Opposition to the Nomination of Richard Stickler
OPPOSITION TO THE NOMINATION OF RICHARD STICKLER -- (Senate - June 13, 2006)
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleague from Illinois in expressing my deep concern about the nomination of Richard Stickler to be Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health. That is a long title, but it means one thing: This is the person who is going to be in charge of the health and safety of every miner in America.
That is a very serious responsibility, and it requires a serious leader, someone with a strong background in mine safety and a strong commitment to aggressively protect America's mine workers. I sit on the committee that oversees the nomination. I have to tell the Senate, Mr. Stickler offered neither. I believe the President, respectfully, should withdraw his nomination and send us at this time a more suitable nominee.
As we all know, just 6 months ago, 12 miners were killed in the Sago disaster. In the wake of that tragedy, many of us in the Senate worked hard--and I commend the Senator who is sitting in the chair for his work--on this incredibly important issue. We did the right thing. We came together and passed the most comprehensive mine safety update in a generation.
I was honored to work on that historic bill with Senators KENNEDY and ENZI, Senator Isakson, who is in the chair, and Senators ROCKEFELLER and BYRD. But we have to do more than just pass a law. We need to make sure we provide the resources, and we need to make sure we provide the leadership to carry this out. That is why it is so disturbing to me that the Senate majority leader is today trying to push an unqualified nominee through to head this agency.
Senator Byrd, who represents the Sago families, has raised some very valid concerns about Mr. Stickler's qualifications and, following Senate tradition, those concerns should be heeded. They should give all of us pause. Indeed, we see the leadership today departing from the usual process and trying now to push this nominee through the Senate. I believe that is the wrong course of action when the lives of our American miners are at stake.
Mr. President, as you well know, I am very passionate about this issue because I have worked on mine safety issues with you and with the Senator who is arriving on the floor as I speak, Senator Kennedy. In fact, at the hearing of this nominee, it was my questioning of his confirmation hearing that revealed to me his business-as-usual approach to miner health and safety.
When Richard Stickler testified at his HELP confirmation hearing in January, he told me he believed the current mine safety laws are adequate. That was before we passed our legislation. He said those current mine safety laws were adequate. I couldn't disagree more, and neither could the House and Senate, which, after that, passed the most significant mine safety improvements in a generation.
I was disappointed in his responses at the hearing, so I asked him further questions in writing. In reply to that, Mr. Stickler could not suggest a single way to improve mine safety--not one single suggestion. Think about that for a minute. We would not put someone in charge of food safety who has no idea about how to make consumers safe. We
wouldn't put someone in charge of airline safety who has no idea how to make air traffic safer. And we certainly shouldn't put someone in charge of mine safety who has no idea about how to make our mines safer.
We need a leader now more than ever at the Mine Safety and Health Administration who will not just accept the status quo that has cost miners their lives in this country. It is a wrong turn to have the enforcement of our mine safety laws turned over to a former coal company executive with no background in miner health and safety.
Here is how the head of the United Mine Workers of America put it in a letter to President Bush. He said:
The Nation's miners cannot tolerate having another mine executive running the agency responsible for protecting their health and their safety. For too many years, miners have endured an agency directed by coal mining executives. Too often these mining executives place a priority on productivity, but fail to focus on miners' health and safety. Too many times MSHA has not done all it is charged with doing to promote miners' health and safety.
Clearly, we need a new direction at that agency and, clearly, Mr. Stickler does not provide a new kind of direction.
The words that I just quoted are the words of Cecil Roberts, international president of the United Mine Workers of America. He and the AFL-CIO oppose this nomination and with good reason.
With America's miners risking their lives every day, as we all know--and a new law in place, thankfully, because of the leadership of the Presiding Officer, that has to be vigorously enforced--we cannot entrust our mine safety to someone who has not shown the background or the passion or the desire to make sure those laws work well and will fight for the health and safety of American miners.
When it comes to mine safety, we know now that we cannot tolerate business as usual. I believe the Senate should reject this nominee and demand a leader, someone who will stand up for our miners.
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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would say to my friend from Massachusetts through the Acting President pro tempore, I couldn't agree more. I think the country sat at its dinner tables and watched the mine accidents that have occurred increasingly over the past year. So we understand what it takes in this country is leadership at an agency. Just look back at what happened with Katrina with the head of FEMA. It takes leadership in an agency. It takes all of us to put laws in place. But if there is not someone at the head of that agency who is sending a direction down through the ranks that our miners' safety and health has to come first, any law we pass will just be something written in a book.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, would the Senator agree with me that there are, it seems to me, three major tests. We all know that Mr. Stickler was a miner and comes from a mining family, and we respect that. We have a great deal of respect for that. I am sure he was a great miner, as is his family, I am sure. But what we are looking at now is the record of Mr. Stickler regarding mine safety.
