Tag: Government

Technicians returning to work, but National Guard still facing challenges

A majority of the furloughed West Virginia National Guard members and support staff are returning to work this week because of a movement in Congress to extend military pay to reserve members.

But the state’s top-ranking Guard official said a return to work doesn’t mean those members, and the overall safety of the state, won’t continue to be affected by the federal government shut down.

“The Guard in West Virginia will overcome obstacles and we’ll make things happen to take care of our people in this state, but we shouldn’t have to operate this way.”

Adjutant General James Hoyer made his plea to Congress during a press conference at the West Virginia National Guard headquarters in Charleston, saying its time to put an end to the federal government shut down.

“We are starting to experience degraded readiness in the West Virginia National Guard as a result of this. There are 53 other National Guard organizations across the country that are experiencing the same problems,” Hoyer said Tuesday, “so if you look a that in a holistic approach, we’re starting to really effect our ability to protect our nation and our homeland.”

Money, he said, is a major part of that problem. Money to pay for employees, facilities and supplies.

As Congress prepared for the federal shut down last week, they passed House Resolution 3210 to continue to fund the military; however, Hoyer said the resolution was interpreted by the Department of Defense to mean only active duty members.

In order to keep some 389 military authority employees working, or state employees whose salaries are reimbursed by the federal government, Hoyer and his team began postponing infrastructure maintenance projects around the state and shifting the money to cover those salary costs. Those costs have added up to around $300,000 a week.

 “I’ve only got a $16 million dollar state budget and the longer they go, the longer I wait for the reimbursement,” he said. “So, we can only to a certain threshold of pain.”

“Right now we can go to the 16 at noon unless we sit down and come up with another project that we push back.”

After the 16 and without another source of funding, should the federal shut down continue, Hoyer said the state may have to furlough those workers.

As for the 1,150 federally funded civilian technician positions who were furloughed beginning October 1, Hoyer said nearly 1,000 of those returned to work this week. That return came after Congress lobbied for the federal Department of Defense to loosen the restrictions on that same House Resolution.

Guard and reserve employees will now also receive pay for their return to work that began Monday, but Hoyer said, again, until a budget is passed, he has no idea how long it will take for that money to actually come.

On top of salary issues, Hoyer said his Guard members haven’t been able to train, keep up with vehicle and air craft maintenance, and provide services to active duty families and veterans.

Without keeping up on all of these, he said should an emergency occur, it will take the Guard longer to prepare and respond.

“One way or the other, West Virginia Guardsmen will be where they need to be to take care of the people of West Virginia,” he said. “Now, it might be in a different fashion and it’s going to be a hell of a lot more painful for us in the Guard to get to where we need to be.

“Is that fair to the men and women who go out and do that? That we have to put them in a position that they have to go the extra above and beyond when we don’t have to be in this position?”

Hoyer added there are three new military helicopters for the Guard that should have been picked up on October 1 to replace aging state equipment.

As of now, there are no funds to move those helicopters, leaving the Guard in short supply should there be an emergency.

That and similar issues, Hoyer said, will lead to delays in response as they try to come up with new ways to deliver supplies or conduct rescue missions.
 

W.Va. agriculture chief: Shutdown won't affect operations

West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Walt Helmick said Tuesday the partial federal government shutdown won’t affect his agency’s operations.
 
     Helmick said  in a news release that the Department of Agriculture is continuing daily inspections at livestock slaughter and processing facilities.
 
     The department also is continuing surveillance of egg and dairy products, testing poultry flocks for disease and conducting other routine activities.
 
     Helmick said the department has broad powers under the state code to conduct inspections, enact embargoes and quarantines, and to deal with any livestock disease outbreaks.
 

Group appeals PSC order approving billion-dollar power plant deal

West Virginia Citizen Action Group says it will appeal the approval of a $1.1 billion deal for the sale of the Harrison Power Station.

The Public Service Commission approved the transaction late Monday, saying it would reduce Mon Power rates by $16 million a year.
 
     The deal involves Ohio-based FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison, and affiliate Allegheny Energy Supply.
 
     Mon Power is buying the 80 percent of the 1,984-megawatt plant that it doesn’t currently own. In exchange, Mon Power will sell 8 percent of its interest in the Pleasants Power Station to Allegheny Energy Supply.
 
     Opponents say the transaction is inflated by $257 million and is bad for consumers.
 
     West Virginia Citizen Action says that price markup ruling violates stipulations of the merger agreement and contradicts commission policy.
 

Federal workers in W.Va. beginning to apply for unemployment

So far, about 200 federal employees across the state of West Virginia have begun the process of signing up for unemployment benefits. That’s according to numbers from WorkForce West Virginia.

At the end of the first quarter of this year, West Virginia had 23,270 federal workers. A spokesperson for the state Department of Marketing and Commerce said they expect to have exact numbers on how many of those workers have been furloughed by the end of the week.

West Virginia asked federal workers to wait until the government shutdown hit seven days before signing up for unemployment benefits.

The U.S. hit that mark Monday and the number of West Virginians applying is expected to grow throughout the week, should the shutdown continue.  
 

State Medicaid numbers up since expansion

While state officials say they’re not sure how many West Virginians have signed up for private health insurance under the Affordable Care Act last week, more than 50,000 are now covered by Medicaid under the state’s expansion of the program.Those numbers come from just the first week of enrollment under the ACA’s health care exchange.

