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Department of Labor, Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health
Department/Agency: Department of Labor
Position:
Assistant Secretary for Mine Safety and Health
Executive Schedule: Executive Level IV - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation
Major Responsibilities:
Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:
- Extensive, first-hand knowledge of the mining industry
- High-level management and/or regulatory experience
- Legal expertise
- Familiarity with Congress and policy making
Insight:
The Sago mine disaster in West Virginia in early January 2006 provided a stark reminder to Americans of how dangerous coal mining can be. Thirteen miners were trapped by an explosion deep underground; only one survived. It was the inauspicious start to a year in which 47 miners were killed, the mining industry's deadliest year in more than a decade. That was nearly double the toll in each of the three preceding years. In August 2007 six miners were trapped and killed in the collapse in the Crandall Creek mine in Utah, and three rescue workers (including a federal inspector) perished in a futile effort to save them. Critics charged that industry was pushing production beyond safety limits in its zeal to meet rising demand for coal while oil prices were spiking. When the United Mine Workers gave Barack Obama its endorsement for president in May 2008, the union expressed confidence that the Democratic candidate would "make sure that the nation's mine safety and health enforcement agency actually enforces the law, instead of coddling mine operators who repeatedly and willfully violate the law." Now President-elect Obama, his secretary of labor and a new assistant secretary for mine safety and health will take on the challenge of turning around an apparent deterioration in safety in the nation's mines. The assistant secretary leads the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which has 2,300 employees and a budget of $334 million to protect the lives of miners working in 2,100 coal mines and 12,700 precious metal and other mines. After boosting that budget by 11 percent from 2007 to 2008 - in part to hire more coal inspectors - the Bush administration asked Congress to trim almost $2 million from MSHA's operations for 2009. By law the agency's inspectors must conduct four inspections annually at underground mines and two at surface mines. In FY 2007, MSHA assessed $57 million in civil penalties for 130,000 citations and withdrawal orders. The agency provides classroom training at its own National Mine Health and Safety Academy and furnishes $8 million to 49 states, the Navajo Nation, and Puerto Rico to carry out their own training and safety programs. President George W. Bush tapped two former industry executives to run the mine safety agency. Bush's first appointee, David D. Lauriski, earlier in his mining career was the safety officer at the Wilberg Mine in Price, Utah, in 1984 when a fire resulted in 27 deaths. The long-time mining executive drew frequent criticism for industry-friendly actions, including relaxing coal dust regulations and shifting MSHA's focus from enforcing rules to helping industry comply voluntarily. Critics said he retaliated against employees who took issue with his policies. He left the office soon after a 2004 audit by the Labor department's inspector general that found "a pattern of disregard for federal and DOL acquisition rules and requirements." The auditors said some contracts were awarded to companies with which Lauriski had close ties. Richard E. Stickler, Lauriski's successor, never earned Senate confirmation, although Bush nominated him twice and put him in place by recess appointment in 2006. His nomination drew strong objections from the United Mine Workers (UMW). Phil Smith, a UMW spokesman, said the job should not go to someone who had spent an entire career "trying to figure out how to circumvent safety laws so they can increase the productivity." Stickler's commitment to miners was quickly tested with the Crandall Canyon mine accident in August 2007. In the wake of the Sago disaster, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in June 2006 the Miner Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act, which Stickler called the first major change to the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act in 30 years. It required underground coal mine operators to develop an emergency response plan, install directional lifelines on all routes in and out of the mine, and have two, certified rescue teams that can respond to emergencies within one hour. It requires operators to notify MHSA within 15 minutes of a death, injury or entrapment. In accident, and stiffened the penalty for "flagrant" violations of the safety laws to $220,000. Stickler went before the Senate Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions subcommittee on employment and workforce safety to update senators on how his agency was implementing the MINER Act. "In the last two years since the MINER Act was signed into law, MSHA has worked diligently to implement the Act and to improve the overall safety and heath of our nation's miners," he said. The agency had published six final rules, issued an emergency temporary standard and proposed four additional rules. It also hired and began training 322 new inspectors. "While the net increase, due to attrition, is 163 additional inspectors, the overall number of coal enforcement personnel is at its highest level since 1994," Stickler said. As of June 6, 2008, MSHA had assessed 53 flagrant violations, seven of them at the $220,000 maximum. "These are the largest proposed penalties in the agency's history," the acting administrator said, and have resulted in a doubling of civil penalties issued from $35 million in 2006 to $75 million in 2007. In conclusion, he said, "We have made significant changes and improvements to mine safety over the last two years. We look forward to continuing our efforts to bring about needed reforms at MSHA." The Clinton administration's top mine safety enforcer came to the job with much different allegiances. Davitt McAteer's 1994 appointment angered industry leaders, who likened his appointment to auto industry safety critic and activist Ralph Nader in charge of transportation. McAteer was a United Mine Workers consultant and a leading figure in crafting strict mine safety laws. The next assistant secretary for mine safety likely will come from a background much closer to that of Davitt McAteer than from the management side of the coal industry. He or she will have to balance the interests of protecting the lives of those who toil in what remains, even with the best safeguards, a dangerous occupation, and the country's need to continue to extract its natural resources. Coal mining actually accounts for only a portion of the lives lost in mining accidents each year. According to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report, "The fatality rate for the entire mining industry, including oil and gas extraction, was 28.1 per 100,000 workers in 2006. The number of fatalities in the industry increased by 21 percent over the year, from 159 fatalities in 2005 to 192 fatalities in 2006. ... The fatality rate for coal mining in 2006 was 49.5 fatalities per 100,000 workers, up from a rate of 26.8 recorded in 2005." The coal mine fatality rate was 11 times higher than the rate for all U.S. private industry workers.
Key Relationships – Within the Government:
Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor
Administrator, Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Director, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Associate Director for Mining and Construction Safety and Health Research, NIOSH, HHS
Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer, Office of Health, Safety and Security, U.S. Department of Energy
Director, Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior
Organizational Chart
Key Relationships – Outside the Government:
National Mining Association
Bituminous Coal Operators Association
United Mine Workers
American Society of Safety Engineers
International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers
Industrial Minerals Association-North America
International Union of Operating Engineers
National Safety Council
National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association
The Association of Equipment Manufacturers
Nomination Referred to:
Senate Committee on Health. Education, Labor and Pensions
Current Position Profile:
1. Joseph Main (Confirmed: Oct 21, 2009). Private consultant, mine safety consultant. Former Administrator, United Mine Workers of America, occupational health and safety.
Recent Position Profiles:
2. Richard E. Stickler (Recess appointment, Confirmed 2006). Third-generation coal miner. Started as miner, rose to mine manager. Directed the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety. Led Quecreek Mine rescue operation in Pennsylvania in 2002 in which nine miners were rescued after being trapped underground for 78 hours.
3. David D. Lauriski (2001 - 2004). General manager of Energy West Mining Co. Directed health, safety, environmental and government affairs for Interwest Mining Co. Mining consultant. 4. Davitt McAteer, J.D. (1994-2001). Lawyer and mine safety expert. Former United Mine Workers health and safety head. Founded nonprofit Occupational Safety and Health Law Center. Worked with Ralph Nader to enact mine safety legislation in 1969. Wheeling Jesuit University vice president. Advised West Virginia governor after Sago mine disaster.
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