AWF Urges Congress to Oppose Unecessary Mine Mandates
Click here to download the official letter
January 15, 2008
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF), and millions of working citizens across America, I am urging you to oppose H.R. 2768, the so-called, “Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (S-MINER) Act of 2007.” This Act will place unnecessary and burdensome regulations on the mining industry and imposes more than $1 billion in additional private sector mandates.
Please do not be fooled. This act is completely different than the MINER Act of 2006 – which is working. Enacted in only February 2006, the improvements are still continuing, and mining companies have already invested over $250 million in complying with the act’s mandates – more than double the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimated cost of compliance. Before additional and unnecessary regulations are forced on the private sector, we must allow the current laws time to show their already successful track record.
Additionally, while this legislation may well delay certain implementation aspects of the previously passed, bi-partisan MINER Act of 2006, it also presents several fiscal concerns. According to CBO estimates, H.R. 2768 increases spending by $19 million in FY2008 and $121 million over the next four years while creating only $500,000 in revenue in the first year.
Further, S-MINER is an aggressive, ill-conceived effort to write a “one-size fits all” approach to mine safety reform; despite the fact that during hearings members of the National Mining Association and non-union miners making up 75 percent of the mining workforce were not allowed to testify.
Representative, I am urging you and your colleagues to vote against H.R. 2768, the S-MINER Act of 2007, as effective mining reform is not back-room legislation that overlaps previous reforms before they have a chance to take full effect.
Sincerely,
Brian M Johnson,
Director of Policy
cc: All Members of the U.S. House
