[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S447-S452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BYRD (for himself, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Kennedy):
  S. 2231. A bill to direct the Secretary of Labor to prescribe 
additional coal mine safety standards, to require additional penalties 
for habitual violators, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, it is my honor today to join with my 
colleague Senator Byrd, who I am sure will be here very shortly. We are 
very proud to announce that we are, as an entire West Virginia 
delegation, introducing the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 2006.
  The last few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster in West 
Virginia and across large parts of the country as we watched the damage 
and the pain and the crying and the anger because of a series of coal 
mine accidents that happened in West Virginia where 14 miners lost 
their lives and in the State of Kentucky where a miner lost his life. 
There is no real way of describing the sadness and the grief of being 
with families as they find out their coal-miner spouses are no longer 
alive.
  Everybody understands that coal mining is very dangerous, but you go 
in every day with the hope that it will be all right. It is a way of 
life. People ask, Why do you go into coal mining? They go into coal 
mining to keep the lights of America on and they do it to earn a good 
wage.
  What we have to do is make sure the legacy of these 15 miners who 
died--1

[[Page S448]]

in Kentucky and 14 in West Virginia, 15 miners in all--is that we make 
sure this kind of tragedy never happens again.
  It is amazing to be in a coal-mining community when tragedy hits. 
People pull together amazingly, in Kentucky very much like West 
Virginia in that respect, and there is a sense of family. One person's 
loss is every person's loss.
  Obviously, we have the losses that come in Iraq and in wartime in 
general. But there is something about coal mining. When there is a 
death in coal mining, it is devastating to a community and it takes a 
long time to heal.
  I would come to churches--the Freewill Baptist Church in Logan 
County, the Sago Baptist Church in Upshur County, one south and the 
other up north--and you learn spiritually and personally forever with 
people who are bound together forever because they have gone through 
something which is truly difficult.
  I note that in the case of Kentucky, we even have evidence of a miner 
who was killed two years ago who was actually videotaping with his 
video camera things which he thought were not proper in that particular 
mine, as he was killed. He was still videotaping as he was killed.
  Legislation is needed.
  I note the presence on the floor of my distinguished senior 
colleague, Senator Byrd.
  What we plan to do in the Senate and in the House--we in the Senate 
and our three Members in the House--is, in fact, to take the first step 
toward improving mine safety and doing it through legislation.
  It is a sad thing to say, for the country and for all of us, where we 
have gone through a period of years where we haven't had large numbers 
of people killed in the mines, that we have been lulled into thinking 
that mining is not dangerous. That has been compounded by the fact that 
the obsession with oil which the President spoke about last night has 
been very real. What is going on overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq, and 
other places of danger across the world has generally tended to pull us 
away, I think maybe for 20 years, from a review of what coal mine 
safety legislation, rules, and regulation through MSHA, the Mine Safety 
and Health Agency, ought to be. Things haven't changed a lot. The 
safety technology in the mines has not changed a lot. There is a bit of 
a lax attitude, and a little bit of indifference. This is the world we 
live in--the world of mining--and it is as it is, and it ever shall be. 
That kind of thinking we have to stop.
  As a delegation, led by Senator Byrd, we are determined to do that. 
We are determined that the legacy of these 14 miners in West Virginia 
and the one in Kentucky will be that this kind of accident never takes 
place again. We do not want that to happen.
  The irony is that coal, which has always been taken for granted by 
the American people, to my distress, is a full 31 percent--and it has 
been for years--of all of our energy use in America. People are always 
thinking about importing oil, and we do. That is a tremendous addition 
to our trade deficit, and it causes all kinds of other problems when we 
are dealing with very unstable countries--increasingly unstable 
countries. But all the while coal has been sitting there. We have a 
250-year supply of coal in the United States of America. That can be 
substituted for much of that oil.
  The coal industry is growing. The price of coal is going up. People 
are going to be opening new coal mines. I wouldn't say it is a hot 
industry in financial terms, but it is very close to it, which means 
there are going to be more mines opened. Therefore, more people will be 
getting into mining--some will be small, some will be larger. We have 
to make sure they will be mining safely and responsibly. That takes 
vigilance on our part, on the part of the Secretary of Labor, and on 
MSHA's part. That is why Senator Byrd, my senior Senator, will no doubt 
submit the bill.
