Senate defeats attempt to increase funds for Bush’s anti-union Labor office

WASHINGTON (PAI)--By a 47-46 vote, the Senate on Oct. 22 defeated a GOP attempt to increase money for a Bush Labor Department agency whose mission is to pursue alleged union financial wrongdoing.

The vote came on an amendment by Radical Right Wing Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to the money bill for the departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services for the year that started Oct. 1. Senators later passed the bill.

The Democratic-run Senate Appropriations Committee, like its House counterpart, cut the funds that anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush requested for the so-called Office of Labor-Management Standards, from $47 million last fiscal year to $45 million this year. That would still leave OLMS with a one-third increase, or more, since Bush took office, even as other DOL investigation and enforcement funds have been slashed across the board.

Sessions not only wanted to restore the $2 million, but wanted to add $3 million more for OLMS, bringing the total to $50.737 million. He lost.

The story is not over yet. Bush has threatened to veto the entire money bill because congressional Democrats have added funds for other programs, including education aid, Labor Department enforcement in other areas, and health programs.

Overall, the bill contains about $10 billion more than the money Bush sought for the current fiscal year. And the House and Senate have to agree on one version, eliminating their differences, before it goes to the president.