The Clinton Administration has requested a $426 million budget for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in fiscal year 2001, a $44.4 million increase — or 11.6 percent more than the $381.6 million appropriated by Congress for the current fiscal year. The increase, according to Charles N. Jeffress, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health, will enable OSHA to achieve better balance between its outreach activities, such as compliance assistance and training, and its enforcement activities, which in recent years have been targeted at high hazard worksites.
“The increase will improve our ability to provide expertise and services to both employers and employees,” says Jeffress. “The President’s budget request ensures that OSHA continues its 29-year history as a catalyst for improving workplace safety and health.”
Workplace fatalities have been slashed 50 percent, and injuries and illnesses have been cut 40 percent since OSHA was created in 1971, while the number of people employed has increased 116 percent.
