Letter to Joseph Main, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health

Letter

Joseph A. Main

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health

1100 Wilson Boulevard, 21st Floor

Arlington, VA 22209-3939

Dear Assistant Secretary Main,

Mine safety is a personal issue to West Virginia. For generations, our families and our friends have worked in the mines. When West Virginia loses even a single miner it affects all of us.

On April 5, 2010, we were again faced with tragedy at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine which claimed the lives of 29 workers, the worst mine disaster in forty years. Since the explosion that ripped through the mine, significant state and federal resources have been invested to determine the cause of the explosion, with several investigations still ongoing.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) released preliminary findings on January 19th, but by your own account it will be several months before we uncover the mystery. Once complete, these investigations will answer a lot of important questions about whether current laws were not followed by the operator, which laws MSHA failed to enforce, and which health and safety laws were simply inadequate.

Mine safety is not a partisan issue. Each of us is committed to better protecting the health and safety of our nation's miners. I am concerned, however, that legislating without all of the facts will undermine our efforts to adequately respond to the Upper Big Branch tragedy and effectively strengthen safety protections for all underground miners. Instead of rushing through a flawed and premature legislative response, improved mine safety can only happen when all parties involved work together to achieve better results as we saw following the 2006 Sago mine disaster in my district.

Any future legislation should look at the industry in total--from the companies to the agencies regulating them--which is why I respectfully request a meeting with you and House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairman John Kline to open a dialogue to better enhance safety measures for our miners. Before Congress makes expansive changes to current law, we need to know what steps MSHA has taken to strengthen enforcement under existing law and what additional tools MSHA needs to successfully improve mine safety.

It is our responsibility as policy makers to ensure that workers never have to sacrifice their lives for their livelihood. I look forward to working with you to secure the safety of our miners for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Shelley Moore Capito

Member of Congress

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