Senate sits on mine safety bill as GOP waits for W.Va. investigation results

Democrats hoping to bolster
the nation’s mine safety rules this year are showing dramatically different
degrees of urgency. 

While House leaders are
racing their mine-safety bill through the lower chamber, the Senate has no
plans even to introduce its bill until the fall. 

{mosads}The reason is clear:
Senate Democrats need at least some Republicans to pass their bill, but GOP leaders
are opposed to moving mine safety reforms quickly. Instead, they want to wait
for the results of an investigation into April’s deadly explosion at the Upper
Big Branch (UBB) mine in southern West Virginia — results that won’t likely
arrive this year.

The impasse has angered some
Democrats in both chambers, who argue that the nation’s miners remain at risk
every day Congress doesn’t act. 

“Even as the investigation of
the Upper Big Branch mine continues, we know there are problems we can solve
today,” Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said recently. “And we have an
obligation to do just that.”

With that in mind, the House
Education and Labor Committee will mark up its mine safety bill next Wednesday.
Sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the panel, the proposal
would expand whistleblower protections to miners, empower federal investigators
to close unsafe mines more easily and grant regulators subpoena power when
investigating mining accidents.

The legislation is a direct
response to the UBB disaster, which killed 29 miners and maimed a 30th. 

But Republican leaders on the
panel, behind Rep. John Kline (Minn.), the ranking member, are opposed to the
bill. Not only are they leery of a provision to strengthen worker protections
at places other than mines, but they’re wondering how Democrats hope to
legislate solutions to an accident before its cause is identified.

The criticism hasn’t slowed
down Miller. Then again, House Democrats don’t have to deal with filibusters.
While GOP opposition in the House is an inconvenience, GOP opposition in the
Senate is a bill killer.

Acknowledging that dynamic,
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who chairs the Senate labor panel, says he’s holding
out in hopes of crafting a bipartisan bill. Harkin’s office said Friday that
the Iowa Democrat is “still talking to panel Republicans,” notably ranking
member Mike Enzi (Wyo.).

“We want to give adequate
time for those conversations to occur,” a Harkin spokesperson said in an
e-mail, “but hope to have legislation for the Senate to consider by the fall.”

Enzi spokesman Craig Orfield
said Friday that the Wyoming Republican has had a “preliminary discussion” with
Harkin about the mine-safety bill, but it remains unclear what that proposal
will look like. Orfield reiterated the Republicans’ concerns that no
legislation should move before the cause of the UBB accident is revealed. 

“We need to know what went
wrong before we start making changes to existing regulation and existing law,”
Orfield said.

Discovering what went wrong
could take awhile. Davitt McAteer, a mine-safety expert investigating the blast
for the state of West Virginia, told reporters Wednesday that difficult
conditions in the mine will delay that probe for months. “Our best estimate,”
he said, “is that we’re looking at the end of the year for any kind of report.”

Asked if Enzi is concerned
that miners could be at risk while lawmakers await the results of the
investigation, Orfield said that mining accidents are unavoidable. “There’s
always risk every day because mining is an inherently dangerous occupation,” he
said.

Democrats disagree. Miller
spokesman Aaron Albright said Friday that, “There are clear, identifiable
problems with the law.” He pointed to a “pattern of violations” rule that’s
never been used and whistleblower protections that miners don’t trust.

“That,” Albright said, “is what we’re going to fix.”