MSHA has increased its financial need for the coming fiscal year by 6%, or $US19 million, to $332 million over last year with a total staff of 2361 full-time workers.
The proposal allows for 55 additional metal/nonmetal enforcement personnel and will help the agency ensure its adherence to the 100 Percent Plan it announced last October, the goal of which includes it completing all annual safety and health inspections for the first time in its 39-year history.
The outlined funds also allow for $236 million, or 71% of the earmarked budget, to be focused on MSHA's regulatory enforcement efforts, while $36 million of it could be used for training initiatives.
The research and development of technological improvements would also benefit from $29 million of the funding, as would the administration and technology costs involved in the agency's everyday work, which would receive $30 million.
"This budget proposal demonstrates a strong commitment to mine safety and would provide MSHA with vital resources it needs to help protect miners' safety and health," agency head Richard Stickler said of the announcement Tuesday.
The budget year would run from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2009.
In the meantime, US President Bush's proposal actually reduces spending on coal mine safety by 6.5%, according to a report released on Monday.
For example, MSHA would receive $145 million for coal enforcement under the administration's budget, a $10 million drop.
"It is absolutely absurd that the president is attempting to cut MSHA's budget while Congress is trying to help the agency back on its feet - absolutely absurd," Senate Appropriations chairman Robert Byrd told the Charleston Gazette.
The United Mine Workers of America agreed Tuesday afternoon, calling the move by the administration that could potentially impact miners "absurd", and said the president is showing that he "doesn't care about making the improvements so clearly needed" to keep miners safe.
"Since the Bush Administration took office, 232 people have been killed in America's coal mines, 82 of them since January 1, 2006," said the union.
"People all over America - indeed, all over the world - asked how can this happen? How can it be that American coal miners are still getting killed on the job?"
UMWA president Cecil Roberts said the answer to that question is clear, according to the budget plans: "Miners are being killed because of neglect on the part of their government. And while that neglect has been mounting, some coal operators have taken advantage and blatantly ignored safety and health laws and regulations at their whim."
He noted that the shortfall of inspections by federal officials stemmed from an understaffed workforce that was trained and qualified to complete them, paired with the issue of fines that, in many instances, were not collected.
"A rational person would think that solving these critical issues would require an improvement in funding for the Federal Government's enforcement watchdog, so that MSHA would have the resources it needs to do its job," Roberts said.
"But that kind of thinking is apparently in short supply in the White House these days."
