Kline wants answers on mine safety but skipped mine safety hearing
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 8:00 am
- 3 Comments
Source: Kline for Congress
Following the deaths of 29 West Virginia miners, Rep. John Kline, the ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor committee, asked whether the federal government did enough to enforce laws that could have prevented the disaster and said Congress needs to work in a bipartisan manner to look at what went wrong. What Kline didn’t mention is that the committee did hold a bipartisan meeting to look at mining regulations back in February, but Kline and 17 other Republicans skipped the meeting.
“In the aftermath of the worst mining disaster in nearly four decades, we must ask: Why didn’t federal officials enforce the law to the fullest extent?” wrote Kline in a press release last week.
But, Kline’s own committee asked that question and more. On Feb. 23, the committee held a “hearing to assess whether a backlog of mine safety enforcement actions are adversely impacting the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s ability to protect miners’ safety and prevent future tragedies, and to evaluate options to remedy the problem.”
Only one Republican showed up — Rep. Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania — according to transcripts of the hearing obtained by Talking Points Memo.
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Comment posted April 21, 2010 @ 9:12 am
To be expected. Many republicans also missed an important committee meeting on revisions to the PATRIOT ACT because they were holding that $14,000 taxpayer funded tea party they called a “press conference” on the steps of the Capitol to protest HCR.
This is similar to Joe Lieberman holding no investigations into anything during the Bush Administration finally deciding to investigate the government’s role in the Major Hassan terrorism plot and deciding to issue subpoenas to Obama Administration officials.
Showing selective concern without admitting one’s own failure to live up to one’s responsibilities works for some members of Congress.
Comment posted April 21, 2010 @ 8:23 pm
Scum, pure and simple. Republicans don’t give a hoot about anything that might interfer with profits. Even the lives of their fellow Americans. How else could you interpret this little episode?
Comment posted April 22, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
Well, you see, back in February when the committee meetings were held, there weren’t any reporters around, so mine safety wasn’t really an issue. Now that it’s headline stuff, of course all these self-righteous hypocrites are crawling out of the woodwork to demand that “someone” do “something.” (You know, like hold a committee meeting. Or something.)
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