Democrats Pass Mine Safety Bill
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According to The Associated Press:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying White House veto threats, the Democratic-controlled House on Wednesday passed sweeping mine safety legislation aimed at preventing future underground disasters like the one that took nine lives last year at Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.
Republican and mining industry officials complained that Congress and President Bush already had passed mine safety legislation in 2006 after 12 West Virginia miners were killed in the Sago mine disaster. New legislation, they say, would imperil the safety changes already under way.
"We're stepping on something we haven't even implemented yet," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif.
Democrats accused the Bush administration of being lax on getting the required changes in the 2006 law in place.
"Congress has been forced to act to improve mine safety because of the Bush administration's total failure to work aggressively to keep miners safe on the job," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee.
Representatives voted 214-199 to pass the Supplementary Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act, also called S-MINER.
The legislation would add safeguards to "retreat" mining, the type of mining that was being done at central Utah's Crandall Canyon, where nine people died in August 2007. The bill would improve emergency response to mine sites and require coal mines to install advance tracking technology, Democrats said...click to continue.
