realized only a few days have come and gone between your attention to that matter when questioned.

Do you have any further information that might encourage the subcommittee and the Congress, the miners, the operators, and people generally on this point?

Mr. DOLE. Senator Randolph, I have prepared a supplemental statement outlining a good many of the things that we are doing, that we have underway, and I think you will find this to be quite informative of the actions that we are taking. Some of these, I think you will agree with me, I hope, are innovative as you had hoped they would be. When the time is ready, Mr. Chairman, I would like to read into the record this supplemental statement.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity of following your statement with my brief remarks and questioning. Thank you.

Senator WILLIAMS. We will proceed now, Mr. Dole, with the supplementary statement that you requested to make. We will be glad to have you make it now.

Mr. DOLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

We welcome this opportunity to appear before your committee again. With your permission, I would like to begin with a supplemental statement and to submit, for the record, some additional information that we believe would help you understand our efforts to implement the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969.

INSPECTION PERSONNEL

On Monday of this week another meeting was held in the Bureau of Mines to review the process of recruiting and hiring new inspectors to determine if the time required in this process can be further reduced. In ordinary circumstances, this process involves about 16 steps and takes about 8 to 9 months. If we are to meet our employment goals, it must be reduced to 4 months.

We have been assured by our personnel people that this process can be reduced to 4.5 months, and they are seeking ways to reduce it further.

The new walk-in examinations for coal mine inspectors are firmly scheduled to begin on September 14, and no slippage in this schedule will be tolerated. Among other publicity, a TV spot announcement has already been taped in which Secretary Hickel will invite coal miners, mine foremen, safety committeemen, mining engineers and other experienced coal miners to take these examinations. Another TV spot is being made in which one of our inspectors will point out the benefits and the opportunities enjoyed by our inspectors, it is significant. I think, that the Secretary himself is participating in our efforts to recruit new inspectors.

I would like to submit for the record an outline of our classroom training program for new inspectors. Our assistant director of edu cation and training has been in Pittsburgh this week to investigate ways to supplement this training with homestudy texts and aids. We intend to provide the best possible training for our new inspectors in the time that is available. We would be pleased to have a representa

tive from your committee visit and see firsthand the program that is in progress now at Mount Hope, W.Va.

Within 2 years, we expect to have a mine safety academy in operation to provide training and retraining for inspectors and for other health and safety personnel from industry, labor and the States as well as for our own needs.

A report, which is being made for us by the West Virginia University, on the establishment of such an academy is in the final stages of preparation. A site will be selected within a few weeks; and architectengineering and preliminary on-site work for the academy will be underway in a few months. Although we are presently most intent upon meeting our short-term personnel needs, we are also working to establish a solid new base to assure the development of needed health and safety expertise for the future.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Chairman, could I interrupt?

Senator WILLIAMS. Yes.

Senator RANDOLPH. You speak of Mount Hope?

Mr. DOLE. Yes, sir.

Senator RANDOLPH. That is in Fayette County, W. Va.; is that correct?

Mr. DOLE. Yes, sir.

Senator RANDOLPH. Near Beckley?

Mr. DOLE. Yes, sir.

Senator RANDOLPH. What has that installation of the Bureau of Mines been accomplishing during the years?

Mr. DOLE. Would you like to speak to that, Mr. Wheeler?

Mr. WHEELER. I think Mr. Westfield has been here longer than I. Mr. WESTFIELD. The Mount Hope Station was established, I am quite sure, in 1941 or 1940, the latter part of 1940, at the time of the first coal mine inspection legislation. At that time we had quarters in the hotel at Mount Hope. Later we were able to have a building constructed for the Bureau of Mines by the General Services Administration under a lease-purchase arrangement, and this was one of the 12 buildings, I believe, at the time that were allotted by Congress. This building provides some of the best headquarters and best office space and facilities of any of our coal mine inspection areas. We have classroom facilities for training, and sufficient space for our inspectors in this area. There is no research work done in this area at all.

We do analyze air samples and dust samples at this installation and we have a laboratory for this, but there is no research being conducted at this station.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Chairman, it was placed temporarily in the hotel. Of course, with the highway developments, the city itself changed and the new building, as the witnesses have said, was established under the lease arrangement with the General Services Administration.

The reason I really asked the question is to inquire: Will you have points throughout the coal mining areas of the States where you can expedite the process of training inspectors?

Mr. WHEELER. Senator Randolph, we will have to do training in Pittsburgh as well as at Mount Hope in order to provide the training for all the many inspectors that we intend to employ.

I would like to supplement what Jim has said. I have only been in this organization for a year and a half. I do not think that there is any question but what the facilities we have at Mount Hope and leadership we have at Mount Hope in the person of Bill Park, whom I think you know, is outstanding. I only wish that we had the same kind of facilities at the remainder of our places.

Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you very much. I will not pursue it further except to say that I think it is very important that in the field such an installation as Mount Hope should be used to the fullest degree. Senator WILLIAMS. You may proceed, Mr. Dole. Mr. DOLE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

SAFETY INSPECTIONS

To supplement what has already been said with regard to "partialbut-representative inspections" and "reasonable time," I would like to submit for the record copies of, first, a memorandum dated March 26, 1970, about the partial-but-representative inspections, and second, a telegram dated April 2, 1970, regarding reasonable time to abate a violation. I would also like to inform the committee that in the first 4 days of this week, our inspectors have made 169 spot inspections of mines having "especially hazardus" conditions.

