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October 7, 2009

New MSHA chief approved by Senate panel

By James R. Carroll
jcarroll@courier-journal.com

WASHINGTON — The nation’s mine safety agency is one step away from getting a new boss.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved Joseph Main’s nomination to be head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration on Wednesday.

The nomination now goes to the full Senate for confirmation.

Main’s nomination, by President Barack Obama in July, produced no controversy. So the Senate panel dispensed with a formal confirmation hearing, and Main did not appear at the meeting.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the committee’s chairman, said he was eager to see Main confirmed. Harkin is the son of an Iowa coal miner and has played a major role in enacting mine-safety legislation.

“I hope that we can continue to have an open dialogue, both in our committee and with the Department of Labor, to ensure that America’s miners receive better protection on the job,” Harkin said.

Main was a teenager when he first worked in the coal mines in the late 1960s. He worked his way up through the United Mine Workers union to become the administrator of its Occupational Health and Safety Department.

From that post, he was a vocal critic of some of the policies of the agency he soon will head. He frequently testified before congressional committees on behalf of the UMW and was involved in investigations of many fatal mining accidents, both in union and non-union mines.

A native of Pennsylvania who now lives in Virginia, Main most recently has been a consultant on mine safety issues.

MSHA regulates underground and surface coal mines, metal and non-metal mines and other operations that together employed about 270,000 in 2007, the latest year for which data is available.

Kentucky has nearly 17,000 coal miners, second only to West Virginia’s 20,000. Kentucky produces more coal east of the Mississippi River than any state except West Virginia.

MSHA has an annual budget of about $350 million.

Reporter James R. Carroll can be reached at (202) 906-8141.

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Source: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091007/NEWS01/910070433/New+MSHA+chief+approved+by+Senate+panel