In November, the Department of Labor's Inspector General released a report showing the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) frequently fails to conduct required mine inspections.

For those mines that do get inspected, the enforcement may be utterly toothless, according to new evidence. In some cases, inspectors are noticing violations and issuing citations, but those citations are being lost in some kind of bureaucratic abyss. From the Associated Press:

Preliminary data showed that penalties had not been assessed against operators for about 4,000 citations the agency issued between January 2000 and July 2006, the Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail reported. MSHA Director Richard Stickler told the newspaper that the review also showed that penalties had never been assessed for a few hundred citations issued in 1996.

Apparently, MSHA is less effective than your typical local parking authority, which, when leaving a parking ticket on your windshield, expects you to…you know…pay it!

OMB Watch has published a new article titled, "Workers Threatened by Decline in OSHA Budget, Enforcement Activity." OSHA, like many other federal agencies, faces budget constraints that make it more difficult for the agency to achieve its mission. Over the past three decades, OSHA's budget, staffing levels, and inspection activity have dropped while the American workforce has grown and new hazards have emerged.

The article is the first in a series called Bankrupting Government: How a Decades-Long Campaign against Federal Spending Has Undermined Public Protections. In the coming months, the series will examine how long-term resource shortfalls at federal regulatory agencies have affected the ability of those agencies to fulfill their missions.

Read the article here.

The House is nearing passing of a bill that would tighten safety standards for miners and expand the enforcement authority of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), according to CQ Politics.

The bill is a follow up to the MINER Act which passed in 2006 after the Sago and Darby mine disasters. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor committee and champion of the bill, believes continuing mine safety problems and collapses like the one in Crandall Canyon Utah last year warrant additional Congressional action.

The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a veto threat of the bill yesterday. OMB says the bill would undermine progress being made in implementing the MINER Act and, in some cases, would actually make mines less safe.

That seems unlikely, especially since the United Mine Workers (the major union for miners) supports the bill.

If the bill also passes the Senate, it is unclear whether Democrats will be able to rally enough votes to override a Bush veto. According to CQ Politics, some House Republicans oppose the bill:

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon , R-Calif., slammed the bill as "premature at best," adding it "ignores the progress that has been made." He urged adoption of a GOP substitute that would strip the new fines, earlier timelines and stricter safety requirements from the bill.

Judging by that description, the Republican bill must be a few blank sheets of paper.

Update: The House passed the bill in a 214-199 vote.

As Reg•Watch mentioned last week, in 2007, new regulatory policies and the inability of federal agencies to protect the public made headlines more so than at any time in recent memory. Newspapers continually ran stories on White House interference, unsafe imports, and new hazards being ignored by government despite scientific evidence imploring regulation.

In 2007, Americans became trenchantly aware of the positive role government can play and the consequences that can be wrought when regulatory protections break down. But 2007 may have only been the beginning of a new chapter in American domestic policy. Many problems have been identified, but few have been solved. Dangerous imports, workplace hazards and environmental degradation may dominate headlines to an even greater extent in 2008.

But will mounting evidence be enough to tip the scales in favor of regulation in the face of the Bush administration's obstructionist policies? Federal agencies like EPA and OSHA may continue to drag their feet on issues such as diacetyl exposure (which threatens workers and consumers exposed to the artificial butter flavoring in microwave popcorn) and greenhouse gas emissions, and the White House will likely continue to meddle with agency regulations and may find new ways to enact even more damaging systemic changes.

Will a Democratically controlled Congress be able to move with the force necessary to pass new laws that respond to public needs? Despite the increased attention given to resource shortfalls at agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission and FDA, Congress has been unable to approve appropriations bills that would make funding and staffing at those agencies commensurate with regulatory responsibility. Legislative measures, like those to improve import safety or reform our nation's energy policy, are constructive but have gained little traction in a Congress seemingly without a sense of national priorities — a Congress which prefers partisan bickering to positive governing.

Most importantly, will the public continue to look to government to play a positive role in society? If regulatory failures do indeed continue through 2008 and beyond, will the public succeed in imploring government intervention where circumstance has not? If our leaders continue to disregard science, govern on the cheap, and make politics a higher priority than policy, the public must hold those leaders accountable and demand change.

Edwin Foulke, the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), has asked his agency's rule writers to volunteer to temporarily move over to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), according to BNA news service (subscription).

MSHA has been slow to comply with provisions of the MINER Act, a mine safety bill passed in the wake of the Sago and Darby mine disasters of 2006. MSHA has already missed statutory deadlines on regulations that would improve the responsiveness of mine rescue teams and mandate better equipment for rescuers.

But OSHA's regulatory calendar is far from wide open. The Bush administration's OSHA has been downright slothful in promulgating new regulations and, as a result, there are plenty of important rules in the hopper including occupational exposure standards for crystalline silica, beryllium, and diacetyl (the microwave popcorn flavoring chemical).

The agencies are not necessarily to blame for their troubles. A decades-long conservative campaign against government intervention has left most federal agencies underfunded and understaffed. President Bush has been exceptionally effective in continuing this trend, and the new Democratic leadership proved too feckless in the recent budget showdown to reverse it.

Borrowing OSHA staff may not be a positive step for occupational health; but, for the foreseeable future, the mounting workload of these two agencies may be an intractable dilemma.

Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, will remain in his post even though his 2006 recess appointment has expired. Late Friday, President Bush announced Stickler would remain on the job as an acting administrator. Stickler may continue in the interim role for another 210 days, according to the Associated Press.

Bush installed Stickler by recess appointment in October 2006 because several senators opposed his nomination. Stickler worked for Beth Energy Mines of Amity, Pennsylvania for 30 years, before heading the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety from 1997 to 2003. According to the United Mine Workers (UMWA), mines run by Stickler had accident rates double that of the national average for six of eight years, including two fatal accidents at a mine Stickler managed for five years.

Mine safety has frequently been in the news over the past two years, usually for tragic reasons. In response to several mine disasters in 2006 (particularly Sago and Darby), Congress passed the MINER Act and mandated MSHA promulgate enforcing regulations within one year.

Stickler's record on enforcing the MINER Act has been mixed. MSHA has made little progress in implementing key provisions of the law, such as improving mine seals and mine rescue equipment, as a recent Washington Post article highlights. One bright spot came in December when MSHA levied a heavy fine against a delinquent mine operator as the MINER Act empowers the agency to do.

Stickler's record is not surprising — there has been a declining focus on ensuring mine safety during the Bush administration. A recent Department of Labor Inspector General report found that MSHA is conducting about one in seven of the inspections the law requires. Ultimately, MSHA's failures will be one of the many chapters in the Bush record that evince the administration's hostility toward public health, environmental and worker protections.

In 2007, new regulatory policies and the inability of federal agencies to protect the public made headlines more so than at any time in recent memory. Four themes dominated regulatory policy in 2007: White House influence over agency rulemaking activity and discretion; the inability of the federal government to ensure the safety of imported goods; the influence of industry groups; and the Bush administration's refusal to regulate in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence.

Click on these links for a recap of 2007's highlights and lowlights:

• White House Interventions
• Import Safety
• Industry Influence
• Ignoring Science