  But we want to call immediate attention to the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration and the Secretary of Labor because they have in their 
power right now the ability to cause to happen a number of the 
suggestions which we are making. They can simply do it. They have the 
rulemaking power to do that, but they have not done that.
  What we are doing is looking at a few ways that the Mine Safety and 
Health Administration and also the Secretary of Labor, Elaine Chao, can 
act aggressively to improve mine safety, as they can do without a 
single change in any law at all. In many cases, Congress has given them 
this authority. It is just a matter of the Secretary of Labor moving 
on these issues. It ought to ring loud and clear, and there ought to be 
results from that.

  In our bill, we also instruct the Secretary to promulgate rules 
quickly to require a series of things: advanced communication and 
breathing apparatus, technologies that can be deployed in our mines.
  This is something which has baffled Senator Byrd, myself, and our 
delegation for a long time. We have a lot of rules and regulations; 
regarding breathing apparatuses, for example; oxygen supplies, for 
example--which have not changed since 1977, or before. We have just 
gone through a period of years when we have not put the focus on coal 
mine safety. Now that is at an end. We have to have advanced 
communications and breathing apparatus technologies.
  It has been said often--it will be said once again--that we could 
talk with Neil Armstrong on the Moon when he was there many years ago, 
but we can't talk with a coal miner in a two-way communications system 
who may be 1,000 or 2,000 feet underground. To say the technology for 
that doesn't exist is to say that America isn't America.
  I have had in my office, as I am sure others have, numerous people in 
the last several days pouring out ideas they are working on or have 
developed. The families of the victims gave us many ideas of what could 
be done. We are a country of new technologies. We have simply declined 
to apply it to coal mine safety, and the coal mines have been a bit lax 
to take the initiative on that. This is something we are all going to 
have to do together. We have to demand that rescue teams be staffed and 
on site in every single mine.
  There was a major problem, particularly at the Sago mine up north. 
But rescue teams have to be a part of an operation. If you are going to 
start a business, a rescue team within your workforce has to be a part 
of what you do--not simply wait for a rescue team 2 hours away to 
collect itself and then come. That is usually too late. It is amazing 
to me that that situation exists.
  We have to also develop a schedule of fines for mining violations. 
They have to mean something. The average mine violation at Sago--there 
seem to be several hundred of them--all seems to be $60 or $270. That 
doesn't change behavior. That encourages a company to say, Look, we 
will pay because there is no real penalty on us.
  Fines can be charged up to $60,000, and we are going to increase 
that. Mines can be shut down by Federal mine inspectors if they choose 
to do that. But for the most part they have not chosen to do that. The 
lesson has to sink in to be responsible as a coal mine or else you 
can't do it.
  Another matter in our legislation is that we have to notify the MSHA 
immediately when there is an accident. That was not done in a couple of 
our cases. In one case, it took a very long period of time to notify 
the agency. That seems a small thing, but that is a huge thing, 
particularly because small mines today don't necessarily have their own 
rescue teams.
  There have to be extra alerts that go out across the Federal and the 
State bureaucracy and within the mining community so that rescue teams 
can get to the spot as soon as possible.
  So we want the Federal mine safety agency to make the health of 
miners its first and foremost priority.
  As of the day that first problem happened at Sago with the death of 
so many miners, it has become my first priority and will stay that way 
until we get what we need in coal mine safety, working with the 
companies, with the Federal Government and, where necessary, to use 
legislation.
  The enforcement of mine safety laws requires a set of penalties that 
reflects the seriousness. We cannot have a situation such as we had at 
Sago Mine--$60 or $270 fines with over 200 violations. They have to 
reflect the seriousness, and be proportional. They have to be larger 
and have impact. Companies cannot just say, I will go ahead and pay 
that, but I don't have to make any

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change because I can afford to pay that; then I don't have to have 
people coming in and looking at what is going on in my mine as much.
  MSHA has minimal penalties and that is the fault of all of us; but 
primarily MSHA should do its job. As part of MSHA's invigorated 
commitment to the safety of miners, we are going to seek to have in our 
legislation the agency enforce a longstanding rule which was canceled 
in 2004. It is a very serious rule and one that I will briefly explain. 
Mine operators have been using fresh air escapeways to house coal 
conveyer belts. What does that mean? The first thing we need to 
understand, mines are required to have fresh air escapeways. These are 
supposed to be free from potentially combustible material, combustible 
gases, and the possibility of fire. Where there is a beltway--which 
costs $100 million plus in some cases; it is a very large operation--a 
single friction could ignite a fire. That fire, then, can take off into 
the coal seams and cause terrible damage and destruction of human life.
