Trump Administration Weakens Life-Saving Silica Protections for Miners

Trump Administration Weakens Life-Saving Silica Protections for Miners

WASHINGTON - Ranking Member Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (VA-03), House Committee on Education and Workforce, released the following statement after the Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) published a proposed rule to change the Biden Administration's final rule on silica dust in mines.

"Today, the Trump Administration proposed a new rule to weaken long-overdue silica dust protections, delivering a devastating blow to coal miners and their families. This proposed rule sends a clear message to coal country: profits come before people.

"For decades, we have known that silica dust is a leading cause of black lung disease, a painful and deadly illness that continues to devastate coal communities. The Biden Administration took long-overdue action to finally update MSHA's silica dust standard, unchanged for nearly 40 years, to protect workers from the toxic exposure that has taken too many lives. Yet now, instead of defending miners' health, the Trump Administration is rolling back protections, creating deadly loopholes and gaps that will put miners at risk of irreversible lung diseases such as severe black lung.

"This is not about regulatory red tape. It's about whether miners can finish their careers with their lungs and health intact. This proposal only deepens this administration's betrayal of working families in coal country.

"The Trump Administration's actions undermine decades of progress and betray the families and communities that have sacrificed so much. Miners risk their lives every day to power this nation, and they deserve the protections and support they've fought for. It's time for Congress to act and make sure miners can go to work knowing they will return home safely to their families."

Background:

The new proposal would give mine operators a get-out-of-jail-free card whenever they catch themselves exceeding the caps on silica dust. The Biden rule was clear that MSHA could bring enforcement actions whenever samples exceed the cap, whether MSHA itself conducted the sample during an inspection or the violation was revealed by the sampling that mine operators are required to perform themselves. This proposal would prohibit any enforcement unless MSHA itself takes the samples during an inspection. Keep in mind that the Trump Administration has been slashing and burning the staff and capacity of the Department of Labor, including MSHA.

The new proposal says it is keeping in place the Biden rule's caps on dust levels, but it introduces a fudge factor that basically increases the cap. The new Trump proposal would add what it calls an "error factor" of 21 percent across the board. While the upper limit on silica dust remains officially 50 micrograms per cubic meter, this error factor effectively means that operators can effectively expose miners to close to 61 micrograms.

The new Trump proposal also gives operators a license to conduct less air sampling than before. The Biden rule had a fixed minimum schedule for air sampling, such as quarterly sampling when certain conditions are triggered. The new Trump proposal changes that to require sampling "as frequently as necessary." MSHA argues that this could mean that operators will conduct more sampling than under a quarterly schedule, as they determine that changes in operations may generate excessive dust. However, it also puts an enormous amount of discretion in operators' hands to determine for themselves when sampling is "necessary," and the new proposal would eliminate a basic minimum expectation that would be clearly enforceable.

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