Washington — The General Services Administration will retain leases for 34 Mine Safety and Health Administration field offices that were recommended for closure by the Department of Government Efficiency, a Department of Labor spokesperson has confirmed.
Multiple news outlets on May 28 reported that dozens of MSHA field offices will be restored.
Agency field and district offices operate under MSHA’s Mine Safety and Health Enforcement program, conducting mine inspections, investigations and training programs.
“The department has been working closely with GSA to ensure our MSHA inspectors have the resources they need to carry out their core mission to prevent death, illness and injury from mining, and promote safe and healthy workplaces for American miners,” the DOL spokesperson told Safety+Health.
As of March 10, the DOGE website had listed lease terminations for more than two dozen MSHA offices in Alabama, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Most terminations have since been removed from the website. Bloomberg Law reported that field offices in Beaver Dam and Prestonburg, KY; Mount Pleasant, PA; and Pineville, WV, still were slated to close.
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer faced questions about the closures during a May 22 meeting – hosted by the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee – on DOL’s fiscal year 2026 budget.
Responding to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Chavez-DeRemer said DOL is working with GSA, which is overseeing the office closures.
“I’m working with them and advocating for those leases to stay open throughout,” Chavez-DeRemer said. “It’s a critical mission to keep our investigators and inspectors to be there, to make sure they’re assisting, to make sure our miners are safe.”
Lawmakers and mine safety advocates have consistently pressed the Trump administration to restore office leases.
In a May 8 letter to Chavez-DeRemer, a group of 15 House Democrats led by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said it’s alarmed about potential office closures at OSHA and MSHA.
In a March 6 letter to then-acting Labor Secretary Vince Micone, Scott and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) wrote that ongoing shutdowns and staff reductions compromise MSHA’s ability to “do its job of protecting the nation’s mine workers from unsafe and deadly mine conditions.”
In a statement to S+H, Scott said: “Following continued congressional Democratic oversight, I am encouraged to see Secretary Chavez-DeRemer begin to reverse course on the decision to close most MSHA offices.
“However, if staff reductions and safety inspector withdrawals by the Labor Department continue, MSHA will be robbed of all its capacity to protect the nation’s mine workers from unsafe and deadly mine conditions, putting miners’ lives at risk.”
GSA didn’t immediately respond to an S+H request for comment.
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication