Budget for coal mine safety is less now than it was 25 years ago, when adjusted for inflation

The federal budget for coal mine safety and health in the Mine Safety and Health Administration "has been particularly abused" for the last 30 years and when adjusted for inflation is 15 percent less than it was at its peak in 1979, reports OMB Watch, the government watchdog publication that focuses on the Office of Management and Budget.

"Even though MSHA's budget increased in the late 1990s and in the early 2000s, employment levels struggled to grow, and since FY 2001, have dropped," the report says. "From FY 1997, when the agency's budget reached its historical nadir, to FY 2007, the agency's budget grew almost 19 percent when adjusted for inflation. However, staffing levels did not follow a similar trend. In FY 2006, MSHA's staffing level reached an all-time low of 2,078. . . . With national attention focused on high-profile mine disasters, Congress and President Bush have made efforts to bolster the program's budget. However, it is still lower than it was throughout the 1980s. "

OMB Watch suggests that the cuts have cost lives. "In recent years, the safety of America's coal mines has come into question as a downward trend in the coal miner fatality rate has reversed and numerous coal mine disasters have drawn national attention," the report says. "A more in-depth look at MSHA's budget shows the federal government has neglected to provide adequate funds to MSHA for its coal mine safety program. . . . Since 1985, the fatality rate for coal miners has improved little more than half as much as the rate for metal and nonmetal miners." (OMB Watch graph below)

The report also notes, as we have here, MSHA's failure to make required inspections and meet deadlines to rulemaking under new mine-safety laws, and a recent critical report on such issues by the inspector general of the Labor Department, MSHA's parent agency.