Training and Retraining of Miners

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR <SUBAGY>Mine Safety and Health Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>30 CFR Part 48</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. MSHA-2025-0085]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1219-AC19</RIN> <SUBJECT>Training and Retraining of Miners</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Department of Labor. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Proposed rule; request for comments. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> MSHA proposes to revise its regulations to eliminate provisions that allow District Managers to require changes in, or additions to, training programs. The current regulations appear to violate statutory authority; the Appointments Clause, by vesting significant regulatory authority in District Managers; and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), by skipping notice and comment related to undesignated and unpredictable requirements. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Comments must be received on or before July 31, 2025. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> All submissions must include RIN 1219-AC19 or Docket No. MSHA-2025-0085. You should not include personal or proprietary information that you do not wish to disclose publicly. If you mark parts of a comment as “business confidential” information, MSHA will not post those parts of the comment. Otherwise, MSHA will post all comments without change, including any personal information provided. MSHA cautions against submitting personal information. You may submit comments and informational materials, clearly identified by RIN 1219-AC19 or Docket No. MSHA-2025-0085, by any of the following methods: <E T="03">1. Federal E-Rulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the online instructions for submitting comments for MSHA-2025-0085. A brief summary of this document will be available at <E T="03">https://www.regulations.gov/docket/MSHA-2025-0085.</E> <E T="03">2. Email: zzMSHA-comments@dol.gov.</E> Include “RIN 1219-AC19” in the subject line of the message. <E T="03">3. Regular Mail or Hand Delivery:</E> MSHA, Office of Standards, Regulations, and Variances, Room C3522, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20210. Before visiting MSHA in person, call 202-693-9440 to make an appointment. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Jessica D. Senk, Acting Director, Office of Standards, Regulations, and Variances, MSHA at 202-693-9440 (voice). This is not a toll-free number. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> By statute, “[e]ach operator of a coal or other mine shall have a health and safety training program which shall be approved by the Secretary.” 30 U.S.C. 825(a). Further, by statute, the Secretary of Labor must set out “mandatory health or safety standards for the protection of life and prevention of injuries in coal or other mines.” 30 U.S.C. 811(a). MSHA has adopted regulations to implement 30 U.S.C.825(a) to include the mandatory requirements for submitting and obtaining approval of programs for training and retraining miners working in underground mines. 30 CFR 48.1. Each mine operator must “have an MSHA approved plan containing programs for training new miners, training experienced miners, training miners for new tasks, annual refresher training, and hazard training for miners. . . .” 30 CFR 48.3(a). MSHA regulations also set out detailed criteria for the information required in training programs. For example, each operator must submit “the name and position of the person designated by the operator who is responsible for health and safety training at the mine.” 30 CFR 48.3(c)(2). “The operator shall furnish to the representative of the miners a copy of the training plan two weeks prior to its submission to the District Manager.” 30 CFR 48.3 (d). “The training shall include instruction in the health and safety aspects and the safe operating procedures related to the assigned tasks, including information about the physical and health hazards of chemicals in the miner's work area, the protective measures a miner can take against these hazards, and the contents of the mine's HazCom program.” 30 CFR 48.7(a)(1). “The annual refresher training program for all miners shall include the following courses of instruction: Mandatory health and safety standard; Transportation Controls and communication systems; Barricading; Roof or ground control, ventilation, emergency evacuation and firefighting plans; First aid, Electrical hazards; Prevention of accidents; Self-rescue and respiratory devices; Explosives; Mine gases, Health.” 30 CFR 48.8(b)(1)-(11). The regulations also include detailed requirements for instruction including, for example, hazard recognition and avoidance; emergency and evacuation procedures; health and safety standards, safety rules, and safe working procedures; and use of self-rescue and respiratory devices. 30 CFR 48.11(a)(1)-(4). Miners must receive instruction on these subjects “at least once every 12 months.” 