FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 26, 2006

Isakson Voices Dismay That One House Member Continues to Block Mine Safety Bill

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), who chairs the Senate Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, today issued the following statement on Representative George Miller's objection to passing comprehensive mine safety reform in the House:

"For five months now, members of both parties and both houses have put aside their political differences and focused on ways we can make underground coal mines safer for the thousands of men and women who work inside these deep caverns.  

“Together, we traveled to West Virginia to meet with the grieving families, held numerous hearings and brought experts to Washington from around the nation and around the world, all in an effort to determine how we can provide the safest possible workplace for American miners.

“The result of these tireless efforts is the MINER Act, the most significant mine safety reform in a generation.

“Throughout this process, never once was there the faintest hint of partisanship, until yesterday. I am dismayed that one Member of Congress would single-handedly deny thousands of miners their hope for safer working conditions.  

“I join my good friends Chairman Buck McKeon, Representative Charlie Norwood and Senator Jay Rockefeller, as well as the entire mining industry and the United Mine Workers of America, in calling upon Representative George Miller to end this senseless charade and allow this worthy bill to go to the President's desk."  

The Senate passed the MINER Act unanimously this week.

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