|
WASHINGTON, DC -- Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Major Owens (D-NY) today urged Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to conduct pending mine safety investigations – including the investigations of the Sago and Aracoma Alma mine disasters – in public. The lawmakers said such action would ensure that both miners’ families and miners’ representatives can participate in the proceedings if the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) persists in excluding these groups from witness interviews already underway.
“Our call for public hearings reflects what we have heard from the family members of miners killed at Sago and other mines and from miners themselves,” said Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “We strongly urge Secretary Chao to open these proceedings to the public immediately, so that family members, mine workers, their representatives and the public can understand what went wrong in these horrific tragedies, and to ensure that these investigations are thorough and fair.”
On Monday, February 13, Miller and other House Democrats held a Congressional forum on mine safety, in which six family members of miners killed in West Virginia last month and in Alabama in 20001 testified about a lack of communication equipment and other avoidable dangers facing mine workers. Miners also testified at the forum.
“The Bush Administration must do everything in its power to learn from these tragedies and then improve mine safety regulations effectively and permanently,” said Miller. “Public hearings are good government, and we owe it to the miners’ families to conduct these investigations in the light of day.”
Miller and Owens, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee on Workforce Protections, called for the public hearings in a letter sent to Chao today, which also expressed concerns regarding MSHA’s conduct in the Sago Mine investigation. They noted that pending regulations to establish procedures for public hearings on mine accidents were among pending MSHA regulations withdrawn by the Bush Administration. The lawmakers added, however, that MSHA has the authority to proceed with public hearings even in the absence of those regulations – and it has done so previously.
The full text of the letter is below.
***
February 17, 2006
The Honorable Elaine Chao, Secretary
The U.S. Department of Labor
200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20210
Dear Secretary Chao:
We are writing to express concerns regarding the conduct of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in the Sago mine investigation and to urge you to conduct that and other investigations as public hearings.
We understand that, on Thursday, February 9, 2006, Deborah Hamner, the widow of George Hamner, Jr., and Linda Anderson, the widow of Tom Anderson, asked the lead investigator of the accident, Richard Gates, to ask Assistant Secretary David Dye whether victims’ family members and their representatives could attend witness interviews.
It is our understanding that Mr. Gates would have a response for these families prior to Tuesday, February 14, 2006, the day interviews would begin in earnest. To date, no response has been provided. Will family members and their representatives be permitted to attend these interviews? If not, what is your justification for keeping the interview process closed? If the interview process remains closed, how quickly could you expedite the provision of transcripts from those interviews to family members?
On February 13, 2006, we conducted a Congressional Forum on Mine Safety and Health, inviting miners and miner families to testify about their experiences in the mines and with MSHA’s investigation process. Families repeatedly raised the issue of the lack of transparency in MSHA investigations. Wanda Blevins, the widow of David Blevins, a miner who was killed in the Jim Walters mine tragedy, explained: “That federal investigation, it has told me nothing … I don’t know anything more today than I did then. I’m still in awe about that. I know nothing.” Mrs. Hamner pointed out: “Now there are private and secret interviews being conducted by MSHA, and they are to resume tomorrow. Many of the witnesses will be employees who are represented by lawyers paid for by ICG. I will not be allowed to attend. The miner may ask the UMW to step out, but the company’s paid-for attorney can stay. Does this seem like a fair process to get at the truth?” Mrs. Hamner asked that we “make sure these interviews are public so that family members and their representatives may attend.”
Given this testimony, we are concerned that the investigation will not be as thorough and accurate as it could be otherwise, if family members, their representatives, and miners’ representatives are excluded. No one has a greater right to know what happened than the families, and Congress gave specific rights to miners’ representatives to participate in these investigations. Two parties which may be at fault in the Sago accident – MSHA and the company – either have direct access to these closed interviews or may have indirect access to these closed interviews. Parties independent of MSHA and the company have been locked out of interviews. While we have great respect for the professionals at MSHA, this arrangement does little to increase the public’s confidence in this investigation.
As you know, Congress gave MSHA the authority to conduct public hearings, using subpoena powers if necessary, under Section 103(b) of the Mine Act. Such public hearings would shine a light on these tragedies. Public hearings are good government. Among the many proposed rules for MSHA withdrawn by the Bush Administration in 2001 was a set of guidelines for conducting such public hearings, drawn from MSHA’s prior experience in conducting investigations as public hearings. Nevetheless, despite that withdrawal, MSHA is entirely capable of conducting public hearings today at Sago, Aracoma Alma, and other pending investigations. Public hearings should begin immediately as part and parcel of the investigative process – not as an afterthought and not as a repeat show of testimony that MSHA already gathered in the current private interview process.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
GEORGE MILLER
Senior Democrat
Committee on Education & the Workforce
MAJOR OWENS
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
### |
|
