
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 28, 1995                   TAG: 9507280074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

MINE SAFETY AGENCY'S FATE DEBATED

With scores of coal miners looking on, Democrats and union leaders assailed a plan Thursday to eliminate a federal agency that oversees mine safety.

Some Republicans are seeking to have the Occupational Safety and Health Administration absorb the functions of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, saying much money could be saved by eliminating duplicative management, computers and offices.

The president of the United Mine Workers of America, Richard L. Trumka, said the mining industry ``needs its own watchdog agency because mining presents unique risks to its workers that must be constantly monitored to protect workers against inherent hazards.''

Trumka told the House Economic and Educational Opportunities subcommittee on worker protections that coal-mining deaths have decreased by about 77 percent since the agency was created in 1969, shortly after an underground explosion in Farmington, W.Va., killed 78 miners.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., has led an effort to dissolve the mine agency and said the combined agency would offer the same protections and standards now afforded to the mining industry.

- Associated Press

by CNB