  Belt fires such as the one resulting in the deaths of the two brave 
West Virginians at the Alma mine in southern West Virginia are some of 
the most dangerous occurrences in coal mining in any form. The very 
least we can do to protect miners is keep the entrances to the mines--
where these miners risk their lives every day to provide the rest of 
the country with the energy--free of such avoidable hazard. That was 
the rule. That was the law for many years.
  For reasons we can only guess, MSHA altered the enforcement practices 
to allow for entry coal belts in 2004. That is wrong. That is the lack 
of vigilance on the part of all who watch over mining.
  Finally, our legislation calls for the creation of a position of 
miner ombudsman. People say, So what? There is a big ``so what.'' It is 
a fact that miners in some mines are afraid to report safety 
deficiencies. They are afraid to report certain matters because they 
think if they do they will get in trouble or get fired or their sister 
or brother will get fired from a coal mine. I am not making an 
accusation, but I heard a great deal of talk about that condition when 
I was in West Virginia for many days, along with my senior Senator, 
Senator Byrd. I heard that a great deal.
  The miners have to have a voice in an overall Federal agency. That 
voice in the overall Federal agency--MSHA--has to be out of the 
political process, almost detached, in a sense, from MSHA itself. That 
is important because we have to provide people a place to report mine 
safety problems. They have to be able to do it anonymously and they 
have to be able to do it feeling safe about so doing.
  My West Virginia colleague and I do not pretend to be doing a 
complete fix of mine safety legislation. We do believe our act is a 
first strong step on a path that Congress should have started down some 
time ago. It is immensely sad it took the deaths of 14 West Virginians 
and 1 Kentuckian to galvanize the emotion, anger, and determination one 
has to have when it comes to making sure the coal mines are safe.
  Coal mines are a world within themselves. The taste of a coal mine, 
the smell of a coal mine, the brotherhood of a coal mine, the danger of 
a coal mine, these are things which are part of people's lives. Most 
people in West Virginia, most people across the United States of 
America, have never been down a coal mine because it is restricted and 
people cannot wander in to look around. Those who have oversight 
responsibility have to make sure they do their job.
  I, for one, believe those who do represent the mining State need to 
take this responsibility, as do the companies, as do the operators at 
the ground level, and also the miners themselves. I have had a slew of 
ideas in the last several days. I am optimistic we can find 
technology--it may come out of DARPA or DOD. Remember in the first gulf 
war, the Marines, Air Force, Navy, and Army could not communicate with 
each other when they went into Kuwait. Their radio bands were all 
different. Everyone knows that story. That was bad. They fixed it. That 
is what we have in our coal mines. That has to be fixed.
  Mine safety moved to the top of my legislative priority list the very 
day I heard of these tragedies. I commend this important legislation to 
my colleagues. I invite them to join Senator Byrd and myself in 
cosponsoring this legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia is recognized.
  Mr. BYRD. How much time do I have under the order?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. There is 25\1/2\ minutes remaining on the 
minority side. There is no more specific order.
  Mr. BYRD. How much time was there at the beginning?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The allotted time was 45 minutes.
  Mr. BYRD. And 25 minutes remain?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Correct.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, it has been almost 1 month since the 
explosion that killed 12 miners at the Sago mine in Upshur County, WV, 
and almost 2 weeks since the conveyor belt fire that killed two miners 
at the Aracoma Alma mine in Logan County, WV. In that same time, the 
Mine Safety and Health Administration, MSHA, of the U.S. Department of 
Labor has briefed my office on several occasions. The Senate Labor-HHS 
Appropriations Subcommittee, at my request and under the leadership of 
Chairman Arlen Specter and ranking member Tom Harkin, has held a 
hearing and solicited testimony from mine safety experts. The West 
Virginia delegation in the House and the Senate has met with the 
Governor of West Virginia, Governor Joe Manchin, has met with the White 
House Chief of Staff, and has met with the acting MSHA Director to 
review mine safety legislation passed by the West Virginia legislature 
in the wake of the Sago and Alma tragedies.
  We now can speak with some certainty about what contributed to the 
tragedies at the Sago and Alma mines that killed 14 coal miners. We 
know these tragedies have highlighted gross weaknesses in mine 
emergency preparedness and the failure of leadership at the Federal 
Mine Safety and Health Administration to get tough about rescue 
procedures.
