Date: 2011-12-07
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. Members of the House. later today. the House will consider the REINS Act. which is legislation designed to make sure that in a Republicancontrolled Congress. no new regulations would be put into effect. whether they deal with clean drinking water. clean air. child safety. the safety of children when they play with their toys. the drugs that so many citizens need to take to maintain their health. or occupational safety at the workplace. All of that would be destroyed under the REINS Act. You might ask yourself what would society look like? Well. we had a preview of what that society looks like yesterday when the Mine Safety and Health Administration released its report on the Upper Big Branch mine. What that society looked like to these miners and to their families was 29 dead coal miners. because the Massey Corporation was basically allowed by its board of directors to evade the basic regulations that were in place to protect the miners. Although the miners dont have whistleblower protections. we saw that Massey was able to intimidate the workers every day not to report safety violations. not to write up safety violations. not to report things that needed to be repaired. because the chairman of the board told them the priority was the production of coal. not the safety of the workers. Produce the coal or get out is what he told them. So they were not able to participate in their own safety when they saw a violation or they saw a problem that caused danger in the mine. They also were able to circumvent the right of the mine safety inspections in the mines because they gave advance warnings. They were told if a Federal mine inspector comes onto the property. you must give advance warning to the people in the mine so they can divert the mine inspector away from the problems in the mine. take up their time while we can fix them. or hell run out of time to inspect the mine. Theres regulations against that. Theres laws against. They avoided those. Then they kept two sets of books so that the mine regulators couldnt see the real level of violations in the mines. Thats what it looks like when you dont have regulations. Thats what it looks like when you dont have enforcement. And its the conclusion of the mine safety report that mirrors one that was done by the State government. The conclusion is that the tragic death of 29 miners and serious injuries of two others in the Upper Big Branch mine were entirely preventableentirely preventablehad regulations been enforced in that mine. had this company not been allowed to go rogue and ignore the regulations that are there to protect the miners lives. We must now understand what that means to the American public. what it means to these families. What could have been contained. what could have been contained as a mine or a coal dust explosion or a localized methane gas explosion became an explosion that traveled 2.000 feet per second2.000 feet per second. There is no miner that could get out of the way of that act. And what happens at the end of that world without regulation. where you dont have to put up with paying fines. where you can clog the courts with appeals? When the Massey Company was sold. the board of directors that allowed this to happen. the executive officers that directed this to happen. the officers walked away with $90 million in bonuses. the board of directors walked away with $19 million in bonuses. And Don Blankenship. the CEO of the company that wrote the memo that said its production of coal or get out. its not safety. walked away with $86 million. And now get this: Don Blankenship. the CEO. now wants to go back into the coal business after killing 29 miners. And whether its the State of Virginia or the State of West Virginia or Kentucky or anywhere else. the suggestion is that they might be able to give him a permit to open up a mine. Twentynine miners are dead. violations of law. a criminal corporate culture. and somebody else says that they might be able to go back into the mines. You will not reignite the American Dream for workers in this country if you take away their rights at work. You will not reignite the American Dream for the middle class if they have no rights at work. if theyre subjected to this. For these families who lost the 29 members of their families. theyre crushed. Theyre crushed. But you cant do that by eliminating the regulations. Its the regulations in place that have saved miners lives. but its the avoidance of the regulations. the ignoring of the regulations. and its the failure of this Congress to introduce tough sanctions. When you obstruct a Federal safety investigation. it should be a felony. Somebody should go to jail. When you obstruct the right of a worker to blow the whistle on an unsafe procedure. theres got to be a strict fine for that. Thats how we reignite the American Dream. Weve got a lot of work to do in this Congress. but you cant do it by stopping all regulations that protect our families. that protect our communities. that protect the workers in America today.