A House hearing on miners’ health and safety on Thursday was punctuated by partisan questioning over the Trump administration’s mining push and rollback of Biden-era safety requirements.
The Subcommittee on Workforce Protections questioned Wayne Palmer, the newly confirmed head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. It was the first time in more than six years an MSHA head appeared before the panel, said Chair Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.).
Palmer touted an executive order requiring “unlawful, unnecessary, and onerous” regulations across all executive departments be dissolved.
Palmer said he intends to extend that objective to MSHA, with 19 deregulatory initiatives “in pipeline,” and framed his work in terms of the administration’s pro-mining agenda.
