Excerpt
n an earlier political era, a major mine disaster like the explosion at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine that killed 29 miners might have spurred Congress to take action. Not in today's Washington: Republicans blocked passage of a new bill Wednesday that would have enabled the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to more effectively hold repeat offender mine owners accountable and to better protect miners' lives.
While a majority of Democrats supported the bill, to speed its consideration it required a two-thirds majority—under a "suspension of the rules" vote—that it didn't garner, getting only a slim majority of 214 to 193 votes. Even so, the full House did approve added funding for the agency by adding administrative judges to go through the backlog of 19,000 owner appeals of enforcement actions.
Get the message? Republicans DO NOT care about working people. They care ONLY about the rich (like the owners of big mining companies).
No comments:
Post a Comment