because if any one person is responsible for what happened in upper big branch, it's don blankenship. number two, what we need to do is clarify the authority of msha. we have repeatedly said, why didn't msha close this mine down? well, let's clarify that authority. if we believed that that's what they should do when they find circumstances like they found, let's clarify that authority and say you do have it. and if you want to do something for the coal miners of the united states of america, you stand behind whoever is running msha and say to the operators who may choose to operate like don blankenship did, that you, the congress of the united states, republican and democrat alike, will stand behind the enforcement agency of the united states and see that we do not see these conditions again. number three, workers need to be empow empowered. and if you can can do one thing before you leave this session of congress, let's give the power to the coal miner himself. because as we are sitting in this room today, i guarantee you that some form and somewhere is telling a miner to go under un

that is, if you have a massey energy and you have someone like don blankenship running a number of mines, they're extremely dangerous, how do you stop that? number one, the penalties -- criminal penalties under the mine act are ridiculously low. we just saw that at crandall canyon. for $500,000 for two criminal acts is all they had to pay. that's not even a half day's work for production. so the penalties are extremely low. no one is going to pay particular attention to that. i think there needs to be more severe penalties. and i think those penalties have to go up the ladder higher than they do currently. when we put mine foremen in jail, the person who told the mine foreman what to do is still walking around free and clear. so we have to be able to go up the ladder all the way up to the chief executive of the company, if that is who is making these decisions and putting others at risk. >> but that's beyond a misdemeanor. >> absolutely. that's got to be a felony and it's got to be written into the law and it doesn't exist right now. >> thank you. >> the gentleman's time is expired. i re

in the case of ubb, investigation witnesses have testified that massey ceo don blankenship received reports as often as every 30 minutes or more of every day. of every day of the week. about the production at that mine. what happened at ubb is absolutely criminal. and the congress should do everything in its power to stop the protection and in fact the reward over this kind of behavior n. response to numerous questions, especially from the majority about why msha didn't shut down this mine, mr. don blankship himself could have shut it down quicker than any person on the faith of the earth. none of us ever want to see another disaster like ubb happen again. and with that stated, i do have a question i would like to ask mr. many, and perhaps it's a fall-up. but investigation after investigation points to the fact that msha does need more staff. we know it was a systemic problem that occurred. you do need more highly trained staff. and that the existing staff is often spread too thin, trying to address too many needs. in southern west virginia, you have split the former district largely to add