|
Senator Byrd tonight introduced legislation to add funding to the President’s latest budget request for mine safety.
“Despite unprecedented national attention on mine safety following the deaths of 21 American coal miners so far this year, the President’s budget gives us more of the same. Four years of budget cuts and four years of coal enforcement staff cuts are left in place. Significant resources are needed to make coal mines safer for the men and women who work there, yet the White House offers merely a band-aid,” Byrd said.
Byrd’s amendment to the budget bill being debated in the Senate this week would add $184 million over five years for additional mine safety inspectors and emergency technology development.
More than 200 coal enforcement personnel have been lost since 2001 through attrition and have not been replaced, yet the President’s budget includes no funding for hiring additional inspectors. When West Virginia coal miners were killed earlier this year at Sago and at Alma, the men’s emergency communications and breathing equipment proved woefully inadequate. Yet, the President’s budget contains severely insufficient funds for improved rescue technology.
“My legislation would replace the safety inspectors that have been lost in recent years and would help to get emergency communications and breathing equipment into the mines more quickly. In this day and age of cell phones and instant text messaging, it is unacceptable that safe telecommunications technology was not available to the Sago and Alma miners,” Byrd said.
“It is time for the federal government to get serious about coal mine safety. We know what needs to be done, now we must do it. Every day that passes without action could mean miners’ lives lost. I will not stand by and let that happen,” Byrd said. ###
|
|
