Heads of MSHA, OSHA to testify at mine-safety hearing

Next Tuesday, the House Education and Labor Committee will meet to examine a new bill designed to bolster the nation's mine safety laws. On Thursday, the panel announced the witnesses to that hearing.

They are:

— Joe Main, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration; 

— David Michaels, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA);

 — Patricia Smith, Solicitor of Labor;

— Larry Grayson, professor of mine engineering at Penn State University;

— Lynn Rhinehart, general counsel at the AFL-CIO;

— Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America;

— Jonathan Snare, partner, Morgan Lewis, testifying on behalf of the Coalition for Workplace Safety;

— Stanley “Goose” Stewart, West Virginia coal miner;

— Bruce Watzman, senior vice president of regulatory affairs at the National Mining Association. 

Sponsored by Education and Labor Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.), the bill would make it easier for the nation's miners to complain about unsafe conditions; grant mine safety regulators subpoena power when conducting investigations; hike penalties for safety violations; and empower federal regulators to close unsafe mines more easily.

The proposal would also extend OSHA's worker safety protections to almost all other workplaces in the country — a provision leading Republicans to blast the bill for overreaching. 

Education and Labor Republicans are also complaining about the timing of the July 13 hearing. They wonder why Miller would have scheduled it for the Tuesday following a week-long recess, when many lawmakers will still be traveling from their districts to Washington.