On December 6th, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) will celebrate National Miners’ Day, in order to “recognize and applaud the skill, dedication, and hard work miners put into providing many of the products essential to fulfilling America’s most vital need” and to “recommit to ensuring that miners’ safety and health must always be the first priority and concern in mining.” However, these words feel empty and ironic for those of us who have been fighting all year to combat program cuts and administrative blocks to some of the most critical policies impacting America’s coal miners. As we finish out the year, let’s take a look at how 2025 shaped up and some of the biggest issues still remaining for the New Year.
This National Miners Day, we want to remind Congress how they can actually support miners.
Join us. Take action.
https://appvoices.org/actions/dont-gut-protections-for-coal-miners/
In March, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) website listed lease terminations for 33 Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) field offices. We found that almost 17,000 health and safety inspections were conducted by these 33 MSHA field offices the previous year. Closing those offices would have, at minimum, dramatically limited the ability for inspectors to do their job in a timely fashion by increasing travel time and forcing MSHA inspectors to cover a greater territory with fewer resources.
In Kentucky specifically, the Trump Administration had planned to close seven of the nine MSHA field offices, with the remaining two being located in Lexington and Pikeville. These seven offices accounted for 1,684 completed inspections between 2024 and February 2025.
Public outcry from organizations like ours, Appalachian Voices and the Black Lung Association, and labor unions, such as the United Mine Workers of America, was fierce. By the end of May, the General Services Administration stated that it would retain the leases for nearly all of the field offices slated for closure.
Department of Labor Self-Insurance Rule
Late last year, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a long-awaited rule to strengthen black lung insurance requirements. Coal companies who choose to self-insure their black lung liabilities would have to cover 100% of present and future black lung liability costs for their workforce. This long-standing issue reached its zenith when a Government Accountability Office report detailed how the bankruptcies of just three coal companies transferred $865 million in disability payments for more than 3,000 miners to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. Historically, the DOL was allowing coal operators to insure, on average, just 19% of their obligations.
The much-needed rule would have ensured that coal operators could no longer shed disability liabilities onto taxpayers. Additionally, it would have incentivized companies to take all available measures to reduce the rate of black lung among their workforce.
However, a November 24th letter to DOL Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer signed by House Education & Workforce Ranking Members Robert C. Scott and Ilhan Omar highlighted Congressional concerns that this self-insurance rule was not being enforced by the Trump Administration. According to the letter, there had been “reports from multiple stakeholders that DOL has informed operators it will not enforce the rule.” Additionally, the Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) forms for self-insured operators have yet to be updated to reflect the current 100 percent security requirements.
While some Congressional offices have cited the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund’s long-standing debt as a primary reason for why they cannot support any improvements to the black lung benefits system, yet there is also no broad support from members of the Congressional oversight committees or the Trump Administration to support the implementation of this new rule which directly protects the Fund from further insolvency.
After years of advocating for a change in the permissible exposure limit (PEL) for respirable crystalline silica in coal and metal/non-metal mines, advocates were relieved when MSHA finalized a rule in June 2024. The rule lowers silica dust exposure from 100 to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air, and an action level of 25. In practice, this meant that mining operators would now have to provide more engineering controls to protect miners without relying on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or administrative controls to reduce exposure. MSHA estimated that for working and retired miners who are exposed to silica dust only under the new PEL, this new rule would result in 1,067 lifetime avoided deaths and 3,746 lifetime avoided morbidity cases.
However, on April 8th, MSHA announced that they would be delaying the enforcement date for this final rule until August 18th, citing “unforeseen NIOSH restructuring” and “other technical reasons.” Almost simultaneously, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put an indefinite stay on the rule in response to ongoing litigation brought by the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA). Industry associations challenged the rule on the grounds that “MSHA lacks evidence that operators can feasibly comply” with the new PEL and that the rule “mandates extensive, expensive medical monitoring far beyond what MSHA has authority to compel.”
After months of delay, on November 26th the DOL filed a brief with the 8th Circuit that stated, “The Secretary will engage in limited rulemaking to reconsider and seek comments on portions of the Silica Rule impacted by this appeal.” DOL has elected not to fight for this rule in court and will now revise portions of the rule to satisfy industry’s concerns. This decision is gut-wrenching – every day that passes without silica protections is another day a miner will get sick and die of this preventable occupational disease.
On the morning of April 1st, hundreds of staff at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) awoke to a terrible April Fool’s email. But sadly, it was no joke; they were being laid off. Around 900 NIOSH staff – more than 90% of the agency’s entire workforce – was expected to be terminated within two months.
Staff and management officials at the Morgantown, WV office were unable to return to their offices that day. “It’s devastating. People will die,” said Cathay Tinney-Zara, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3040.
NIOSH staff provide crucial research on a range of occupational safety issues that impact American workers every day, including the Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program’s (CWHSP) mobile health screening units. These units, which provide free, confidential black lung screenings for active and retired coal miners faced elimination with the proposed cuts.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said in a statement, “Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants. This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.” This statement confounded many, who understood the tireless work that NIOSH staff provide to mining communities throughout Appalachia.
A month later, a court ordered the full restoration of services for NIOSH’s Respiratory Health Division, which includes the CWHSP, thanks to the public outcry from local and regional advocacy groups, labor unions, community members, and a lawsuit brought by lead plaintiff Harry Wiley.
The nearly two months of confusion and disarray only compounded concerns mining families had that this Administration, which pitched itself as siding with coal communities and mining families first, would instead side with big business who have a vested interest in hiding any research that shows that rates of black lung disease are continuing to rise.
Black Lung Disability Benefits
Earlier this year, ACLC began a campaign alongside local governments calling on Congress to support an increase in monthly black lung disability benefits. We partnered with Appalachian Voices and were supported by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). The resolutions provide a stark comparison between the cost-of-living and the monthly black lung benefits that miners receive.
Miners today receive nearly 40% less than the value of the original amount when federal benefits were first introduced, just $785.70 a month.
We finished this year with 84 local resolutions passed, representing 10,028 mining families receiving federal benefits. We’re eagerly awaiting an anticipated GAO report on the financial solvency of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund as well as the reintroduction of the Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act (BLBIA) and advocating for a separate, standalone benefits bill that will adjust black lung benefit levels to more accurately reflect the cost of living.
This National Miners Day, we want to remind Congress how they can actually support miners for their dedication and skill. Take action here and here.
