The Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Trump’s nomination of David Zatezalo to run the federal mine safety agency.
Zatezalo was approved 52-46 on a party-line vote to be assistant secretary of labor for mine safety at the Mine Safety and Health Administration of the Department of Labor.
Democrats opposed Zatezalo because he has no experience in mine safety, and comes from the production side of the mining industry, where he had a controversial record.
Zatezalo is a former executive with the mining firm Rhino Resources.
Rhino Resources, under Zatezalo’s leadership, was accused by the same agency he is set to lead of having a history of safety violations.
Sen. Joe Manchin, a moderate Democrat from the coal state of West Virginia, opposed Zatezalo’s nomination, citing his lack of experience in safety enforcement.
Manchin has supported many of Trump’s policies to reinvigorate the coal industry by rolling back environmental regulations.
“You want someone who’s life has been around the safety, who understands mine safety,” Manchin said Wednesday morning at a forum hosted by CQ Roll Call in Washington. “David’s been around production. You might say, well, he’s the head of a mine, so he had to be safety conscious. Sure. But living it and breathing it day in and day out, I wanted somebody with the experience on the frontline that’s going to be calling the shots, how do we keep a miner safe.”
Zatezalo is the latest in a trend of Trump administration appointees who are former industry officials now tasked with regulating their former colleagues.
