Tweet
When the Democratic-led House of Representatives voted again to authorize billions for the failed war in Afghanistan last night, there was no relief for 300,000 teachers facing cuts as the House originally wanted. Faced with a veto threat from President Obama for daring to provide stimulus to help hundreds of thousands of teachers, kids they teach, and the communities they serve, the House again folded to the Senate and passed a stripped-down “emergency” war supplemental for a nine-year-old war.
But there was apparently room for some money for working people: included in the bill was $22 million in mine safety funding. This money will help alleviate a “backlog of more than 17,000 cases involving mine operator appeals of safety and health violations,” according to the House Education and Labor Committee.
H.R. 4899, the Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010, will add an additional $22 million to the Mine Safety and Health Administration and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission to attack the backlog of cases. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. [...]
Specifically, H.R. 4899:
- Provides $18.2 million for mine safety activities and legal services related to the Department of Labor’s caseload before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
- Includes $3.8 million to reduce the backlog of cases at the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.
- It also provides authority to the Secretary of Labor to allocate funds to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, provided that congressional appropriations committees are given at least 15 days advance notice.
While the House was unable to stand up for teachers, at least some working people were able to get some needed help in the war bill.
9 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Work in Progress
well that’s a happy note
I’m gonna give the dems 1/5th a “ball” for that one. Someday they’ll actually have balls.
Minor fix.
Maybe it was a quiet grace note for Senator Byrd?
/s
Does this do more than provide hearing examiners to move appeals filed by mine operators? That’s what it sounds like. Not like Obamco to do a goddam thing for miners or the UMWA.
Part of the problem in using “supplemental” funding procedures to pass war funding measures is that that process does away with normal public debate about what’s being funded and why. The choice is convenient for politicians who don’t want to be held accountable for their priorities and decisions (is that redundant?). But it is a major disservice to the public, which can’t make its wishes known about how much guns or butter it wants when all the taxpayers’ cream is skimmed off and spent via the no-discussion-needed supplemental budget process.
Thanks for the edit :)
Credit for getting this done at this time goes to Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), who genuinely cares about this issue.
The Republics still stripped out the supplemental for the settlement of a black farmers’ anti-discrimination case against USDA, known as Pigford II, and the Cobell Individual Indian Money Accounts claims at Interior. The House had tried to include the Pigford II and the Cobell settlements in the “extenders” bill passed earlier by the chamber, but that bill was stripped out by the Republics in the Senate.
This is another piece of the puzzle from the Breitbart attack on Sherrod. The rightwing is claiming that Sherrod has unfairly gotten US tax dollars out this settlement, but most claims have not been honored by Congress.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0710/072310cdpm1.htm
Also discussed by Chris Hayes on Monday evening, 7/26, on RM’s show. Clear case of ongoing discrimination against minority and women farmers by US Dept of Ag. What else is new?
Nice that at least this got pushed through. Better than nothing.