30 CFR 48.11(b). The training and retraining plan has the force and effect of “law” at the mine. The mine may be cited for violation of the training and retraining plan and mine personnel may be held personally liable, civilly and criminally for violations of the training and retraining plan. Various regulations in Part 48 also give the District Manager broad authority to add regulatory requirements to the training plan, which are neither described, nor required, by regulations or 30 U.S.C. 825. Specifically, several regulations currently state, without limitation, that mine operators must include in the training and retraining plan “[s]uch other courses as may be required by the District Manager based on circumstances and conditions at the mine.” 30 CFR 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.8(b)(12), 48.7(a)(4), 48.11(a)(5), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), 48.27(a)(4), 48.28(b)(11) and 48.31(a)(5). Moreover, 30 CFR 48.3 provides: “If it is deemed necessary, the District Manager may require changes in, or additions to, programs.” 30 CFR 48.3. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Discussion</HD> MSHA is proposing to remove the power of District Managers to require additional courses to training and retraining plans, beyond the criteria set out in 30 U.S.C. 825, and 30 CFR part 48. MSHA has reevaluated its regulations and tentatively concluded that the significant authority and discretion granted to District Managers in 30 CFR 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.8(b)(12), 48.7(a)(4), 48.11(a)(5), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), 48.27(a)(4), 48.28(b)(11), 48.31(a)(5) and 30 CFR 48.3. to require undesignated additions to training plans, violates 30 U.S.C. 825, the Appointments Clause and the APA. While mine operators are required by statute to prepare and submit “training plans,” and while MSHA has promulgated regulations setting forth specific contents and requirements for training plans, nothing in the plain text of the underlying statutes, including 30 U.S.C. 825 and 30 U.S.C. 811(a), can be read to permit the unfettered addition of “[s]uch other courses as may be required by the District Manager based on circumstances and conditions at the mine” or undesignated additions to the safety training programs, simply because they are deemed necessary by the District Manager. This lack of statutory authority is contrary to <E T="03">Loper Bright Enterprises</E> v. <E T="03">Raimondo,</E> 603 U.S. 369 (2024) and is an adequate reason to rescind these regulatory clauses. Government officials that exercise significant discretion when carrying out important functions are officers of the United States, and thus subject to the Appointments Clause. <E T="03">See Lucia</E> v. <E T="03">SEC,</E> 585 U.S. 237, 248 (2018); U.S. Const. Art. II, § 2, cl. 2. Under §§ 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.7(a)(4), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), and 48.27(a)(4), District Managers are granted nearly unlimited discretion to add additional courses to training and retraining plans as they deem appropriate. Accordingly, because District Managers are not appointed pursuant to the Appointments Clause, that substantial authority is unlawful. Independently, the significant discretion in §§ 30 CFR 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.8(b)(12), 48.7(a)(4), 48.11(a)(5), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), 48.27(a)(4), 48.28(b)(11) and 48.31(a)(5) appear to violate the APA. The authority given to District Managers to add courses essentially amounts to the unfettered ability to draft and create “laws” which are civilly and criminally enforceable, without bicameral presentment, and without notice and comment rulemaking. Various statutory provisions, including 30 U.S.C. 811 and 825 give the Secretary authority to issue health and safety regulations for mines including requirements for mines to have a health and safety training program which must be approved by the Secretary. When these regulations are substantive rules, with “general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy,” 5 U.S.C. 551(4), they are subject to the notice and comment process. MSHA must present the rulemaking to the public for comment, then issue a final rule responding to any comments. <E T="03">See</E> 5 U.S.C. 553. 30 CFR 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.7(a)(4), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), 48.27(a)(4) and 48.28(b)(1)(11) skip this process entirely when they vest District Managers with the authority to require undesignated training plan provisions. The District Manager, by adding additional courses for training and retraining plans, is promulgating new substantive rules of particular applicability, without any of the necessary process. Thus, §§ 30 CFR 48.5(b)(14), 48.6(b)(13), 48.8(b)(12), 48.7(a)(4), 48.11(a)(5), 48.25(b)(13), 48.26(b)(12), 48.27(a)(4), 48.28(b)(11) and 48.31(a)(5) appear to violate the APA. MSHA seeks comment on any aspects of this proposed ru ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 52k characters. 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