  We know that communications technology in our Nation's coal mines is 
inadequate. The Federal mine regulators require only that a telephone 
line connect the working sections of mines to the surface. If that 
telephone line does not work, in the event of an emergency, the miners 
trapped underground are cut off from the rescue effort. Those on the 
surface cannot get a message to the miners underground and the miners 
underground cannot get a message to those on the surface.
  At the Sago and Alma mines, families waited, waited, waited in 
anguish for 40 hours, not knowing if their loved ones were alive or 
dead because the communications equipment in the mine did not work.
  We know that Federal mine safety officials cannot immediately locate 
miners trapped underground. At both the Sago and Alma mines, families 
waited, and waited, and waited while rescue teams searched meticulously 
through the underground caverns. Those teams could only make educated 
guesses about the location of the trapped miners, putting the rescue 
teams' lives and the lives of the trapped miners at increased risk 
while the search went on.
  We know that the MSHA notification and response system is ponderously 
slow. Federal mine safety officials did not know of the Sago explosion 
until 2 hours after it happened. It took another 9 hours--9 long, 
excruciating hours--before rescue teams could enter the mine.
  The same thing happened at the Alma mine. Federal mine safety 
officials did not know of the underground fire for 2\1/2\ hours, and in 
that time the fire spread and got worse. We know Federal mine 
regulators require only that miners have a 1-hour emergency breathing 
device; and at the Sago mine, 1 hour of oxygen was not nearly adequate 
to sustain those miners through a 40-hour rescue operation. We also 
know that the Mine Safety and Health Administration, tragically--
tragically--abandoned its assessment of the rules governing these 1-
hour emergency breathing devices in December of 2001. What a travesty.

  We know that the mine rescue teams, at both the Sago and Alma mines, 
were forced to wait for a frustrating amount of time because the coal 
operators had to negotiate the question of liability before the rescue 
teams could enter the

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mines. We know that Federal mine regulators have been aware of this 
liability problem since 1995. We know that MSHA has not taken steps to 
address it, or to update and improve the rules related to the number of 
rescue teams per mine and their ability to respond rapidly. The only 
recent effort to update these rules was halted by MSHA--now get that--
the only recent effort to update these rules was halted by MSHA in 
2002.
  The Sago mine was a habitual violator with 276 citations and orders 
issued in 2004 and 2005. The coal operator never paid a fine more than 
$440, even though mandatory health and safety standards were 
repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly violated. Meanwhile, MSHA assessed 
fines as low as $99 for violations that were classified as 
``significant and substantial.'' Let me say that again. Meanwhile, MSHA 
assessed fines as low as $99 for violations that were classified as 
``significant and substantial'' in threatening the safety and health of 
the miners at Sago.
  MSHA has broad authority to protect coal miners, and the 1977 Mine 
Act is the strongest and most sweeping workplace safety law ever 
enacted in the United States, and, yet, even with these tools--even 
with these tools--the Mine Safety and Health Administration failed--
yes, it failed--to protect the 14 miners who perished at the Sago and 
Alma mines. What a shame. What a shame.
  MSHA has the authority to require that secondary communications 
equipment be available in the event of an emergency. That authority was 
not used. MSHA has the authority to require that emergency breathing 
devices be placed in the mines in the event of an extended recovery 
effort. That authority was not used. That authority was not used. MSHA 
has the authority to penalize habitual violators, and to close those 
mines where pattern violations threaten a coal miner's life. That 
authority was not used. That authority was not used. What a travesty.
  MSHA is the Federal agency charged with protecting coal miners. I 
will say that again. MSHA is the Federal agency charged with protecting 
coal miners, but it has scuttled--get that; it has scuttled--18 
initiatives in the last 5 years to update and improve mine safety and 
emergency preparedness. MSHA's leadership has embraced the status quo 
as good enough, and that attitude puts miners' lives at risk.
  In the past, mine disasters such as these have spurred tougher mine 
safety laws. The Farmington, WV, disaster spurred the 1969 Coal Act, 
and subsequent disasters spurred the 1977 Mine Act. Now, I was here at 
the time in both instances. I was in the Senate. This time, the legacy 
of the Sago and Alma mine disasters must be a tougher agency that 
will--will--enforce the law.
