Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977".

FINDINGS AND PURPOSE

SEC. 2. Congress declares that

(a) the first priority and concern of all in the coal or other mining industry must be the health and safety of its most precious resource the miner;

(b) deaths and serious injuries from unsafe and unhealthful conditions and practices in the coal or other mines cause grief and suffering to the miners and to their families;

(c) there is an urgent need to provide more effective means and measures for improving the working conditions and practices in the Nation's coal or other mines in order to prevent death and serious physical harm, and in order to prevent occupational diseases originating in such mines;

(d) the existence of unsafe and unhealthful conditions and practices in the Nation's coal or other mines is a serious impediment to the future growth of the coal or other mining industry and cannot be tolerated;

(e) the operators of such mines with the assistance of the miners have the primary responsibility to prevent the existence of such conditions and practices in such mines;

(f) the disruption of production and the loss of income to operators and miners as a result of coal or other mine accidents or occupationally caused diseases unduly impedes and burdens commerce; and

(g) it is the purpose of this Act (1) to establish interim mandatory health and safety standards and to direct the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Secretary of Labor to develop and promulgate improved mandatory health or safety standards to protect the health and safety of the Nation's coal or other miners; (2) to require that each operator of a coal or other mine and every miner in such mine comply with such standards; (3) to cooperate with, and provide assistance to, the States in the development and enforcement of effective State coal or other mine health and safety programs; and (4) to improve and expand, in cooperation with the States and the coal or other mining industry, research and development and training programs aimed at preventing coal or other mine accidents and occupationally caused diseases in the industry.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 3. For the purpose of this Act, the term—

(a) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Labor or his delegate; (b) "commerce" means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation,

(1)

or communication among the several States, or between a place in a State and any place outside thereof, or within the District of Columbia or a possession of the United States, or between points in the same State but through a point outside thereof;

(c) "State" includes a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands;

(d) "operator" means any owner, lessee, or other person who operates, controls, or supervises a coal or other mine or any independent contractor performing services or construction at such mine;

(e) "agent" means any person charged with responsibility for the operation of all or a part of a coal mine or the supervision of the miners in a coal or other mine;

(f) "person" means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, firm, subsidiary of a corporation, or other organization;

(g) "miner" means any individual working in a coal or other mine;

(h)(1) "coal or other mine" means (A) an area of land from which minerals are extracted in nonliquid form or, if in liquid form, are extracted with workers underground, (B) private ways and roads appurtenant to such area, and (C) lands, excavations, underground passageways, shafts, slopes, tunnels and workings, structures, facilities, equipment, machines, tools, or other property including impoundments, retention dams, and tailings ponds, on the surface or underground, used in, or to be used in, or resulting from, the work of extracting such minerals from their natural deposits in nonliquid form, or if in liquid form, with workers underground, or used in, or to be used in, the milling of such minerals, or the work of preparing coal or other minerals, and includes custom coal preparation facilities. In making a determination of what constitutes mineral milling for purposes of this Act, the Secretary shall give due consideration to the convenience of administration resulting from the delegation to one Assistant Secretary of all authority with respect to the health and safety of miners employed at one physical establishment;

(2) For purposes of titles II, III, and IV, "coal mine" means an area of land and all structures, facilities, machinery, tools, equipment, shafts, slopes, tunnels, excavations, and other property, real or personal, placed upon, under, or above the surface of such land by any person, used in, or to be used in, or resulting from, the work of extracting in such area bituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite from its natural deposits in the earth by any means or method, and the work of preparing the coal so extracted, and includes custom coal preparation facilities;

(i) "work of preparing the coal" means the breaking, crushing, sizing, cleaning, washing, drying, mixing, storing, and loading of bituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite, and such other work of preparing such coal as is usually done by the operator of the coal mine;

(j) "imminent danger" means the existence of any condition or practice in a coal or other mine which could reasonably be expected to cause death or serious physical harm before such condition or practice can be abated;

(k) "accident" includes a mine explosion, mine ignition, mine fire, or mine inundation, or injury to, or death of, any person;

(1) "mandatory health or safety standard" means the interim mandatory health or safety standards established by titles II and III of this Act, and the standards promulgated pursuant to title I of this Act;

(m) "panel" means the Interim Compliance Panel established by this Act;

(n) "Administration" means the Mine Safety and Health Administration in the Department of Labor; and

(o) "Commission" means the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

MINES SUBJECT TO ACT

SEC. 4. Each coal or other mine, the products of which enter commerce, or the operations or products of which affect commerce, and each operator of such mine, and every miner in such mine shall be subject to the provisions of this Act.

INTERIM COMPLIANCE PANEL

SEC. 5. (a) There is hereby established the Interim Compliance Panel, which shall be composed of five members as follows:

(1) Assistant Secretary of Labor for Labor Standards, Department of Labor, or his delegate;

(2) Director of the Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce, or his delegate;

(3) Administrator of Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or his delegate;

(4) Director of the Bureau of Mines, Department of the Interior, or his delegate; and

(5) Director of the National Science Foundation, or his delegate.

(b) Members of the Panel shall serve without compensation in addition to that received in their regular employment, but shall be entitled to reimbursement for travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses incurred by them in the performance of duties vested in the Panel.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of the Interior. and the Secretary shall, upon request of the Panel, provide the Panel such personnel and other assistance as the Panel determines necessary to enable it to carry out its functions under this Act.

(d) Three members of the Panel shall constitute a quorum for doing business. All decisions of the Panel shall be by majority vote. The chairman of the Panel shall be selected by the members from among the membership thereof.

(e) The Panel is authorized to appoint as many hearing examiners as are necessary for proceedings required to be conducted in accordance with the provisions of this Act. The provisions applicable to hearing examiners appointed under section 3105 of title 5 of the United States Code shall be applicable to hearing examiners appointed pur

suant to this subsection.

(f) (1) It shall be the function of the Panel to carry out the duties imposed on it pursuant to this Act and to provide an opportunity for a public hearing, after notice, at the request of an operator of the affected coal mine or the representative of the miners of such mine. Any operator or representative of miners aggrieved by a final decision of the Panel may file a petition for review of such decision under section 106 of this Act. The provisions of this section shall terminate upon completion of the Panel's functions as set forth under this Act. Any hearing held pursuant to this subsection shall be of record and the Panel shall make findings of fact and shall issue a written decision incorporating its findings therein in accordance with section 554 of title 5 of the United States Code.

(2) The Panel shall make an annual report, in writing, to the Secretary for transmittal by him to the Congress concerning the achievement of its purposes, and any other relevant information (including any recommendations) which it deems appropriate.

TITLE I-GENERAL

MANDATORY SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDARDS

SEC. 101. (a) The Secretary shall by rule in accordance with procedures set forth in this section and in accordance with section 553 of title 5, United States Code (without regard to any reference in such section to sections 556 and 557 of such title), develop, promulgate, and revise as may be appropriate, improved mandatory health or safety standards for the protection of life and prevention of injuries in coal or other

mines.

(1) Whenever the Secretary, upon the basis of information submitted to him in writing by an interested person, a representative of any organization of employers or employees, a nationally recognized standards-producing organization, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or a State or political subdivision, or on the basis of information developed by the Secretary or otherwise available to him, determines that a rule should be promulgated in order to serve the objectives of this Act, the Secretary may request the recommendation of an advisory committee appointed under section 102 (c). The Secretary shall provide such an advisory committee with any proposals of his own or of the Secretary of Health. Education, and Welfare, together with all pertinent factual information developed by the Secretary or the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, or otherwise available, including the results of research, demonstrations, and experiments. An advisory committee shall submit to the Secretary its recommendations regarding the rule to be promulgated within 60 days from the date of its appointment or within such longer or shorter period as may be prescribed by the Secretary, but in no event for a period which is longer than 180 days. When the Secretary receives a recommendation,

accompanied by appropriate criteria, from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that a rule be promulgated, modified, or revoked, the Secretary must, within 60 days after receipt thereof, refer such recommendation to an advisory committee pursuant to this paragraph, or publish such as a proposed rule pursuant to paragraph (2), or publish in the Federal Register his determination not to do so, and his reasons therefor. The Secretary shall be required to request the recommendations of an advisory committee appointed under section. 102(c) if the rule to be promulgated is, in the discretion of the Secretary which shall be final, new in effect or application and has significant economic impact.

(2) The Secretary shall publish a proposed rule promulgating, modifying, or revoking a mandatory health or safety standard in the Federal Register. If the Secretary determines that a rule should be proposed and in connection therewith has appointed an advisory committee as provided by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall publish a proposed rule, or the reasons for his determination not to publish such rule, within 60 days following the submission of the advisory committee's recommendation or the expiration of the period of time prescribed by the Secretary in such submission. In either event, the Secretary shall afford interested persons a period of 30 days after any such publication to submit written data or comments on the proposed rule. Such comment period may be extended by the Secretary upon a finding of good cause, which the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register. Publication shall include the text of such rules proposed in their entirety, a comparative text of the proposed changes in existing rules, and shall include a comprehensive index to the rules, crossreferenced by subject matter.

(3) On or before the last day of the period provided for the submission of written data or comments under paragraph (2), any interested person may file with the Secretary written objections to the proposed mandatory health or safety standard, stating the grounds therefor and requesting a public hearing on such objections. Within 60 days after the last day for filing such objections, the Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register a notice specifying the mandatory health or safety standard to which objections have been filed and a hearing requested, and specifying a time and place for such hearing. Any hearing under this subsection for the purpose of hearing relevant information shall commence within 60 days after the date of publication of the notice of hearing. Hearings required by this subsection shall be conducted by the Secretary, who may prescribe rules and make rulings concerning procedures in such hearings to avoid unnecessary cost or delay. Subject to the need to avoid undue delay, the Secretary shall provide for procedures that will afford interested parties the right to participate in the hearing, including the right to present oral statements and to offer written comments and data. The Secretary may require by subpoena the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence in connection with any proceeding initiated under this section. If a person refuses to obey a subpoena under this subsection, a United States district court within the jurisdiction of which a proceeding under this subsection is conducted may, upon petition by the Secretary, issue an order requiring compliance with such subpoena. A transcript shall be taken of any such hearing and shall be available to the public.

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