Mine safety bill defeated, but funding approved

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted down a new version of the long-stalled mine safety bill even after its sponsors removed language that would expand Occupational Safety and Health Administration enforcement authority at all workplaces. "The mine safety bill, which would improve federal regulators' power to crack down on unsafe coal mining operations, failed to advance on the suspensions calendar, with a two-thirds majority required for passage," Elana Schor of Environment & Energy News reports. "The 214-193 vote on the bill, introduced last week by House Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), came with one Republican voting in favor and 27 Democrats opposed."

Republicans and business groups had raised concerns about the added power the original bill would have given OSHA, but after removing that language, the House bill likely would have faced a delay in the Senate if it had been passed. "Republicans in the upper chamber recently objected to an attempt to unanimously clear the Senate version of the bill, named for the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), charging Democrats with abandoning bipartisan talks on a compromise," Schor writes.

Miller said he was pleased that a majority of the House backed the bill, but criticized. Republicans for "turn[ing] their backs on those who go underground every day, 600 of whom who have died in the last decade." Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline countered that the Democrats set up a failed vote by putting the bill on the suspensions calendar. "Republicans will continue to hold accountable the agency charged with enforcing the law and use the findings of the ongoing investigations to ensure any future legislative or regulatory steps to protect miners are well-informed," said Kline. (Read more, subscription required)

While the House defeated the mine safety package, it did approve additional mine safety money in a spending bill, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog. California Democratic Miller noted that the full-year continuing appropriations act includes "$5.3 million for the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, which will enable the agency to hire an additional ten administrative law judges to hear cases." (Read more)