Labor secretary defends Trump plan to cut and merge anti-discrimination agencies

Cutting and merging two agencies that investigate workplace discrimination won’t reduce the government’s enforcement power, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said Wednesday. But Democrats pointed to what they say is President Trump’s broader effort to roll back decades of civil rights protections.

“Department of Labor is going to allow, now, discrimination to run rampant,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) told Acosta at a hearing on Trump’s budget, which proposed the changes.

Trump’s budget recommends merging the office that enforces civil rights among federal contractors with the independent Equal Employee Opportunity Commission, which handles complaints against private businesses. The administration says that would save taxpayer money.

The idea has generated opposition from employers as well as workers’ groups, who fear such a move would create a sort of super enforcement agency that would dilute investigations but carry overwhelming punitive power.

It’s far from certain the Republican-controlled Congress will write the plan into its version of the budget. Acosta told the House panel that making the change would require legislation. He called the proposed merger “a common-sense” move and said savings would come from “the streamlining process” and not from enforcement.

As for Lee’s remark about allowing discrimination to run rampant: “With respect, I don’t think that’s the case,” Acosta said.

“I think it is,” Lee replied.

The exchanges were striking in part because Acosta is the only Latino in Trump’s Cabinet and has spoken in emotional terms about immigration matters — sometimes in conflict with Trump’s hard line on the issue.

Republicans have long criticized the Equal Employee Opportunity Commission for its case backlog.

Armed with subpoena power, the commission resolved more than 97,000 cases in fiscal year 2016 and took in nearly 92,000 new ones. The budget document says the number of new cases would probably drop slightly. The backlog of unresolved cases also is expected to gradually decline, to 60,000 cases in fiscal year 2020 from more than 73,000.

The second agency, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, is part of the Labor Department. The budget proposes reducing staff to 440 employees from 571 and merging it with the Equal Employee Opportunity Commission, for a savings of more than $17 million.