[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 24 (Wednesday, March 1, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H471-H472]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    EVALUATING HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS IN THE AMERICAN MINING 
                                INDUSTRY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, earlier today the 
Education and the Workforce Committee had a subcommittee hearing 
dealing with the mine safety issues around the recent tragedies that 
happened in the Sago mine disaster in January of this year. 
Unfortunately, that hearing was arbitrarily gaveled to adjournment at a 
time before members could have exercised their rights to ask questions 
of the witnesses that were there from the Mine Safety Administration, 
the United Mine Workers, and the mine association of the companies.
  Had we had the opportunity without the arbitrary adjournment of the 
hearing, we would have tried to ask the Mine Safety Administration how 
they have come to delay and weaken and scrap the 18 regulations that 
were put forth to protect the miners in the coal mining industry of 
this Nation and, in fact, regulations that may very well have been able 
to save the miners, the 12 miners who died in the Sago mine disaster. 
But we were not allowed to ask that question because of the adjournment 
by the chairman of the committee.
  We would have asked them whether or not they have ignored the 
requirements of the law that no standard put in place be less 
protective than the existing standard, as they have continued to chisel 
away at the safety standards for the miners working in deep coal mines 
of this Nation, meeting our energy demands for this Nation, for the 
miners and their families, who every day make the decision to go into 
the mines in this hazardous occupation.
  We would have also asked them whether or not, when they see the 
failure of the regulations to protect these miners, whether or not this 
shift of enforcement and the loss of enforcement personnel to a 
compliance assistance philosophy to work voluntarily with the mining 
companies, whether or not that led to this mine accident, especially 
when this particular mine, the Sago mine, had 208 violations in 2005.
  It is clear that the owners were interested in maximizing their 
profits and not complying with safety laws, and it is clear that the 
penalty system that we have in place does not deter repeat violations, 
because the Sago mine had many repeat violations, serious violations of 
the safety rules dealing with combustible gases in the mine and the 
protection of these miners.
  We would have also tried to ask them whether or not they felt that 
Congress had exercised its oversight authority, since this was the 
first oversight hearing on mine safety in 5 years.
  We would have also asked them to stop shutting out the public in the 
decision-making process. We would have asked the administration to open 
up all of its records, including the inspector's notes, to public 
scrutiny around the Sago mine disaster so that we can be able to do the 
work to determine whether or not we could have prevented this disaster 
that took these lives.
  We also would have made sure that they would have put in place 
commonsense rules dealing with the ability to communicate with the 
miners who were in the mine. We now think we are learning that it might 
have been possible for those miners to walk out of the mine had they 
known where they were and had we been able to communicate with them. 
And while communications devices are available, they are used in some 
American mines, they are used in some Canadian mines, they are used in 
Australian mines, they are not very well used, if at all, in the U.S. 
coal mining industry; and yet the government has done nothing to try to 
push this technology so we could have had communications with these 
miners.

                              {time}  1600

  Also the idea of locators, so that we would have been able to send a 
message to these miners about what their situation was and what they 
might have done to prolong their lives, because we now know they were 
down in that mine for a very long time waiting to be rescued, but that 
did not happen.
  As we heard from Amber Helms, the 23-year-old daughter of Terry 
Helms, who died in the explosion, he died in the explosion, she asked 
us why if she can set up a Web page in her computer, if we can 
communicate to the solar system, if we can communicate around the 
world, why couldn't we have communicated to her father and those other 
men down in that mine that lost their lives?
  Why wasn't this put in place when the cost of the items to protect 
their lives ranged from apparently $20 to $200? It means nothing in 
terms of the profits of these mines, the revenues they generate and the 
overriding concern for the safety of their miners.
  But, no, we didn't have a chance to ask these questions, because 
after one round of questioning, the chairman decided that enough was 
enough, that we were not going to have the opportunity to ask the Mine 
Safety Administration, Where have you been for 5 years on the issue of 
rescue chambers in mines and the protection of these miners, and when 
are their families going to get these answers?
  Well, they didn't get them today, and apparently they are not going 
to get them from the Congress for a very long time.
  This Congress has been blind to the need to maintain even the 
protections that already exist under the law. It was not long ago that 
some members of our committee, including its former chairman, were 
actively seeking legislation to abolish MSHA and NIOSH and to cut back 
critical enforcement provisions.
  Under that legislation, 3 out of the 4 mandatory annual inspections 
at every underground mine would have been eliminated. Inspectors would 
have needed a warrant before entering mine property. Only miners in 
unionized mines would have had the right to accompany inspectors as 
they examined the mine. The circumstances in which an inspector could 
shut down an unsafe section of a mine would have been restricted. Mine 
operators would not have had to pay fines for typical citations as long 
as the hazards were abated. And on and on.
  That legislation was defeated. But that apparently hasn't deterred 
Administration officials from trying to gut MSHA anyway. Now they're 
just dismantling it and taking it out the back door, where they think 
no one is watching. Well, we are watching, and legislation must be 
enacted to ensure that changes are made, changes that make the safety 
and health of these mine workers a priority, and that prevent the 
industry from being allowed to get away with further abuses.
  I want to commend my colleagues, Congressman Rahall of West Virginia, 
and the West Virginia delegation, for their prompt hearings and action 
on these issues. on February 1st, they introduced H.R. 4695, the 
Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 2006, which enhances and 
reinforces the original purpose of the landmark Federal Coal Mine 
Health and Safety Act of 1969, as amended by the Federal Mine Safety 
and Health Act of 1977. This legislation is a vital step in this 
process, and an effort that I am hoping will be a catalyst for change.
  Amber's testimony, and the powerful and courageous testimony provided 
by all
  The witnesses at the forum is documented on DVD. I strongly urge all 
members of this subcommittee to watch the footage of the forum, and the 
incredibly important questions

[[Page H472]]

posed by these witnesses, questions that have unfortunately, been asked 
before, but that have not been answered, not by the administration, and 
not by MSHA. As Amber said:

       I understand that nothing that I say today or nothing that 
     happens in the future is going to bring my Dad back. But my 
     Uncle Johnny, my Uncle Mike, my cousin Rocky, as well as 
     every other miner that is underground and every other son 
     who's getting ready to go into the coal mines--because that's 
     where the jobs are in West Virginia and maybe some of these 
     other states--we can prevent their families from going 
     through this.

  We owe it to Amber and every other American who has lost a loved one 
in a mining accident to learn what more we can do to make mines safer. 
And then, just as Amber says, we must take action to prevent more 
families from going through the hell that she has had to go through.

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