Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006

MINE IMPROVEMENT AND NEW EMERGENCY RESPONSE ACT OF 2006

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from California for yielding and start by thanking my colleagues in the West Virginia delegation for their efforts on this legislation. Our delegation has truly stood as one on behalf of the safety of our State's miners. We stood together in the Senate hall, all five of us together, and pledged to make a difference through legislation.

I would like to thank the leadership, and I would like to thank Chairman McKeon and Chairman Norwood for their quick action on bringing this matter to the floor. I would like to thank my fellow Members from other coal States who have suffered such tragedies.

I would like to make something clear. The MINER Act is not a controversial piece of legislation. It is slightly unfortunate that there has been some confusion around the issue that's important to the people of West Virginia and other mining States. As we have heard from the other Members, this is a great opportunity, a good chance, a good first step and one we must seize.

This bill has unique support across the mining community and across geographic and political lines. The UNWA, the National Mining Association, the AFL-CIO, and the West Virginia Coal Association and others support passage of this, and the Senate has unanimously passed this legislation.

As we have heard, the legislation would require every underground coal mine in the country to have its own emergency response such as tracking devices and flame resistant post-accident lifelines. The bill immediately requires a redundant means of communication with the surface, using the best system that is technologically feasible.

This legislation takes a major step in making sure miners have a reliable supply of oxygen underground. The bill makes sure that miners have a 2-hour supply of oxygen throughout the mines, spaced at distances the average miner can walk in 30 minutes.

A crucial provision also requires a maintenance and replacement schedule for the emergency breathing devices. Statements from survivors of recent mine accidents have questioned whether emergency breathing equipment was functioning properly, and this bill helps address that.

To make sure that precious time is not lost in assembling mine rescue teams, this bill makes sure that every mine has at least two mine rescue teams that can reach the site within an hour. For those who violate safety regulations, this legislation increases the maximum civil and criminal penalties and allows MSHA to issue an injunction in order to close mines that fail to pay fines.

No one has said that the MINER Act is the final step in making miners safer. In fact, this is only the beginning of a renewed dialogue to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make sure our miners are safe.

I would like to remind my colleagues we have a choice, support the most significant revision to mine safety laws since 1977 or oppose the bill and cast a vote that will take us nowhere.

Mr. Speaker, the Sago mine is in my district. I waited with the families and the Upshur County community on that cold day in January as rescuers worked to save the Sago miners. I saw firsthand the pain suffered by the families when only one survivor was found. I looked into the eyes of the wives, of the sisters, the brothers, the mothers, the fathers as they learned that their loved ones were never coming back.

The Sago men and women are my constituents and my friends. They are the backbone of the great State of West Virginia and our Nation. For all of us, we cannot let this opportunity pass.

I ask that my colleagues join me to help these real men and women who have hopes and dreams, have a great faith in us, that we will help them to make sure that we pull together so that no one will suffer the tragedy and the heartache that they suffered that day in Sago and other days across this country.

I ask my colleagues to join me, to join me in making the right choice to improve mine safety by voting for the MINER Act.

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