The Mine Safety and Health Administration is proceeding with a rulemaking aimed at combating black lung disease despite an appropriations rider targeting the effort.

The MSHA proposal mandates lower dust concentrations and additional air-monitoring in coal mines. MSHA expects the final rule to come out later this year.

"The rider does not restrict MSHA's ability to promulgate the rule, only MSHA's ability to implement or enforce the rule," the agency said in a statement.

The rider, included in the spending bill passed last month, was spurred by industry lobbying against the rule. The mining industry says MSHA has not made the case for a new rule.

The rider requires a review by the Government Accountability Office of MSHA's analysis of the rule, in part to see "whether such data supports current trends of the incidence of lung disease." Without such review, the provision says, the agency can't "implement or enforce" new guidelines.

MSHA is on track this year to finalize several rule proposals, including new regulations for protecting miners from mining machines and imposing tougher standards on mines with a record of safety problems.