[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 202 (Tuesday, December 27, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1359-E1360]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING THE RETIREMENT OF RICHARD MILLER FROM THE COMMITTEE ON 
                          EDUCATION AND LABOR

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. ROBERT C. ``BOBBY'' SCOTT

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 27, 2022

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise to thank Richard Miller 
and honor his public service as the Director of Labor Policy for the 
Committee on Education and Labor.
  When people describe Richard, the sentiments range from ``true and 
tireless champion of working people'', ``an expert on any topic 
relating to workers'', to ``unparalleled knowledge of the issues 
impacting workers''. Folks have called him charismatic, meticulous, 
dedicated, committed.
  Prior to working for Congress, he helped workers organize for labor 
rights and battle union busting campaigns from coast to coast and from 
north to south. Through his work for the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers 
International Union, and its successor Paper, Allied-Industrial, 
Chemical and Energy Workers Union, he led advocacy efforts to enact an 
occupational illness compensation program for defense nuclear workers 
(Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program ACt 
(EEOICPA); protect union rights and pension security; fund hazardous 
waste worker training programs; enact a defense nuclear worker 
``conversion'' and medical screening law; secure a moratorium on the 
sale of radioactively contaminated metals into unrestricted commerce; 
and authorize and secure funding for U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard 
Investigations Board (CSB).
  Since its enactment in 2000, EEOICP A has provided benefits to 
approximately 100,000 nuclear weapons complex workers (or their 
survivors) for diseases arising from exposure to radiation, beryllium 
and silica. As the Representative of the 3rd Congressional District of 
Virginia, which is home to the Nation's largest private shipyard, the 
Committee pressed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
(OSHA) to expand a proposed beryllium rule to include protections for 
shipyard workers-particularly those around abrasive blasting. Richard 
led the Committee's effort, in conjunction with the Steelworkers union, 
to ultimately secure enforceable protections for our nation's maritime 
workers from exposure to this ultra-toxic element.
  Beginning in 2007, Richard joined on the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, investigating regulatory gaps in energy futures and 
derivatives markets; the Department of Energy's (DOE) program to 
reprocess spent nuclear fuel; price manipulation schemes in propane 
markets; crude oil pipeline safety; and DOE's sole-source contracting 
and nuclear non-proliferation programs.
  In 2009, Richard came to the Committee on Education and Labor under 
then Chairman George Miller (no relation) and worked under my 
leadership for nearly eight years. Richard conducted investigations on 
the Upper Big Branch coal mine disaster; the performance of the 
Chemical Safety Board's investigations; contested case backlogs before 
the Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission; mismanaged state 
OSHA programs; the Department of Labor's Whistleblower Protection 
Program and Black Lung Benefits program, and administration proposals 
to cut federal workers' compensation benefits.
  Richard maintained a focus on international labor rights by 
supporting the Speaker's Congressional Monitoring Group on the U.S.-
Colombia Labor Action Plan and the bi-cameral working group on safety 
and labor rights in Bangladesh. Fallowing the repeated fires and 
industrial disasters killing workers in that country's garment 
industry, and a government largely unresponsive to labor rights 
violations, Richard led Committee efforts to enact funding for global 
labor rights programs and to elevate labor rights as a priority for 
U.S. diplomacy with Bangladesh, while assisting Bangladeshi labor 
rights advocates in communicating their concerns to Congress.
  As part of his work for the Committee, he has drafted bills to 
strengthen the Occupational Safety & Health Act, the Federal Mine 
Safety and Health Act, the Black Lung Benefits Act, the Federal 
Employees' Compensation Act (FECA). As a corollary, he led efforts to 
beat back three-efforts over six years to cut FECA benefit levels. As 
part of the American Rescue Plan Act, Richard led Committee efforts to 
ensure front-line workers in VA hospitals, airports, post offices, law 
enforcement and meat plant inspectors were able to secure workers' 
compensation for COVID-19 without having to meet an insurmountable 
burden of proof.
  He has worked to stabilize the black lung benefits program by 
extending the black lung excise tax, reducing backlogs in adjudicating 
claims, driving reforms in coal operator self-insurance, and rebuilding 
the black lung clinics program to ensure miners receive pulmonary

[[Page E1360]]

rehabilitation and claims assistance they need. Richard even managed to 
convince me to go several thousand feet underground to visit a coal 
mine and assess its safety features. And in typical fashion, Richard 
was quick to ensure the invitation of one of my Republican colleagues 
to join in this venture.
  The Committee on Education & Labor will miss his wealth of knowledge 
and his enthusiasm for finding ways to improve the life of those 
workers who lack a voice but need one. We can always count on him to 
offer what he would call ``an observation, not a criticism.''
  In conclusion, Richard has led his professional life doing the ``good 
trouble, necessary trouble'' that Congressman John Lewis has called us 
to do. I know that I speak for the Committee in thanking him for his 
service to this House and the American People and wish him well in his 
retirement.

                          ____________________