Senators dig into mining safety and OSHA nominees
Mine agency nominee criticized for reluctance to commit to adoption of technologies and practices that have worked in other countries.
Sharp questions extracted few pledges for quick action by federal regulators to bolster compliance and enforcement of mine safety laws, as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tuesday vetted the qualifications of President Bush's nominees to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration and Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Despite recent coal mining disasters in West Virginia that claimed the lives of 14 trapped workers, the nominee for the MSHA post -- Richard Stickler -- was reluctant to commit to any rapid action to beef up the agency's oversight of coal-mining activities.
Stickler was asked repeatedly by committee Democrats, and by Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., whether he would move swiftly to demand the use of in-mine communications devices, long-lasting oxygen packs and "safe" chambers that would increase survival chances for trapped miners.
Stickler, a former chief of Pennsylvania's coal-mine safety bureau, said he would want to carefully analyze the "root causes" of the Sago and Alma mine explosions before suggesting any new remedies for such incidents. "I'm an engineer, an analyst," he told the panel. "So I like to have all the facts before I proceed."
A former coal miner himself, Stickler said existing laws governing mine safety are adequate, but are not always observed by mine owners. "The vast majority of accidents I've studied," he said, "are the result of a failure to observe the laws." He later acknowledged that tougher penalties and higher fines might be necessary to deter such non-compliance by the owners.
He came under heavy fire from HELP ranking member Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., for what all three described as a reluctance to commit to adoption of existing technologies and practices that have worked in other countries -- and are authorized but not mandated by long-standing U.S. law -- to save lives in mine accidents.
In response to Isakson's complaint that MSHA has not served effectively as "a catalyst for innovation" in protecting miners, Stickler acknowledged that technology "has done more to improve health and safety during my career than any other factor."
But he refused to be pinned down to the adoption of specific measures, or a time-table, for recommending such steps, either in the form of administrative rule-making or in the call for additional laws.
The committee also took up the nomination of Edwin Foulke to head OSHA. Foulke, a lawyer who has long represented corporations in job-safety and health cases, said he would focus on helping "small employers who lack the expertise and assistance to have a comprehensive safety program" establish such programs.
"I want OSHA to be as pro-active as possible to prevent accidents before they happen, rather than have to deal with the consequences after they happen," Foulke said.
In response to doubts expressed by Murray that his business-affiliated background might impair his ability to be sensitive to workers' health and safety, Foulke said OSHA needs to foster voluntary compliance with the law as well as rely on mandates.
"Enforcement must ensure worker safety," he said, "but we need outreach to employers to show them how to prevent accidents."