Here’s an interesting pairing of events. Even though there have been a spate of deaths and accidents at mines, the Bush Administration has “decreased major fines for safety violations since 2001,” as The New York Times reports today. The Mine Safety and Health Administration’s response: last year’s fatalities of 22 miners was “the lowest number in its history.”

Hmmmm…well, fatalities over one year doesn’t tell us much. The most revealing point is that the level of fines is dropping. So, the slap on the wrist is no evolving into a wag of the finger:

Although the agency has recently trumpeted Congressional plans to raise the maximum penalties, federal records indicate that few major fines are issued at the maximum level.

In 2004, the number of major fines issued at maximum level was one in 10, down from one in 5 in 2003.

Since 2001, the median for penalties that exceed $10,000, described as “major fines,” has dropped 13 percent, to $21,800 from $25,000.

Also troubling, critics say, is that fines are regularly reduced in negotiations between mine operators and the agency. From 2001 to 2003, more than two-thirds of all major fines were cut from the original amount that the agency proposed. Most of the more recent cases are enmeshed in appeals, so it is impossible to know whether that trend has continued.

What happens here is what message is sent, not just in the mines but throughout the country. Lower fines may not mean deaths–but it does tell companies that it can cut corners on safety and health that leads to accidents and illness because, from the Administration’s standpoint, that’s just a cost of doing business, and the Administration wants to make the financial cost as low as possible even if the human toll grows.

But, there’s a little nagging problem for Republicans: the public is starting to hear about the safety issue, in large part thanks to hearings that have been called by Rep. George Miller, the Democratic ranking member on the House Education & the Workforce committee. Yesterday, Democrats were honing in on the issue, when presto, the Republicans shut down the hearing. Here’s a report from Miller’s staff:

REPUBLICANS SHUT DOWN

HEARING ON MINE SAFETY
In Violation of House Rules, Committee Chairman Denies

Members Chance to Question All Witnesses on Panel

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a spectacularly undemocratic abuse of power, the Republican chairman of a House subcommittee today prematurely shut down a hearing on mineworker safety and health despite the fact that Democratic members of the committee were not finished asking questions of the witnesses.

Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA), the chairman of the House subcommittee on Workforce Protections, refused to allow a second round of questioning by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee. Under House rules, committee members are allowed five minutes per witness for their questions. The Democrats on the committee were denied the opportunity to question each witness for five minutes.

“So far this year, 21 coal miners have died in the United States,” said Miller. “This is a crisis. Yet Republican leaders in Congress were unwilling to devote more than a mere 90 minutes to this issue of life-and-death. Congress has a responsibility to take action to keep more people from dying in preventable mine accidents. The Republicans showed a complete lack of concern and respect for miners and their families by shutting down this hearing before all the facts could come out.”

Norwood gaveled the hearing to a close shortly after 1:30 p.m., despite the fact that it was scheduled to run for two hours, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. This was the first oversight hearing on worker health and safety that House Republicans have convened in the last five years. Only Republicans can convene formal committee hearings. Republicans chose three of the four witnesses for today’s hearing, while allowing Democrats to choose just one.

It is standard practice for members of a committee to be allowed to ask additional questions during hearings.

Miller said today that it was clear that Norwood shut down the proceedings because he didn’t like what he was hearing.

“The Bush Administration is undermining mine safety, and Republican leaders in Congress don’t want the public to know it,” he said today.

Add the attacks on worker safety that Republicans are trying to sweep under the rug, along with Katrina, Iraq, deficits, and NSA spying.