Department of Health and Human Resources Assistant Secretary Jeremiah Samples said the state does not yet have access to the number of West Virginians who have signed up for health coverage through the federal exchange, but 1,932 people have signed up for Medicaid through the state internet portal called inRoads.

Another 47,752 West Virginians found they were eligible for Medicaid by visiting their county DHHR offices and signing up in person.

Samples said last week more than 45,000 people were enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program before the exchange opened through auto enrollment letters sent out and returned to the DHHR.

That puts the number of West Virginians newly enrolled in Medcaid at nearly 100,000, Samples said exceeding the state’s expectations for the first week.
 

Could the federal shutdown set back mine safety progress?

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is inevitably affected by the standoff in Washington. MSHA is partially open with less than half the…

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration is inevitably affected by the standoff in Washington. MSHA is partially open with less than half the staff.

A letter from the Department of Labor Solicitor Patricia Smith, indicates that MSHA is operating with less than 1,000 employees, that’s less than half the full staff. The shutdown has cut back the number of mine inspectors—those working at the mining academy and field offices where specialists evaluate ventilation and roof control plans.

Since the federal shutdown, communication with the MSHA is limited. They did, however, issue a release Monday to urge mine operators to follow regulations and ensure safe practices, and to remind miners to report hazards.

One mine safety advocate worries the shutdown will only further clog the system.

Sam Petsonk is with the non-profit organization Mountain State Justice. He’s directing a new project called the Miners’ Safety and Health project.  

Petsonk grew up in Morgantown and was working for the late Senator Robert C. Byrd when 29 men died at the Upper Big Branch disaster. Petsonk says the disaster was a wakeup call to action.  

“The federal system had failed to prevent that disaster,” Petsonk said. “I recognize that unless there is real time information provided by miners to mining companies and to the state and federal regulators the system can’t identify and stop this sort of challenges that mines encounter.”

In 2010, the late Senator Robert C. Byrd secured more than $22 million to help the federal officials deal with a mine safety appeals backlog. While MSHA has made progress, Pestonk points out that even with full staff, it’s tough to keep up.

“MSHA has an immense amount of work to do,” he said. “They do it well but this type of cutback were it to last for any amount of time would threaten the progress we’ve made on mine safety in this country.”

Federal law requires underground mines to be inspected four times a year, while surface mines are required to have two inspections per year.

According to a letter from Assistant Secretary Joe Main, the limited staff has cut back on ‘routine’ inspections. It appears that staff is limited to work on inspections of targeted mines, investigations of accidents, miners’ complaints, mine sample analysis, building securities, information technology support, mine safety plan approvals, and mine emergency readiness.

This concerns Petsonk.

“The shutdown may jeopardize this type of critical oversight and enforcement activity,” he said. “I’m not suggesting there’s any emergency that should alarm miners or their families. But unfortunately during a lull in oversight, some operators have in the past have been tempted to make changes or shortcuts without proper third party review or approval by MSHA.”

MSHA investigations indicate that these types of activities have contributed to deaths in the past.

MSHA has a layered approach to oversight and with some of those layers missing; Petsonk worries that any progress in improving mine safety culture will be jeopardized. 

“We have this complex system because this is a complex industry,” he said. “The checks and balances when they’re not in place unfortunately oversights can arise and unprincipled operators or unprincipled actors can try to take advantage and the consequences of that could be tragic it’s something that we don’t’ need to deal with. It’s a risk that we don’t’ need to incur.”

Three coal miners, including one from West Virginia, died this past weekend:

  • On Friday 62-year-old Roger R. King from Moundsville was killed after an accident at CONSOL Energy’s McElroy mine in Marshall County. He was employed as a longwall maintenance coordinator. King, who had 42 years of mining experience with 17 years  at the McElroy mine, was killed while assisting in setting up the panline on a new longwall face. King was standing in the face conveyor, facing the tailgate side of the section, when the accident occurred. According to a release from MSHA, a pulley was attached to a section of the conveyor and a scoop was being used to pull the chain. The device failed, came loose and struck King in the back of the head. 
  • Another miner died on Saturday at the Pattiki mine in Illinois. MSHA said this accident involved a golf cart used to travel underground. The golf cart rolled over and pinned the victim underneath. 
  • At the Bridger Coal mine in Wyoming, a dozer operator was killed on Sunday. MSHA said the dozer went over a 150-foot highwall. The operator began searching for the victim at the end of the night when no one heard from the miner. The dozer and victim were found at the bottom of the highwall.

MSHA Assistant Secretary Joe Main said this is the first time in 10 years that the mining industry has suffered three deaths three days in a row.
“Three miners killed on three consecutive days is extremely troubling,” said Main. “The fact that that this occurred over the weekend, when there may be a greater expectation an MSHA inspector would not be present, is a red flag.”

Meanwhile, the annual TRAMS or Training Resources Applied to Mining Conference is scheduled for next week in Beaver. But that’s not likely to happen if the shutdown continues.

Safety professionals from around the country typically attend the TRAM conference.

Petsonk said despite the shutdown, and short staff, miners would do well to remember that they still have the right to refuse and report unsafe conditions.

“During the shutdown the message to miners is the same as it always is,” Pestonk said. “The system will not work without your active involvement. Keep your eyes open file complaints participate in the system. The Mine Act is intended to work only with your support and it’s critical during the shutdown as it always is perhaps even more so.”

MSHA was not available for further comments because of the government shut down.

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