Comment on Manchin will oppose Trump mine safety nominee

By Ken Ward Jr. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said today that he will oppose President Donald Trump's nominee to run the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration. In a statement, Manchin said that he had reviewed the qualifications "and record of safety" during MSHA nominee David Zatezalo's time in the coal industry and was "not convinced" that Zatezalo "is suited to oversee the federal agency that implements and enforces mine safety laws and standards." Manchin, whose uncle was among the 78 miners killed in the 1968 Farmington Disaster, noted that "in West Virginia, we are painfully familiar with the human toll that accompanies a mine accident." "I have comforted too many families who have lost loved ones serving our nation in the mines," Manchin said.