Joe Main and MSHA: What I would have asked him

[Omaha Steve]

http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/joe-main-and-msha-what-i-would-have-asked-him/

October 12, 2009 in Confined Space @ TPH, Mining, Occupational Health & Safety | by The Pump Handle

by Ken Ward, Jr. cross-posted from Coal Tattoo

The last person the U.S. Senate confirmed to run the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration without a confirmation hearing was named Dave D. Lauriski. We know how that turned out … Lauriski proceeded to dismantle MSHA and a terrible series of disasters followed.

It doesn’t seem likely that Joe Main is going to tear down the improvements made to MSHA (some might say forced upon MSHA and the Bush administration by Congress) following Sago, Aracoma, Darby and Crandall Canyon. But it’s still a shame that members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee didn’t take the time to question Main and get him on the record about his plans for the agency. The full Senate could vote on— and likely approve — Main’s nomination as early as tomorrow.

I’ve already put in a request for an interview with Joe as soon as he’s confirmed. The answer I got — that he’ll want some time to get settled in first — makes me wonder … shouldn’t the very first thing that Joe Main changes about MSHA be its troublesome public information and Freedom of Information Act policies?

How about a memo that summarily gets rid of Bush-era information policies that prohibited inspectors and district managers from talking on-the-record to the media? How about reversing the rules that said inspection reports and copies of citations — once freely available to the press via fax — would only be made public upon submission of a formal FOIA request and months of waiting? And what about really dumping the Bush policy that transcripts of accident investigation interviews won’t be released to the press, the public and the mining community?

But that’s not all … obviously, communicating with the press, the public and the mining industry is just a fraction of what MSHA’s new leader needs to do.

FULL story at link.