BACKGROUND:

In 2006, Congress passed the MINER Act, legislation that imposed additional regulations on mining in response to the Sago coal mine disaster of January 2006. NSSGA led an ad hoc coalition that succeeded in educating members of Congress on the difference between underground coal mining and underground aggregate mining so that the bulk of the MINER Act did not apply to the aggregates industry. Two provisions applied to all mining sectors: an increase in fines and a 15-minute emergency notification requirement.

Before full implementation of the MINER Act had occurred, House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) introduced two bills to impose additional regulations on mining. These bills were combined into H.R. 2768, the Supplemental Mine Improvement & New Emergency Response Act (S-MINER).

The August 2007 Utah coal mine disaster provided momentum to the S-MINER bill. NSSGA reconvened an ad hoc coalition of mining interests opposed to the S-MINER bill. Meetings were held with all members of the House Education and Labor Committee, and grassroots and grass tops campaigns were initiated. NSSGA members participated in two aggregates-only fly-ins to communicate our concerns about the S-MINER Act and over three thousand communications with members of Congress were made from November 2007 to January 2008 when the bill was considered by the House.

Because of these efforts by just a 14-vote margin, the House passed the S-MINER bill in January 2008, well short of the votes needed to overcome a threatened White House veto. The Senate did not take action on the bill.

The 111th Congress is expected to revisit the S-MINER legislation. NSSGA will continue to oppose legislation to impose additional safety regulations on an already highly regulated industry that has had a steadily improving safety record and will work to educate new members of Congress on the difference between aggregates mining and other mining sectors.

TALKING POINTS:

• Worker safety and health is a guiding principle of the aggregates industry, and the highly regulated industry continues to improve its safety performance.
• The MINER Act is still being implemented. The S-MINER bill will prematurely place new and different regulations upon industries still implementing the MINER Act, causing confusion for industry and workers, threatening safety progress.
• MSHA has substantially tightened its regulations and its enforcement procedures, and the mining industry has made significant changes in operations and equipment to comply with the strengthened requirements.
• S-MINER removes the authority of the Secretary of Labor as the prime decision-maker in promulgating federal rules for the Labor Department.
  
• The S-MINER bill inflates the rules and responsibilities of MSHA and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and introduces organizations unfamiliar with the mining industry and its operations into the safety process.
• The bill requires NIOSH to forward all Recommended Exposure Limits (RELS) for air contaminants to the Secretary of Labor, who must then require MSHA to adopt the RELs as Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs) or enforceable health standards, thereby circumventing public participation in rulemaking and preventing the development of both scientifically- and technologically-sound safety and health standards and policies.
• The bill thrusts NIOSH into a regulatory and policy setting role that was never envisioned and for which NIOSH is not prepared.
• The S-MINER bill precludes public participation through notice and comment in the rulemaking process, which is the cornerstone for setting health and safety standards for protecting employees and a key tenet of the Administrative Procedures Act.
• The S-MINER legislation ignores impacts on small businesses by not analyzing the impact of what amounts to “significant” regulatory actions as mandated by the Regulatory Flexibility Act.
• Because MSHA recently substantially increased penalties formulations (in part in compliance with the MINER Act), the additional penalty provisions included in the S-MINER Act are premature, unnecessary and unfair.
• Underground aggregates mines are different from other underground mines. The mined products are non-combustible and non-flammable. No flammable gases such as methane are present.
• The S-MINER Act takes a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to recognize that mines vary greatly in terms of both safety hazards and appropriate safety procedures and equipment. The MINER Act was a measured, bipartisan response to ongoing safety challenges that took into consideration the views and concerns of all stakeholders. It should be given time to achieve measureable results.

Updated: November 2008