{"id":644,"date":"2017-01-11T15:31:24","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T20:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mshadefensereport.com\/?p=644"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:17:10","slug":"mshas-regulatory-agenda-entering-2017-part-100-reform-now-a-long-term-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/msha-defense-report\/mshas-regulatory-agenda-entering-2017-part-100-reform-now-a-long-term-action\/","title":{"rendered":"MSHA’s Regulatory Agenda Entering 2017: Part 100 Reform Now A “Long Term Action”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Nicholas W. Scala<\/a><\/p>\n

MSHA recently made a last-ditch effort to solidify some of its rulemaking priorities in the Obama era as lasting initiatives for the Agency to tackle regardless of who may be in charge, in the hopes that even under a changing guard MSHA will move on some of these new regulations.<\/p>\n

Quite noticeably, the safety and health agency has put on the back burner any major reform of the Part 100 regulations governing civil penalties, scrapping for now this longtime priority.<\/p>\n

The regulatory plan<\/a> that MSHA projects (in doing so giving at least a suggested road map to the new Administration) came as part of the release by the White House of a fall Unified Agenda for all regulatory agencies. This is the last Obama regulatory blueprint.\"msha-regulatory-agenda-snip\"<\/p>\n

Incoming Trump officials will likely dramatically scale back the Labor Department’s aggressive rulemaking agenda, and if confirmed, so will Andrew Puzder as Labor secretary. All of this change will, of course, filter down to MSHA.<\/p>\n

This last regulatory agenda is telling with regard to what Assistant Secretary Joe Main still wants MSHA to accomplish after he has left.<\/p>\n

Most outgoing administrations forgo ambitious new items on regulatory agendas during their last year in office \u2013 but there have been some surprises under Obama, fitting the President’s strong pro-regulatory stance over the years. This Administration made it clear it would continue full-throttle on new rules even into the lame-duck days, as evidenced by recent 11th-hour rules.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is less the case at MSHA which has a tendency in rulemaking to reach more of a broad consensus with industry and proceed more slowly than some other agencies. New rules are often driven by the findings from specific events and data. Here’s a snapshot based on the final semiannual agenda under Obama of what MSHA still wants to see completed:<\/p>\n