The following article refers to the request as a slight increase from '05.  Actually, the FY ‘05 Omnibus Appropriations Bill allotted the EEOC  $331million for this fiscal year.  This is the the same amount that EEOC is asking for in FY ‘06.  However, all Federal agency budgets this year were subject to across the board recisions to cover funding for the war and a manned mission to mars.  This means that EEOC had to give back some of its final funding, landing it at about $327.  Therefore, the article claims that the requested $331 is an increase.  Undoubtedly, next year there would also be recisions on our final appropriations.  -RS

2/8/05

EEOC Bush Seeks $331 Million for EEOC in 2006,Marginal Increase From 2005 Funding Level

In keeping with its tight restrictions on domestic spending, the Bush administration will seek $331 million for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's fiscal year 2006 budget--a 1 percent increase from the $327 million in the current budget.

With the presidential budget requests for the civil rights enforcement agency historically reduced by legislators on Capitol Hill, however, the commission is likely to face further financial constraints as the appropriations process goes forward.

For the current fiscal year budget year, for example, the final appropriation was $25 million less than the $351 million initially sought by the administration. A year before that, the final budget was $10 million less than the initial request of $333.5 million.

The commission's total budget request also includes $33 million to be allocated to state and local government grants, under work-sharing agreements EEOC has entered with state and local agencies.

EEOC estimates that it will receive about 81,000 charges of discrimination during the current fiscal year and expects that workload to increase by about 3,000 in fiscal 2006. In fiscal 2005, the agency projects that it will resolve a total of 78,300 private sector charges--7,600 of them through mediation.

"The budget request will allow the commission to continue its enforcement and outreach programs, while repositioning the agency for improved services," an EEOC aide told BNA, adding that no job cuts were anticipated.

The commission has about 2,400 full-time workers and has been in a hiring freeze for three years.