[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1114 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1114

To amend the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to establish a 
 more cooperative and effective method for rulemaking that takes into 
       account the special needs and concerns of smaller miners.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 25, 1999

   Mr. Enzi introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to establish a 
 more cooperative and effective method for rulemaking that takes into 
       account the special needs and concerns of smaller miners.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Small Mine Advocacy Review Panel 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to establish a more cooperative and 
effective method for rulemaking with respect to mandatory health or 
safety standards that takes into account the special needs and concerns 
of small mine operators.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT TO FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT OF 1997.

    (a) In General.--Section 101(a)(2) of the Federal Mine Safety and 
Health Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C. 811(a)(2)) is amended by inserting before 
the last sentence the following: ``The procedures for gathering 
comments from small entities as described in section 609 of title 5, 
United States Code, shall apply under this section and small mine 
operators shall be considered to be small entities for purposes of such 
section. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term `small mine 
operator' has the meaning given the term `small business concern' under 
section 3 of the Small Business Act (including any rules promulgated by 
the Small Business Administration) as such term relates to a mining 
operation.''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 609(d) of title 5, United States 
Code, is amended by striking ``Agency and'' and inserting ``Agency, the 
Mine Safety and Health Administration and''.
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