House Republican Cuts Ship Manufacturing Jobs Overseas and Undermine American Workers

Based on information the House Appropriations Committee received from agency leaders in the Biden Administration, House Republicans’ reported proposal to cut fiscal year 2024 discretionary spending back to the fiscal year 2022 enacted level—resulting in a cut of at least 22 percent for essential programs—would ship manufacturing jobs overseas and undermine American workers:

“For years, billionaires and big corporations have made record profits while jobs are shipped overseas and American workers are denied pay raises and safe work environments,” said Appropriations Committee Ranking Member DeLauro. “We have a responsibility to protect and lift up our workers, yet the cuts proposed by House Republicans would undermine these efforts. These cuts would deny hundreds of thousands of workers job training and employment services and result in far less opportunities to find Registered Apprenticeships. Worker health and safety while on the job would be at risk, allowing big corporations to put workers in dangerous conditions by taking advantage of limited enforcement. Workers need more support and more opportunities to access higher paying jobs and job training, not less. I’m committed to ensuring that these critical programs—and American workers—continue receiving the bipartisan support they deserve.”

“If House Republicans follow through with their threats to rollback government funding to fiscal year 2022 levels, up to 4,500 federal wildland firefighters would be furloughed, and the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service would have no choice but to put their efforts to modernize the workforce and hire additional firefighters on hold. This is plain nonsensical as the climate crisis threatens more and more of our communities,” said Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree. “On Thursday, my Appropriations Interior Subcommittee colleagues and I will get a chance to hear directly from Forest Service officials about just how detrimental these cuts would be to their essential operations. From National Forest System operations that are vital for tourism, the economy, and the environment, to fire management efforts that are critically important to protecting the safety of our communities and land vitality—the devastating impact of these proposed cuts cannot be overstated.”

The math is not there. These drastic proposed cuts would:

Undercut American workers.

• The House Republican proposal would deny 750,000 American workers job training and employment services and result in 100,000 fewer workers gaining the opportunity of a Registered Apprenticeship.
• Up to 4,500 wildland firefighters would be furloughed and efforts to modernize the workforce and hire additional firefighters would stop.
• These cuts would result in a dramatic reduction in funding for State and Tribal Assistance Categorical Grants that supports states, territories, and Tribes. For some states, these grants account for hundreds of jobs and nearly 60% of their environmental agency’s budget.  
• Make it more difficult for parents to join the workforce by causing 200,000 children to lose access to Head Start and 100,000 children would lose access to child care.

Rob workers of back pay.

• Recovered wages make a real difference for workers struggling to pay rent, buy food, pay for child care, or cover gas or transportation costs to get to their jobs. By reducing investigations and targeted inspections, a cut of 22 percent would mean that 135,000 workers would lose an average of $1,000 in back wages that they are owed and would tilt the playing field against employers who follow the law.

Make work environments less safe.

• Workers rely on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to ensure their work environments are safe. A 22 percent cut in funding would result in losing at least 270 inspectors and conducting 10,800 fewer inspections. OSHA would be less able to respond to worker complaints allowing bad employers to put workers in dangerous conditions that can result in serious injury or death.

More information on how this proposal ships manufacturing jobs overseas and undermines American workers can be found here. Watch House Appropriations Committee members examine these cuts in budget hearings here.