Senator WILLIAMS. What period is this?

Mr. DOLE. This past week, Mr. Chairman, the first 4 days of this past week.

We are now making these inspections at the rate indicated in my previous statement.

With regard to the accident in the Homer City mine which you inquired about, we have made copies of the inspection and investigation reports and related documents available to the committee staff and we have talked with the inspector who inspected the mine. Upon reviewing these records and the notes made by the inspector in the course of the inspection, we are convinced that he made the required methane and air measurements and otherwise did a good job in the areas of the mine that he inspected.

As was pointed out in our previous discussions, the conditions in the mine change as the work progresses, and apparently this happened in the Homer City mine. Jim Westfield has all of the particulars with regard to the inspection and investigation, and he is here to answer any questions that you might have.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

One of the questions given to us by your staff last week was about funds committeed to research and development. The Bureau will spend $20.3 million this fiscal year on coal mine health and safety research-$5.7 million on health research and $14.6 million on safety research. This research is planned and conducted as an integral part of the Bureau's total research effort, which is also directed and toward our Nation's minerals resource base and reducing costs-not only in terms of money, but also in terms of environmental and other social effects.

Through these efforts, we seek to assure that health and safety is built in-not merely added on—to new minerals technology. Specific

research projects are also directed to find solutions to immediate problems, particularly to develop analytical and other equipment and techniques that are needed to enforce and obtain compliance with the new law.

We expect to announce soon the appointment of the Advisory Committee on Coal Mine Safety Research called for in section 102 of the act. In the interim, we are studying the recommendations made to us for such research in a report obtained for us by the Office of Science and Technology from TRW.

In October we plan to take our principal health and safety managers and research specialists away from their desks to some appropriate place, perhaps over a weekend, to identify more clearly the areas in which we should be working and to stimulate new ideas for improving mine health and safety through research and development. We would welcome the attendance of representatives from your committee at that meeting.

In fiscal year 1971 we plan to spend the money provided by the Congress for coal mine health and safety research as follows:

It has been suggested that the General Accounting Office should audit the expenditure of funds in our health and safety program. We will, of course, cooperate with the General Accounting Office in this regard. To provide some information for you now, I would like to submit for the record a summary of expenditures in fiscal year 1970 and a summary of our planned expenditures for fiscal year 1971.

FEDERAL-STATE COOPERATION

I would also like to submit a copy of a contract that was made on June 29 with the National Academy of Public Administration for a study to determine the best manner to coordinate Federal and State activities in the field of coal mine health and safety. The contract calls for the study to be completed in 8 months.

We share the concern expressed by Mrs. Mazie Gutshall, executive deputy secretary, Department of Mines and Mineral Industries, Com

monwealth of Pennsylvania, last week with respect to a deterioration in the historical relationship between the Federal Government and the States in the field of coal mine health and safety.

As you know, the situation is quite different in noncoal mine health and safety, where the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Health and Safety Act requires an effective working relationship. Only last month, we entered into the first of what we hope will be many State plan agreements to allow the States to enforce noncoal mine health and safety standards no less effective than the Federal standards within their own boundaries. We are determined to make these plans work. The first such agreement was made with the State of Arizona. I would be pleased to make a copy available to the committee if you wish.

HEALTH AND SAFETY ORGANIZATION

I would like to make only one additional point before concluding because I know that you have some questions that you want us to answer. Last week I said that a health and safety revolution is already underway in the mines.

A revolution is also underway in the Bureau of Mines Health and Safety organization. This organization is not only expanding, it is changing. Our concepts of education and testing and approval of equipment are changing. In education, we are beginning to do more to motivate the miners to be safe.

It is not enough to show them how to be safe; they must be safe. A series of TV spots that we have recently sent into the coal-producing regions is only an indication of the change that is underway. In testing and approving equipment to be used underground, we will emphasize and utilize performance specifications to a much greater extent. For example, we believe it is unnecessary for us to become intimately involved in the design of a diesel engine if we can be assured, through performance specifications, that the engine will not be hot enough to cause an ignition and the exhaust fumes will not be toxic or harmful otherwise. In this regard, we think it is very important to develop a reliable exhaust gas monitor.

Our concepts in other areas are also changing, but the change is most evident (and we think it will be most productive) in our concept of utilizing the great mass of data derived from our inspection and investigation reports, statistical reports, and elsewhere to utilize our inspection force more effectively to achieve our mine health and safety objectives. Although the Bureau has done a good job in the past, the task has now become so much bigger and more complex that we must develop and utilize a computerized ADP system to assist our managers. Recognizing this need, we contracted with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Inc., management consultants, to develop and recommend a system of improved management practices and operating procedures for enforc ing the Federal Metal and Nonmetallic Mine Safety Act. We chose to make this effort first in the noncoal area, because here we were starting from scratch. A year ago we had no field metal and nonmetal organization.

We asked Booz, Allen & Hamilton to go into one of our districts and consider that they had the job of district manager. They were to