  Together with Senator Jay Rockefeller and the West Virginia 
delegation in the House, I am introducing legislation today that is a 
mandate for action. Our legislation does not amend the Mine Act. Our 
delegation takes the position that the Mine Act already provides the 
Secretary of Labor with every authority necessary to prevent these 
kinds of tragedies. Instead, the legislation that I am introducing on 
behalf of myself and Mr. Rockefeller--and which is being likewise 
introduced in the House of Representatives today--our legislation 
directs the Labor Secretary to employ the authorities of the Mine Act. 
It directs the Labor Secretary, within 90 days, to promulgate a series 
of health and safety rules aimed at improving mine safety enforcement 
and emergency preparedness.
  This legislation directs the Labor Secretary to establish a rapid 
notification and response system. This legislation requires coal 
operators to expeditiously notify MSHA of emergencies. Any coal 
operator who fails to expeditiously notify Federal mine safety 
officials will be subject to a $100,000 fine.
  We must reduce the amount of time that is lost between a mine 
emergency and MSHA's notification and arrival on the scene.
  Our legislation directs the Labor Secretary to reassess regulations 
that govern mine rescue teams to ensure that their numbers are 
sufficient and that obstacles to their deployment are minimized. Mine 
rescue teams ought to be able to respond just as local fire departments 
would respond to an emergency. It must not take 11 hours.
  Our legislation requires coal operators to store additional emergency 
breathing supplies underground to sustain miners who may be trapped for 
an extended period. Our legislation requires the Labor Secretary to 
update and improve the rules governing emergency communications 
equipment that would allow miners underground to communicate with 
surface rescue efforts, and allow surface rescue efforts to locate 
miners underground. Never again--never again--should a coal miner or 
any other miner lack access to a reasonable supply of oxygen 
underground or be unable to receive directions from the surface about 
escape routes--never again.

  On the enforcement side, our legislation requires the Labor Secretary 
to create a new $10,000 mandatory and minimum penalty for coal 
operators who display negligence or reckless disregard for safety 
standards. By negligence or reckless disregard, I am talking about coal 
operators who knew or should have known of a dangerous condition or 
practice and failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problem, or 
who displayed conduct which exhibits a deplorable absence of care for 
the safety and health of the miners. If penalties are required in this 
kind of situation, then this statutory floor will help to ensure that 
those penalties will hurt--let me say that again--if penalties are 
required in this kind of situation, then this statutory floor will help 
to ensure that those penalties will hurt, and hurt sufficiently to 
encourage violators to comply with the law.
  Our legislation prohibits the use of belt entries for ventilation in 
contravention of an MSHA regulation issued in 2004, which likely--hear 
me now--which likely played a part in the Alma fire.
  Our legislation creates a science and technology office in the Labor 
Department to help expedite the introduction of the most advanced 
health and safety technologies into the mines, and to ensure that 
Federal mine safety officials are actively pulling from other Federal 
agencies those technologies that can help to protect miners. No 
longer--hear me; hear me now: no longer--should miners be sent 
underground with safety equipment that is decades out of date.
  Our legislation creates the new position of ombudsman in the Labor 
Department's Inspector General's office to allow miners to more easily 
report safety violations. To be effective, such a position requires the 
appointment and the confirmation of someone with at least 5 years--no 
political hack--someone with at least 5 years of expertise in mine 
safety and health. No place for a political hack. A miner should never 
have to feel that he has no options other than to continue to work in a 
dangerous environment.
  Now, I speak from the heart. I grew up in a coal miner's home. My dad 
was a coal miner--a coal miner. I married a coal miner's daughter. 
Loretta Lynn sings a song. She is a coal miner's daughter. Well, my 
wife is a coal miner's daughter. My brother-in-law died of silicosis, 
black lung. His father was killed by a slate fall in a coal mine. So I 
speak from the viewpoint of a coal miner, a coal miner's son.
  For 5 years, the leadership in the Labor Department and the Mine 
Safety and Health Administration has worked against--get that--worked 
against the health and safety needs of coal miners. If we must hold the 
hand of the Labor Department--if we have to hold the hand of the Labor 
Department--and lead it like a stubborn and obstinate child, to force 
it to promulgate rules to implement the Mine Act and save lives, then 
that is exactly what we should do. If this administration and if MSHA 
will not lead, then this Congress must lead, and, if necessary, poke, 
prod, kick, and push MSHA into fulfilling its mandate.
