The House Education and Workforce Committee has called up a hearing to scrutinize the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s work under the Trump administration.
The hearing from the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, chaired by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.), follows the confirmation in December of Wayne Palmer to run the Department of Labor agency. Palmer is a former Hill aide and a veteran of the first Trump administration.
One issue that will likely come up is the administration’s move, backed by the mining industry, to relax worker protections from black lung disease.
MSHA’s leadership and mine safety advocates were often on Capitol Hill following the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia. Congressional focus on the agency has since diminished.
