As this new year begins, we all innately want a better path forward than where we came from; that’s what makes resolutions so popular as well as polarizing, depending on your perspective. For the NAM team, we are ready to take on 2026 with a busy schedule of conferences and shows (including our own, the West Virginia Coal Show, beginning March 31), a packed docket of features and special plans for our readership. We are looking forward to a fruitful year for all, and for success at every turn for everyone reading.
A positive turn has also fueled optimism for mining in the mid-January announcement that laid-off employees at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will be permanently and fully reinstated to their posts for the first time in more than nine months.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) first announced the move, underscoring the work for the betterment of miner safety and health that the agency undertakes. In April 2025, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) first initiated a Reduction in Force that targeted more than 90% of the agency’s workforce, which included about 1,000 employees.
HHS has now reversed course completely, following up from its previous announcement in May when it reinstated 328 NIOSH employees. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. proposed a budget at that time that would eliminate around 80% of NIOSH’s funding.
It is surely not lost on many readers here that what NIOSH does is not only unmatched, but non-negotiable to mining’s future. For example, NIOSH’s respirator approval system – which many call the gold standard in respiratory protection – was consistently at risk, and the greater overall reinstatement ensures the certification system stays intact.
Stepping in to bring to mind the scope of the workforce reduction, reinstatements not withstanding, was the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which pointed out that the delayed progress had a deadly cost.
“While we are glad to see these positions restored, we are disappointed these cuts were made in the first place,” said UMWA International President Brian Sanson.
“[NIOSH provides] critical mine safety research, especially…respirable dust and the development of the Silica Field Analysis sampling device,” added International Secretary-Treasurer Michael Phillippi. “By freezing these programs, the government forced a pause on the enforcement of the new silica dust rule. Within mining…we are seeing younger workers…being diagnosed with advanced black lung because they are cutting more rock than ever. Every day those labs were empty was a day miners were left unprotected.”
These statements are a stark reminder of the fact that the mining industry cannot afford idles in progress or halted efforts for the goal of safety. To do so inherently denies what is a common thread goal: zero harm, and to return the mine’s most valuable asset, the miner, to his or her home each and every day.
Donna Schmidt
Editor, North American Mining magazine
[email protected]
X: @Dschmidt_NAM