The Obama administration is proposing a small cut to the Mine Safety and Health Administration despite an ongoing crackdown on problem mines and an effort to boost safety oversight.

The president's fiscal 2013 budget blueprint released today includes $372 million for MSHA, roughly $1 million less compared to current spending levels. Last year, the administration proposed more than $384 million for the agency.

When asked if the cut meant a retreat from safety efforts, MSHA head Joe Main said, "Absolutely not."

While the budget blueprint would cut workers and funding for some programs, it would boost coal mine health and safety spending by $2.9 million. Noncoal mine health and safety spending would see a $1.8 million increase.

"MSHA is strategically targeting its resources to ensure that it can carry out the required functions of the Mine Act to assure the safety and health of our nation's miners," Main said in an online chat with reporters today. "Miners who go to work in this nation deserve to go to work, put in their shift, and go home to their families safe and healthy at the end of each day."

The president's budget blueprint includes $16.9 million to continue reducing the violation appeal backlog at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

"The additional resources provided by Congress have resulted in the reduction of the total backlog of contested citations and orders" before the commission, Main said.

He added that preliminary data showed a 25 percent reduction last year in pending citations and orders to around 67,000 from almost 89,000.

MSHA is also proposing to charge coal companies for the cost of collecting rock dust samples. The samples are an essential part of mine safety, with companies required to dilute combustible coal dust with nonexplosive powder.

"Full implementation of this authority will require rulemaking, and the proceeds from the fees are unlikely to be available in the same year as authorization," the Department of Labor's budget document said.