Date: 2006-06-07
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself 8 minutes. Mr. Speaker. as Members are aware. I have spoken out forcefully on the need for rapid Federal action to address mine safety. I have urged this Congress to legislate. to push us toward a new era in which the technology that has helped revitalize the productivity of the mining industry would also be used to save the lives and limbs of our miners. Unfortunately. the bill sent from the Senate fails to make the reforms that go to the very heart of what happened in the Sago mine disaster. It fails in three significant ways. It does not guarantee that miners trapped underground will have enough air to survive an accident like Sago. It does not give miners prompt access to wireless communications and electronic tracking devices so they can communicate with their rescuers instead of having to bang on pipes and bang on rocks like miners did hundreds of years ago. It does not guarantee that the emergency oxygen units like the ones that Randal McCloy. the only Sago survivor. told us in some cases were defective. and would be tested at random by the Federal Government to ensure that they work properly. In other words. if another Sago mine disaster were to happen. this bill does not ensure that we would not have the same tragic deaths. because it does not address what killed the miners in the Sago mine disaster. I want to remind Members that 11 of the 12 miners that died at Sago did not die from the initial explosion. They died because they did not have communication tools to. lead them to safety. they died because they did not have an oxygen supply to last the 40 hours that they were trapped. I cannot. in good conscience. support a bill if passed that would not prevent another Sago. when we understand the tragedy that took place there. When it comes to the safety of miners. and thousands of miners and families across the Nation. the House can do better than takeitorleaveit legislation that fails to provide that margin of safety that these families are entitled to. In the last 10 days. there have been two significant developments that demonstrate that we can andwe must do better than the Senate bill. Last week. the Industry Labor Mine Technology Panel appointed by Governor Manchin of West Virginia composed of equal numbers of industry and miner representatives. concluded that there were significant enhancements to miner safety that could be achieved through wide application of existing technologies and techniques. Then this industry labor report makes two recommendations that go to the heart of the matter: that emergency shelters and chambers shall provide a minimum of 48 hours of breathable air and in no later than 15 months mine operators will have to submit a communications and tracking plan for approval. That is all that the amendments that I have offered suggest that we do. i.e.. what is now accepted in the mining industry in the State of West Virginia. Now. someone explain this to me: the coal mine industry in West Virginia agrees with the West Virginia miners that there should be a guaranteed 48 hours of breathable air in a crisis. but. the Congress of the United States refuses to provide that same promise to miners across the country. The coal mining industry in West Virginia agrees. that miners should have prompt access to wireless communications and electronic tracking devices. but the Congress of the United States refuses to provide that same promise to miners across this Nation. And here is another development. A few weeks ago. the Illinois legislature sent farreaching mine safety legislation to the Governors desk. It passed 1110. It passed the Senate 571. The IL bill has two critical reforms. emergency mine chambers with 48 hours of air and rapid installation of wireless communications by the end of the year. The State of Illinois can promise no more Sago tragedies. The coal mining industry in West Virgiiiia can make that promise. but the U.S. House is being asked to ignore all of that evidence. all of those improvements. and rubber stamp a Senate bill With no opportunity to improve it. That is wrong. and -we should not stand for it. I have spent a great deal of time over the last few months listening to what those Sago families have to tell us. I have listened to their very specific and very reasonable recommendations. I listened to Mrs. Debbie Hamner. who lost her husband. Junior. in the Sago tragedy. As many of you know. only one of the twelve miners who died in that tragedy was killed by the explosiop. The rest died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Junior Hamner was one of those who died in that manner. And Mrs. Hamner asked why were they not equipped with enough oxygen. Why did we not require air supplies to be stored in the mine sections that they were working? Why do Canadian miners have greater protections than the miners of West Virginia or miners elsewhere in the United States? That is what she wanted to know. And Debbie said. sadly the bill before us today does not even mandate a minimum air supply for miners trapped underground. let alone require a refuge stocked with air. food and water. so that miners would not have to do what they did in Sago when they were trapped. which was to construct a barrier and bang on rocks and hope for the very best. Amber Helms. whose father. Terry. died at Sago. pointed out to us that the miners were still alive after the Sago explosion. The men tried to walk out. The mine foreman tried to walk toward them. But although they ended up only a few hundred yards apart. the foreman did not know where they were and was not able to tell them where they could find good air or a safe way that they could walk out. It is ridiculous. Amber told us. that I can get a computer and I can make a full Web page in an hour. but they cannot find my dad. and they cannot track him. It turns out that Amber was right. that devices are available in the market right now to track the location of these miners. These devices are available. and they should be used and they should be used soon. Last month. the sole survivor of the Sago mine accident. Mr. Randal McCloy. wrote a letter to the families of those who did not survive that mining disaster. Mr. McCloy stated that a number of the selfcontained rescue units that were issued for their protection failed to operate. The final amendment that I chose to offer to this legislation would make sure that we would have random inspections of those devices so those miners could have reliability if another tragedy should hit. We understand that the needs- are here. and that is why I am telling you that this legislation is not complete. We should not be taking it on a takeitorleaveit basis. The House should have the opportunity to debate. Apparently we are not too busy today for we were going to do this at 6 oclock and now we are doing this at 2 oclock. We could have had an hours debate. We could have offered some amendments. voted them up or down. and we then could have moved on about our way. But we have chosen instead to close out these concerns of these miners and these families. We have chosen to close out what we have now learned about the technology. We have chosen to close out the agreements that the mining industry and the miners have reached in some States but not in all States. and we have chosen. worst of all. not to mitigate and protect and provide a margin of safety to those miners. should we have a repeat of the Sago mine disaster. We know Sago happened. We know why the miners were killed. and we know what we can do to prevent it. It is within our grasp. It is inexpensive and it is readily available. But in the Senate bill it is not required for another 3 years. In the Senate bill. we do not specify a minimum of 48 hours of oxygen. as West Virginia has started to specify and as the State of Illinois has specified. So this is not about being way out on the cutting edge and trying to destroy a bill or kill a bill or any of the rest of that. This is about spending time with these families and seeing that grief and having to try and answer the questions that they ask. no longer on behalf of their husbands. their brothers. their uncles. no longer on their own behalf. but on behalf of the other mining families in their communities. and the other mining families in other States that are not addressing this situation. Mr. Speaker. I would hope that my colleagues would vote against the suspension of the rules under this act. and that we would be able to take this legislation up. offer these amendments. win. lose or draw. At least then we could have said that we made the last best effort to provide immediate security. immediate remedy to the failures that led to the loss of life in these mine disasters. It is well documented. the problems and the impacts and the. fatalities that were created by those shortcomings. The Senate bill simply does not address those. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.