HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

Washington, Jan 16, 2008 -

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement opposing the S-MINER Act (H.R. 2768), a measure that would undermine the historic MINER Act passed by the Republican-led 109th Congress after the tragedy at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, as well as the others that followed in 2006:

“With middle-class families feeling the squeeze from rising costs of living, this bill could not come at a worse time.  It will thrust upon employers a broad, billion dollar federal mandate that could endanger the jobs of the very miners the Majority claims it is intending to protect, making it just the latest shot in the Democrats’ massive, undeclared War on American Jobs.   New, heavy-handed mandates have drawn strong opposition from a wide array of stakeholders in the mining industry, including mineworkers themselves – and for good reason.  They saddle employers with burdensome new costs that could put critical American jobs in jeopardy.

“I am disappointed that the responsible Republican alternative to remove the onerous mandates at the heart of the Majority’s S-MINER Act and implement substance abuse testing to identify and deter drug abuse that could put miners’ lives at risk was turned back by House Democrats.  This common sense proposal would have successfully built upon the implementation of the bipartisan, historic 2006 MINER Act, and I commend Reps. Buck McKeon (R-CA), Joe Wilson (R-SC), and John Kline (R-MN) for offering it on the floor today.”

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