Would the Senator agree with me that if you look over the record that he has in terms of mine safety--this chart represents the Stickler-managed mines which racked up thousands of safety citations. This is 1989 all the way through 1996. There were a total of 2,800 citations, 97 closures, and we have here--there is some time overlap between that chart and this one--the Eagle's Nest Mine where the managed mine injury rate is nearly triple the national average.
So we have the citations which are an indication in terms of the mine safety, we have a comparison with what has happened in terms of the average, and then when he was running the mine safety program in Pennsylvania, we had inspectors who were threatening to quit because they thought he was failing to protect miners. This chart shows the mine safety inspectors and harmed coal miners, and his policy--that is the policy of Mr. Stickler--is a detriment to safety that would, without a doubt, make the coal industry less safe for two-thirds of its workers.
So we have his record in terms of mine safety in the mines. As an administrator, we have inspectors of the mines who are prepared to resign. Then, the third strike, which I think is enormously powerful, is, as the Senator from Washington pointed out, his response to the questions.
The Senator remembers, because she commented on this, when he was asked whether there needed to be any changes in the existing law, he said he thought that the existing laws were adequate. This is prior to the time that we passed the new legislation, as I remember.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would answer the Senator in saying, that is absolutely correct. Prior to any action by this body and the House in passing tougher laws, this nominee said no changes were needed.
Mr. KENNEDY. And when he was asked whether he would implement the law requiring a mine rescue team on site at every mine, Mr. Stickler said: No, Senator, I can't commit to that at this time. I will study this.
Does the Senator remember that when asked what he would do with information about new mine safety technology, Stickler said: I think that needs to be looked at.
When asked whether he would require the use of new technology like tracking devices, Stickler said: I look forward to reviewing the results of the technical evaluation.
When asked whether he would enforce the current standard prohibiting the use of belt air if it was shown that the use of belt air caused the Alma mine fire, Stickler said: I would reevaluate the standard. Here are the series of questions, many of them asked by the Senator from Washington and others.
Does the Senator not agree with me having read the answers, plus attending the hearing, that one could say that the miners of this country deserve to have someone who is going to be more aggressive in terms of looking at new technology and in looking at additional safety standards, in looking at more effective kinds of enforcement and protecting the lives of the workers?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. There are 7 minutes remaining.
Mr. KENNEDY. I would ask the Chair to let us know when 2 minutes remain.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would just say to the Senator from Massachusetts, I want in charge of this agency someone who will stand up and say, We are going to make the mines safer for the families who send a loved one there every day.
I went to that hearing, and all of what the Senator from Massachusetts just presented and the attitude this nominee presented--to me, this is not someone, despite his background, who is going to stand up and lead. I believe that we need to send this nominee back and we need to have somebody who we can proudly say is going to lead this agency at a most critical time.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, finally, I would like to get the Senator's reaction to these letters that we have gotten from families of those who were lost in the Sago mines and in other mines. I found them enormously powerful. When we visited the Sago mine, we had--I see in the Chair presiding over the Senate a member of our committee and someone who was enormously involved and active in getting this legislation passed, and I pay tribute to Senator Isakson. But in that meeting, I can remember it was the sense of all of the members, Republicans and Democrats, who were so moved by the tremendous tragedy and sadness, particularly when they had the sense of hope at the Sago mines that their loved ones might have been able to survive we made a commitment to them that we were going to do everything possible to make sure that others who go into the mines were going to be protected. We have come back here and passed a good, bipartisan bill, and also in the House of Representatives. There was a real question among many of us here whether we could get a good one that the President would sign, and now the President has announced that he is going to sign it on Thursday.
The mines themselves are having record problems. The mines themselves we find out are having record deaths. We passed good legislation and we promised those individuals that we were going to do everything we possibly could to make sure that the tragedies that happened to their loved ones would not happen again.
We passed the legislation. Now we have the letters from so many of these families who have read the record of this individual and have pleaded with us--pleaded with us--pleaded with us, that if we honor the memory of those who died in these mines, that we put someone in charge who is going to really implement that legislation and to fight for safety.
Is the Senator not moved, as I am, by the letters we received from the miners' families who have been lost, many of whom came to our hearings and who listened to the testimony on this individual? They have studied his record, and now they plead with us--plead with us--that we get someone else to provide the leadership for implementing the mine safety laws. Is the Senator moved by those letters?
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I would say to the Senator from Massachusetts, every Senator on this floor should take a few minutes to read those letters from the families who have been impacted by mining disasters. I would say to my colleagues and to the President that we ought to be thinking we have to put someone in place in this agency who is going to wake up every single day he is on the job and say, What am I doing to make sure that in my responsibility of taking care of hundreds of miners every single day, I am moving the ball forward.
I have to say to the Senator from Massachusetts, there was no passion when I saw the presentation. I did not see someone in front of me who understood the tremendous responsibility that he was being given and who would wake up every single day and say, What am I doing to improve mine safety? That is my responsibility.
That is the kind of person I want in charge of this agency, I say to my friend from Massachusetts.
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