that highlights what DOL thinks is important in the president’s budget proposal — MSHA is not even mentioned.

Finally, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts made note yesterday that Obama has yet to appoint an assistant labor secretary to run MSHA.