View all text of Subchapter V [§ 951 - § 966]
§ 953. Assistance to States
(a) Development and enforcement of health and safety regulations; improvement of workmen’s compensation and occupational disease laws; promotion of Federal-State coordination in mine safety
The Secretary, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of the Interior, is authorized to make grants in accordance with an application approved under this section to any State in which coal or other mining takes place—
(1) to assist such State in developing and enforcing effective coal or other mine health and safety laws and regulations consistent with the provisions of section 955 of this title;
(2) to improve State workmen’s compensation and occupational disease laws and programs related to coal or other mine employment; and
(3) to promote Federal-State coordination and cooperation in improving the health and safety conditions in the coal or other mines.
(b) Application for grants; contents
(1) sets forth the programs, policies, and methods to be followed in carrying out the application in accordance with the purposes of subsection (a) of this section;
(2) provides research and planning studies to carry out plans designed to improve State workmen’s compensation and occupational disease laws and programs, as they relate to compensation to miners for occupationally caused diseases and injuries arising out of employment in any coal or other mine;
(3) designates such State coal or other mine inspection or safety agency as the sole agency responsible for administering grants under this section throughout the State, and contains satisfactory evidence that such agency will have the authority to carry out the purposes of this section;
(4) gives assurances that such agency has or will employ an adequate and competent staff of trained inspectors qualified under the laws of such State to make coal or other mine inspections within such State;
(5) provides for the extension and improvement of the State program for the improvement of coal or other mine health and safety in the State, and provides that no advance notice of an inspection will be provided anyone;
(6) provides such fiscal control and fund accounting procedures as may be appropriate to assure proper disbursement and accounting of grants made to the States under this section;
(7) provides that the designated agency will make such reports to the Secretary in such form and containing such information as the Secretary may from time to time require;
(8) contains assurances that grants provided under this section will supplement, not supplant, existing State coal or other mine health and safety programs; and
(9) meets additional conditions which the Secretary may prescribe in furtherance of, and consistent with, the purposes of this section.
(c) Approval by Secretary; notice and hearing
(d) Review by Court of Appeals; conclusiveness of findings of Secretary; filing of petition
(e) Programs to train State inspectors
(f) Cooperation in implementation of programs; exchange of reports between States
(g) Limitation on grants
(h) Authorization of appropriations
(Pub. L. 91–173, title V, § 503, Dec. 30, 1969, 83 Stat. 800; Pub. L. 95–164, title III, § 303(c), Nov. 9, 1977, 91 Stat. 1320; Pub. L. 96–88, title V, § 509(b), Oct. 17, 1979, 93 Stat. 695.)