[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5096]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     UPPER BIG BRANCH MINE TRAGEDY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. George Miller) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago today, a 
massive explosion ripped through the 2-mile area of the Upper Big 
Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. The explosion bent railroad 
tracks like pretzels and killed 29 miners.
  This disaster laid bare the loopholes that riddle our mine safety 
laws. These loopholes allowed dubious mine operators, like Massey 
Energy, to violate mine safety rules repeatedly and with impunity. In 
fact, the Upper Big Branch Mine was allowed to remain open even though 
it had been ordered to stop operations 51 times in the previous year 
because of severe safety hazards.
  After the disaster, there were proclamations made from both sides of 
the aisle about taking meaningful action to honor the victims so that 
something like this would never happen again. However, standing here a 
year later, miners still face many of the same dangers as they did the 
morning before the tragedy in West Virginia.
  Unscrupulous mine operators are still gaming the system by clogging 
it with thousands of appeals as a way to avoid paying strong penalties. 
Miners are still paralyzed with the fear of being fired for speaking 
out because of weak whistleblower protections. Decisions made in the 
boardrooms to maximize coal production at the expense of miners' safety 
remain unchallenged. Management practices of illegally giving advance 
warning of pending inspections are still a mere misdemeanor.
  Shortly after the Upper Big Branch tragedy, the Education and Labor 
Committee held the only hearings where Congress heard from families and 
miners affected by this tragedy. Many were reluctant to testify because 
they feared retaliation. For others, there was a strong desire to tell 
their stories to prevent another tragedy in the coal mines of America.
  Eddie Cook told us about the dangerous practices he heard from the 
miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine after the explosion. He lost his 
21-year-old nephew, Adam Morgan.
  Adam's father, Steve Morgan, said that when he spoke to his son about 
the unsafe conditions, management told him that he might just have to 
find another job. They did nothing about the unsafe conditions.
  Gary Quarles lost his only son at Upper Big Branch. Gary asked us to 
make a commitment to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
  Alice Peters testified about how her son-in-law, Dean Jones, was 
afraid to work in the mine because of the ventilation problems, but 
Dean needed the job in order to keep health insurance coverage for his 
special-needs son.
  Clay Mullins lost his brother Rex at Upper Big Branch. Clay testified 
how the management would give advance warning of an impending mine 
safety inspection so that they could quickly cover up any violations 
before the Federal inspectors got to that part of the mine.
  And Stanley ``Goose'' Stewart was working at the Upper Big Branch 
Mine the day it exploded. He testified twice before the committee about 
the persistent fear and intimidation faced by workers from Massey 
management.
  Every mine law has been written with the blood of miners; and savvy 
political interests know that, as attention to the tragedy fades, so 
does the willingness of the Congress to act decisively. Families and 
miners also expressed their concern about this skepticism. Looking back 
now, a year later, their skepticism was entirely justified.
  Congress has utterly failed to respond to the real problems that 
miners, themselves, have identified as safety hazards in their 
workplace. A toxic political environment has failed these families. The 
pay-to-play nature of our politics has failed these families.
  While congressional action was stymied, the Mine Safety and Health 
Administration has been working hard to make adjustments in the limited 
ways it can to help prevent rogue mine operators from recklessly 
putting lives at risk; but even with these measures, we are hearing the 
familiar cries from Big Coal to maintain the status quo while they 
continue to game a legal system designed to protect the miners who go 
to work in those mines every day.
  They cry about their so-called ``due process''; but what about the 
due process for the 29 miners who died in the Upper Big Branch Mine 
explosion--and their families? What about the miners who went to work 
today in the coal mines of America--and their families?
  Is Congress just going to sit here and simply wait for the next 
explosion? the next tragedy? the next loss of life? Are we going to let 
the special interests continue to paralyze this institution?
  These should not be hard questions for the Congress of the United 
States. Our ability to respond goes to the heart of who we are as a 
Nation. There are things that Congress can and must do right now--and 
that only Congress can do--to better ensure that every coal miner who 
goes to work is able to return safely to their families at the end of 
their shifts. Congress has an obligation to make sure that that is the 
case.
  It is long overdue to honor our promises to the families of the 29 
miners who perished a year ago for doing the job that our Nation relies 
on to provide its energy, and it is also long overdue to give the rest 
of our Nation's miners modern health and safety protections.

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