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Senator Rockefeller AND BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS CALL FOR SERIES OF HEARINGS ON COAL MINE SAFETY   

Washington, DC – Following last week's tragic mining accident at Sago, West Virginia, Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-WV), along with a bipartisan group of eleven Coal State Senators, today requested the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee to hold a series of hearings specifically dedicated to the issue of coal mine safety.  Congress has conducted no comprehensive oversight hearings of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) since 2001.  During that period, which has seen more than 100 deaths in mine workplace accidents, MSHA has struggled with severe budget cuts and a wave of planned retirements.  Among other issues, Rockefeller and his colleagues want the hearings to address MSHA funding, the crisis in the number of MSHA inspectors, and the shortage of mine rescue units.

“This last week has been a real wakeup call for people all over America that we need to do more – much more – to take care of those people who on a daily basis are risking their lives to bring electricity to our homes, schools, and businesses,” Rockefeller said.  “We need to know why the administration thinks that it can carry out a policy where it is committing fewer and fewer resources to meet an industry that has more and more needs. 

“We need congressional hearings not only so that we can determine what happened at Sago, but, more broadly, about the state of mine safety across West Virginia and across the country.  Coal is on the rise in our country and safety must be too.”

In their letter to HELP Chairman Mike Enzi (R-WY) and Ranking Democratic Member Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), the Senators wrote, “We make this request while the tragedy of last week’s Sago Mine disaster is fresh in the minds and hearts of us all.  We know that miners, retirees, and their families throughout the country are well aware of the risks inherent in working in even the safest mines, but we must work to minimize those risks so that such a tragedy never occurs again.  For those of us from coal mining states, and for the people we represent, these twelve miners lost in Upshur County, West Virginia are very much tragedies in our own communities.  We know too that all Americans who followed this unfolding catastrophe join us in seeking answers, and in wanting Congress to act in a bipartisan fashion to prevent similar calamities in the future.

“Each of us looks forward to the opportunity to work together with the Chairman and Ranking Member to improve mine safety.  We anxiously await and will closely monitor the MSHA investigation at Sago Mine.  At the same time, with demand for coal increasing, we hope with the cooperation of the HELP Committee and experts from government, industry, labor, and worker safety organizations, to develop policies to benefit the entire coal mining community.  We look forward to sending strong, bipartisan mine safety legislation to the President for his signature before the end of the year.  The miners who died at Sago deserve no less.” 

During four of the last five years, the administration has called for a reduction in the MSHA budget.  According to one report, the cuts have led to the loss of 170 inspectors, even though demand for coal is growing.  By the end of FY 2007, a full 25 percent of the MSHA inspector workforce will have retired.  

Rockefeller has also talked with several of his Senate colleagues about traveling with him to Sago to learn more about the situation in West Virginia. 

Signing Rockefeller’s letter were Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY), Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO), Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN). 

The letter is attached.

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