The Trump administration has decided to scrap plans to terminate the leases for 34 offices in the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), reported the Associated Press. Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency had projected closing the offices would save $18 million.
A statement released by a Department of Labor spokesperson said it has been working closely with the General Services Administration “to ensure our MSHA inspectors have the resources they need to carry out their core mission to prevent death, illness, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthy workplaces for American miners.”
“That’s a relief and good news for miners and the inspectors at MSHA,” said Jack Spadaro, a longtime mine safety investigator and environmental specialist who worked for the agency.
“I don’t know what they were thinking when they talked about closing offices. They obviously did not understand the nature of the frequency and depth of inspections that go on in mines. It’s important for the inspectors to be near the mine operations that they’re inspecting.”
MSHA was created by Congress within the Labor Department in 1978. It is required to inspect each underground mine quarterly and each surface mine twice a year.
MSHA was already understaffed before the closures were announced, noted the news agency. Over the past decade, it has seen a 27% reduction in total staff, including 30% of enforcement staff in general and 50% of enforcement staff for coal mines, according to the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center.
Source: AP