When the Trump administration took the first steps toward shutting down two major programs aimed at protecting the nation’s miners, the grassroots response was immediate, and vehement.
And, it turns out, successful.
In March, the administration moved to shutter over 30 field offices of the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, throughout coal country. Weeks later, it proposed cutting 90 percent of the staff at the National Institute for Occupational Health. That would have killed its efforts to screen miners for black lung and treat that progressive, fatal disease, which is caused by chronic exposure to silica dust.
Miners and their advocates swiftly demanded that President Donald Trump, who has never shied away from celebrating coal miners as “real people,” change course. The United Mine Workers of America, the Black Lung Association, and environmental groups like Appalachian Voices came together to protest the cuts and tell lawmakers to back their calls to undo them. Two miners sued the administration, ar... Read more