  At this late date, we need more than platitudes--more than 
platitudes--to protect the safety of our Nation's miners. We are not 
just talking about West Virginia miners, not just talking about coal 
miners in West Virginia. We need resources. We need swift action. And 
we need to impress deeply upon the psyche of MSHA--they better hear 
that--impress deeply upon the psyche of MSHA and the Nation's coal mine 
operators that the safety of miners will not be compromised for 
personal profit or for politics.

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  Protecting the safety of our miners is a moral responsibility. Hear 
me. Protecting the safety of our miners is a moral responsibility, and 
this legislation will help to make sure that we never, ever forget 
that.
  I send the bill to the desk, a bill by Mr. Byrd for himself and Mr. 
Rockefeller. I ask that it be relayed to the appropriate committee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and appropriately 
referred.
  The minority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. Has the Senator from West Virginia yielded the floor?
  Mr. BYRD. Yes, I yield the floor, and I thank the distinguished 
leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader is recognized.
  Mr. REID. I had the opportunity to listen to the remarks of Senators 
Byrd and Rockefeller. I wanted to add my remarks about mine safety.
  As I have told the Senator from West Virginia, my father was a miner. 
When I was less than a week old, my father was working in a mine at 
Chloride, AZ. It was a gold mine. It was a vertical. There were two men 
in the hole. That was standard operating procedure at the time. There 
was only one person present to light the holes for obvious reasons. So 
my dad's working companion, a man named Carl Myers, had gone up to the 
next level so he would be away from the dynamite. In those days, they 
didn't have product liability protection, and so my dad had lit 12 
holes. One of them went off early. The fuse ran and blew my dad in the 
air, blew the soles off his shoes, blew his carbide light out. In those 
days, you would take a sinking ladder down in the hole with you, and 
when you would go out, when the holes were burning, you would take it 
up with you. My dad was in a state of shock and didn't know that it had 
blown one of the legs off the ladder. So every time he would try to put 
the ladder down to climb out, he would fall. And he kept falling.
  The man in the next level who heard the 1 hole go off knew there were 
11 others that were supposed to go off and knew my dad hadn't come out. 
This man, Carl Myers, climbed down the hole and, even though he was a 
smaller man than my father, helped my dad out of the hole, drug him up 
to the next level. The other holes went off. My dad went to the 
hospital and spent some time there. But as a result of the heroic feat 
of Carl Myers, who received a medal for heroism for doing what he did, 
my father was able to raise his four boys.
  The reason I mention that to the distinguished Senator from West 
Virginia is mine safety means saving people's lives. Growing up in 
Nevada, my dad worked many times down in the mines alone. That was 
against the law, but he did it all the time. It was against the law, 
but there were no mine inspectors. He was down there alone all the 
time.
  I have watched with interest the rash of mining accidents in West 
Virginia and Kentucky in the last few weeks. I want the Senators from 
West Virginia to know that I will do anything I can legislatively to 
make sure these mines are safe. I speak from experience. Mining is a 
terribly difficult job. That is why there are so many songs written 
about the dangers of mining.
  As I indicated, when I was growing up, my dad didn't have much 
protection from the State. They abandoned Searchlight. There wasn't a 
lot going on, so they didn't watch it very much. A rock fell on the 
head of my dad's best friend. They carried him out of the mine. It 
killed him. He wasn't as fortunate as my dad because his widow raised 
the three Hudgens children alone. There are lots of accidents. These 
things happen.
  Without proper protection, there is no occupation more dangerous than 
being down in a hole.
  I applaud the Senator from West Virginia for protecting his State as 
he always does. But understand also that in faraway Nevada, 2,500 miles 
away, you have a Senator who will do anything possible to make sure 
that in the State of West Virginia and in all places where mining takes 
place, there are Federal regulations in place to protect people like my 
dad.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, if I may be recognized.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Let me thank my friend, the leader, our leader on this side 
of the aisle, who is a gold miner's son. There are not many of us in 
here who are gold miners' sons. I am proud that my leader is a gold 
miner's son. I am proud that he assured us, from his standpoint and 
within his power, that he will do everything possible--and I hope he 
will--to help bring this legislation to the floor. He understands that 
it is needed, and I will welcome his assistance in that regard. I am 
proud of him as a gold miner's son. I am glad he reminds us of this 
from time to time. I believe this legislation is badly needed. I 
implore my leader to do everything he can to see that this bill gets on 
the calendar and gets taken up by the Senate and acted upon promptly.
  I thank all Senators and yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to express my support for the 
Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 2006, introduced today by 
Senators Byrd and Rockefeller.
  The recent tragedies at Sago Mine and Alma Mine in West Virginia 
remind us that the safety of the Nation's workers is paramount. Mining 
continues to be extremely hazardous--it has consistently been the first 
or second most dangerous industry in the country. This year we have 
already had 17 mine fatalities, 15 of them in coal mines, and 14 of 
them in West Virginia. And sadly, I understand that two more miners may 
have been killed today.
  Our entire Nation joins their families and communities in mourning 
these fallen miners. We have a continuing obligation to do everything 
we can to protect the safety of America's workers. It is obvious that 
we are not meeting that obligation.
  Two weeks ago, I traveled with Senator Rockefeller, HELP Committee 
Chairman Enzi, and Subcommittee Chairman Isakson to meet with the 
family members of the miners who were killed at Sago Mine, and with 
coalminers, company representatives, and health and safety experts. 
Each of us made a sincere commitment to improving the Nation's mine 
safety laws.
  This legislation provides a vital first step. It requires swift 
action by the Mine Safety and Health Administration to adopt standards 
that are long overdue and bring mine safety standards out of the Stone 
Age and into the 21st century. It will bring stronger enforcement and 
up-to-date technology to every mine in America.
  First and foremost, we need to ensure that the rescue and 
communications technology available to our Nation's miners is the most 
up-to-date available. Coal companies have spent millions on improving 
techniques for extracting coal and metals from the ground, but miners 
still have to rely on oxygen units and phone lines that were developed 
30 years ago. We already know better communications and miner tracking 
technology exists in other countries. It has been available in the 
United States for several years but, despite its proven availability to 
help save miners' lives, only a handful of mines here in the U.S. are 
using it. This bill would create a dedicated office at MSHA to explore 
mine safety technologies and to work with other Federal agencies to 
ensure that our Nation's mines are using the newest and best safety 
equipment.
  While innovation is important, we also need to ensure that we use all 
of the tools available today to keep our Nation's miners safe. Earlier 
this week, 72 workers at a mine in Canada were saved because Canadian 
mines are required to provide adequate stores of oxygen. It's a 
travesty that we aren't doing the same for American miners. This bill 
would require every coal mine in this country to have rescue chambers 
available, with emergency air supplies and breathing devices to help 
keep miners alive while they are waiting for rescue.
  We also need to see that every mine is adequately prepared to respond 
to future emergencies. When miners are trapped underground, every 
minute is precious. Yet our laws and policies do not require mine 
rescue teams to be onsite. All too often it takes hours for rescuers to 
reach a mine and, when they do arrive, they are not familiar with the 
mine's layout. We also are losing experienced miners to work on these 
teams, as the average age of rescue workers is rising. The number of 
trained rescuers is decreasing, even as demand for coal production 
increases.
  This legislation would require coal companies to have onsite rescue 
teams

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employed by the mine, who are familiar with the layout of the mine and 
are at the ready in the case of an emergency. It also directs the 
Secretary of Labor to develop requirements for the training and 
qualifications of mine rescue workers, and the equipment and technology 
used in mine rescues.
  We also need to ensure that our penalties are a significant deterrent 
to mine operators who continually violate the law. Sago Mine had an 
injury rate nearly three times that of the national average and had 
been cited by MSHA for over 200 safety violations in 2005. Nearly half 
of these were ``serious and substantial''--meaning that the violations 
had the potential to lead to serious injury. Eighteen of the violations 
were so serious that they led to partial closures of the mine.
  I know that President Bush has proposed raising maximum fines for the 
most flagrant violations from $60,000 to $220,000. But this ignores the 
critical failures of our minimum penalties, which are so low as to be 
toothless. It is difficult to believe that penalties lower than traffic 
tickets will deter companies that make millions of dollars in profits 
each year. This legislation would ensure that willful and negligent 
violators of the law would face a minimum fine of $10,000. Mine 
operators who fail to immediately notify MSHA of an emergency face 
fines of up to $100,000.
  This bill starts a long overdue process to improve the safety of our 
Nation's miners. We must act before another tragedy like those at the 
Sago and Alma Mines occurs. I commend Senator Byrd and Senator 
Rockefeller and the West Virginia Delegation for crafting this 
legislation. And I join them in asking my colleagues to support its 
swift passage.
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