Bush Re-Nomination of Stickler, DeCamp Not a Bipartisan Move

by Mike Hall, Nov 15, 2006

Bipartisan? Says who? Immediately after the election “thumping” administered by the voters to anti-worker congressional candidates, President George W. Bush tried to make nice with incoming Democrats by promising to work together in a spirit of bipartisanship.

Hah.

Yesterday, with Republicans still holding a majority in the lame duck 109th Congress, Bush resubmitted two nominations that already had failed to win Senate confirmation: Richard Stickler, as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), and Paul DeCamp, for administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Stickler is a former coal industry insider and DeCamp is a lawyer who represented Wal-Mart.

This summer and fall, Bush used backdoor recess appointments to put the pair in charge of the two agencies without Senate approval.

Stickler’s recess appointment to MSHA was a slap in the face to the families who lost husbands, fathers, brothers and sons in the Sago Mine disaster and other deadly mine incidents this year that have resulted in 45 coal miner deaths, the highest since 1995. Several of the deceased miners’ families have urged Bush not to appoint Stickler because of his safety track record as coal industry executive.

The injury rates at coal mines Stickler managed from 1989 to 1996 were double the national average, according to statistics assembled by the Mine Workers before Stickler’s appointment to head the Pennsylvania Bureau of Deep Mine Safety.

Twice, the Senate refused to confirm Stickler to the MSHA post.

During his confirmation hearings, Stickler said he believed the then-current mine safety laws were adequate and did not need strengthening. This spring, when coal mine deaths stood at 33—at the time the highest number killed on the job in a full year since 2001—Congress passed legislation to strengthen and improve mine safety.

In DeCamp’s case, his record includes urging the weakening of the Fair Labor Standard Act’s (FLSA’s) overtime pay and other protections. He even argues for changing the law to prevent millions of workers from becoming eligible for overtime pay. Strangely enough, he also said that it would not be “in the interest” of the workers to obtain overtime eligibility.

Click here to read more about DeCamp’s record.

With Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Robert C. Byrd (D W.Va.) leading the fight against Stickler and Kennedy’s earlier indication that he would use Senate rules to block DeCamp’s appointment, it’s unlikely Bush’s choices will win confirmation in the few days remaining in this Congress.

But one thing is certain—this is a very puzzling and odd way to demonstrate bipartisanship. Isn’t it?

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