Bankrupting Government

Quick facts:

• From FY 1981 to FY 2007, the number of full-time employees at FSIS fell from 9,932 to 9,184 — a 7.5 percent drop.
• In FY 1981, FSIS spent $13.22 per thousand pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed. By FY 2007, the figure had fallen to $8.26 per thousand pounds.
• FSIS's inspection force has an average national vacancy rate of at least ten percent.
  
  Read the article here [1] (published March 4, 2008)

Coal Mine Safety Shortchanged by Years of Budget Cuts [2]

Quick facts:

• MSHA's budget has been cut 17 percent since its inception.
• Since its peak in 1979, the number of MSHA employees carrying out mine regulation and oversight has declined by 45 percent.
• MSHA is struggling to ensure coal mine safety as mine inspections dwindle and new protective standards are delayed.
  
  Read the article here [2] (published Feb. 20, 2008)

Product Safety Regulator Hobbled by Decades of Negligence [3]

Quick facts:

• CPSC's budget has been cut almost 40 percent since its inception.
• Even though CPSC's budget increased in the late 1990s and under the watch of George W. Bush in the early 2000s, employment levels continue to drop sharply.
• While CPSC has diminished in size and capacity, the industries it regulates have grown.
  
  Read the article here [3] (published Feb. 5, 2008)

Workers Threatened by Decline in OSHA Budget, Enforcement Activity [4]

Quick facts:

• OSHA's budget has been cut each year President Bush has been in office.
• OSHA staffing levels have not kept pace with the growth in the American workforce.
• Government agencies conduct fewer than half the number of workplace inspections conducted 30 years ago.
• After three decades of significant progress, declines in workplace fatality rates have stagnated in recent years.
  
  Read the article here [4] (published Jan. 23, 2008)

Data and Sources
Data points and sources for information cited in each article

FSIS [5] (xls)

CPSC [6] (xls)

OSHA [7] (xls)