Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση
[graphic][merged small]
[graphic][merged small]
[graphic][merged small]

Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you very much, gentlemen.

The subcommittee will now recess to a date to be announced by the chairman.

(Whereupon, at 2 p.m., the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at the call of the chair.)

COAL MINE HEALTH AND SAFETY

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1969

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 4232, New Senate Office Building, Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding.

Present: Senators Williams, Randolph, Cranston, Javits, Prouty, and Schweiker.

Committee staff members present: Robert O. Harris, staff director; Frederick R. Blackwell, counsel to the subcommittee; Eugene Mittelman, minority counsel; and Peter C. Benedict, minority counsel to the subcommittee.

Senator WILLIAMS. The continuation of hearings on the coal mine safety and health bills that are before the subcommittee will begin

now.

We are honored to have Secretary Hickel here this morning as our first witness. We also have Mr. O'Leary, of the Bureau of Mines.

Our hearings last week started with an opening statement of the Member of Congress who is probably longest in the service in the Congress for coal mine safety and better health conditions, Senator Randolph, of West Virginia.

I think we will stay in that pattern. If you don't mind, Senator Randolph, will you open with your statement.

STATEMENT OF HON. JENNINGS RANDOLPH, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Secretary, perhaps you are aware that I initiated coal mine. health and safety legislation in the 91st Congress by introducing the measure that had been recommended by your predecessor and by the able incumbent, the Director of Mines, John O'Leary. It was introduced on January 16, 1969, and received No. S. 355, and would be known as the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act.

I said then and emphasized again at our opening hearing on February 27 that I feel we have an obligation to move with all deliberate speed on coal mine safety legislation keyed to the avoidance, indeed the prevention, of coal mine disasters such as the terrible one near Farmington, W. Va., last November.

But I agree with Secretary Hickel and others, including our subcommittee chairman, who have said that every coal mine fatality is

26-491-69-pt. 1—33

(509)

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »