Bureau of Labor and Industries officials told the Senate Interim Committee on Monday that a one‑time $15 million transfer from the worker benefit fund helped reduce intake backlogs, but without a continuing funding source the bureau risks losing the investigative capacity and progress gained over the next biennium.

Deputy leadership at BOLI said the agency has seen sharp increases in incoming work — a 278 percent rise in civil‑rights questionnaires over the past decade and a 208 percent rise in wage‑and‑hour complaints over four years. BOLI officials explained the one‑time transfer increased the bureau’s budget and created positions intended to clear backlogs, but those positions are not sustained by the single transfer.

In response to a question from Vice Chair Cedric Hayden, the deputy commissioner estimated that replacing the one‑time transfer adjusted for inflation would require roughly $17 million and that addressing the civil‑rights investigator gap (about five additional investigators) would add roughly $1.5 million—totaling slightly under $20 million to fill the projected gap absent other budget changes.

Paloma Sparks of Oregon Business and Industry supported additional funding while cautioning against placing the full burden on employers, noting that many laws added responsibilities to BOLI without commensurate funding. "We are concerned that we continue to see a pattern of new laws added to BOLI's workload ... and if we're not funding BOLI to do that work," Sparks said, the agency cannot keep up.

Katie Tyson of the Oregon AFL‑CIO said labor also supports a long‑term funding solution, warning that temporary fixes will only repeat the cycle of backlogs. Committee members asked for more detailed breakdowns by employer size and the deputy commissioner said the bureau's legacy database may not currently capture all the desired employer‑size data but that a one‑time case‑management investment will improve reporting.

The deputy commissioner also clarified that some of BOLI's budget comes from the wage security fund (a diversion of unemployment‑insurance taxes) which is ongoing and supports investigations in the Wage and Hour and Civil Rights divisions, but that other operational programs (apprenticeship, training) are not supported by those funds. No formal action was taken; the bureau and the multi‑stakeholder work group will continue meeting to develop consensus recommendations for a funding approach to present to the committee and relevant budget committees.