10/03/2022 10:00 AM EDT
Presented by SourceAmerica
MINING TIME: With little fanfare Thursday, the Senate confirmed two Democratic appointees to the fairly obscure Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission by voice vote, along with a number of ambassadors and other appointed posts.
The confirmation of Mary Lu Jordan and Timothy Baker reestablishes a two-two partisan split on the panel, while the pivotal third seat — for which Biden nominated Moshe Marvit back in June — sits vacant.
The relatively obscure oversight body, which adjudicates legal disputes between workers and their employers, has been beset by controversy of late.
Earlier this year POLITICO detailed allegations that, under Republican appointees, the agency allowed industry to influence its determinations. At the same time it had issued a series of rulings that have unnerved mine worker advocates and progressives.
“Republicans started to set some dangerous precedents — or I should say — started to upset some good precedents in terms of how the law is interpreted,” said Jordan Barab, the former No. 2 at the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration during the Obama administration, referring to the foundational Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977.
More recently in August, as the last remaining Democratic appointee saw his term expire, the sole GOP members laid claim to control of the body (as detailed by our...
Chief Douglas Otaru, the former publicity secretary who was recently removed from his position following the APC state congress, was quoted as making several allegations against Dr. Aliyu Bello, t...