Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, has given Mine Safety and Health Administration head Joseph Main until March 21 to turn over audit reports that could prove damaging to the agency.

In a letter, Kline asked Main to turn over "all reports, audits and post-audit reports" produced by MSHA's Office of Accountability since its establishment in 2007.

Main appeared before the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections last week to defend MSHA's rulemaking efforts in the wake of last year's Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia.

During the hearing, committee Republicans immediately seized on a March 2010 report from MSHA's accountability office to the Senate Appropriations Committee, just weeks before the Upper Big Branch disaster. The document outlines the results of field office audits showing regulatory lapses, including supervisors failing to properly review inspection documents (Greenwire, March 3).

Main said the agency had implemented training efforts to address the problems. Still, the report gave ammunition to industry leaders and skeptical lawmakers who suggest MSHA just needs to do a better job enforcing current laws instead of pushing for new safety legislation (E&E Daily, March 4).

"As you know, I have been concerned for some time by numerous reports of management problems plaguing the Mine Safety and Health Administration," Kline said in the letter. "In light of these and other problems previously identified by the Department of Labor's Inspector General, I was pleased to hear you are willing to consider internal reforms at MSHA to improve the efficiency and performance of the agency."

Journalists, particularly Ken Ward of The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia, who first reported on the March 2010 report, asked MSHA to release the individual field office audits.

In his letter to Main, Kline also asked for MSHA's policy on the public availability of documents and plans for better management at the agency.

Click here to read the letter.