The Mine Safety and Health Administration
Summary
Congress enacted $387,816,000 in budget authority for MSHA for fiscal year 2025 -- about $1,184 per miner across the 327,465 miners and contractors it covered. Its 1,637 employees issued 87,372 citations and orders at 12,568 mines that year, while mining fatalities fell from 242 in the Mine Act's first year to 28.
The organization
Its mission
Its charge under the Mine Act is inspection and enforcement: at least four inspections a year at every active underground mine and at least two a year at every surface mine⧉, plus methane checks, fatality investigations and hazard-complaint follow-ups.
Founded when, and why
Congress created MSHA in the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977⧉ (Public Law 95-164, the "Mine Act"), which transferred mine-safety enforcement from the Interior Department's Bureau of Mines to the Department of Labor and put coal and metal/nonmetal mine regulation under a single statute -- one agency and one law where enforcement had been split.
What it costs — money and people
Congress enacted $387,816,000 in budget authority for MSHA in fiscal year 2025, funding 1,637 full-time positions⧉ -- $266.5 million and 1,231 of those in the Mine Safety and Health Enforcement activity that pays inspectors' salaries. Divided across the 327,465 miners MSHA covered that year, the FY2025 budget works out to about $1,184 per miner.
View data as table
| Mine Safety and Health Enforcement | 266,524 | 1,231 FTE |
|---|---|---|
| Technical Support | 36,041 | 161 FTE |
| Educational Policy and Development | 39,070 | 102 FTE |
| Program Administration | 16,900 | 70 FTE |
| Program Evaluation and Information Resources | 16,090 | 19 FTE |
| Office of Assessments | 8,191 | 38 FTE |
| Office of Standards, Regulations, and Variances | 5,000 | 16 FTE |
What it produces
Inspections, citations and orders, at national scale: in fiscal year 2025 MSHA oversaw 12,568 mines -- 886 coal and 11,682 metal/nonmetal -- covering 327,465 miners and contractor employees, and issued 87,372 citations and orders.pdf).
Value to society, by the numbers
MSHA's own count: 242 miners died in 1978.pdf), the Mine Act's first year in force. By fiscal year 2025 that toll had fallen to 28 -- an 88% decline -- even as the industry's mix shifted toward metal/nonmetal operations and away from coal. That drop is the counterfactual behind mandatory quarterly underground inspections and a national fatality-investigation regime: a mining industry that, before the Mine Act, killed far more of its workforce every year.
- MSHA's FY2025 budget ($387.8M funding 1,637 ) works out to about $1,184 per miner covered -- funding both the inspection corps (1,231 of 1,637 ) and standards-setting, assessments, training and technical-support activities.
- Mining fatalities fell 88% from the Mine Act's first year (242 in 1978) to fiscal year 2025 (28), even as the industry's makeup shifted toward metal/nonmetal operations.
Your handles.* Report a hazardous mine condition -- anonymously if you choose -- through MSHA's Hazardous Condition Complaint form or by calling 1-800-746-1553. If you were fired, demoted or otherwise punished for raising a safety issue, MSHA's Miners' Rights and Responsibilities⧉ page links the Section 105(c) discrimination-complaint packet -- file within 60 days of the act. To comment on a proposed mine-safety standard, watch MSHA's rulemaking page, which links open dockets on regulations.gov.
Sources(6) ▾
- U.S. Department of Labor, FY 2026 Congressional Budget Justification -- Mine Safety and Health Administration (2025-05-30) — MSHA's own congressional budget justification, filed with its FY2026 budget request. Its 'Amounts Available for Obligation' (MSHA-3) and 'Summary Budget Authority and by Activity' (MSHA-6) tables report FY2025 ENACTED budget authority ($387,816,000) and staffing (1,637 ) both in total and broken out by the agency's seven budget activities. The Overview section (MSHA-10/11) states the statutory inspection mandate (four inspections a year at every underground mine, two at every surface mine) that this entry's 'what does it do' section relies on. Direct dol.gov fetch returned HTTP 403 (known agency-site block); the Wayback capture above is the one-click original-document link. dol.gov · original document
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (msha.gov), Mine Safety and Health At a Glance (02/27/2026 edition) (2026-02-27) — MSHA's own annual statistical summary: number of mines, miners, fatalities, injury rates, inspection hours and citations issued, FY2019-FY2025, broken out for all mines, coal mines, and metal/nonmetal mines. This entry's FY2025 workload figures (mine count, miner count, citations issued) and the FY1978 fatality count used in the 'why is it good for society' section come from this document. msha.gov is directly reachable (unlike dol.gov), so this document was fetched live; a single Wayback Save Page Now request for it did not complete (recorded outage), so archiveUrl is null and non-blocking -- the live msha.gov URL is the citation. msha.gov
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (msha.gov), History (2026-01-01) — MSHA's own official history page: the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Public Law 95-164) as the statute governing the agency, and the transfer of mine-safety enforcement from the Interior Department to the Department of Labor that created MSHA -- the source for this entry's identity/founding paragraph. msha.gov · original document
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (msha.gov), Hazardous Condition Complaint (2026-01-01) — MSHA's own hazardous-condition complaint page: lets any miner or member of the public report an unsafe mine condition, anonymously if they choose, online or by calling 1-800-746-1553. Cited as this entry's first 'your handles' link. No Wayback snapshot existed and the single SPN request attempted this iteration did not complete; the live msha.gov URL is the citation. msha.gov
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (msha.gov), Miners' Rights and Responsibilities (2026-01-01) — MSHA's own miners'-rights page, linking the Section 105(c) Discrimination Complaint Packet -- the channel a miner uses if fired, demoted or otherwise punished for exercising a safety right (raising a hazard, requesting an inspection, refusing unsafe work). Cited as this entry's second 'your handles' link. msha.gov · original document
- Mine Safety and Health Administration (msha.gov), Rulemaking (2026-01-01) — MSHA's own rulemaking-process page: explains how the agency issues, amends or repeals mine-safety standards and points the public to open comment dockets on regulations.gov. Cited as this entry's third 'your handles' link. No Wayback snapshot existed and the single SPN request attempted this iteration did not complete; the live msha.gov URL is the citation. msha.gov
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The Mine Safety and Health Administration is the Department of Labor agency that inspects the nation's mines and enforces the federal safety standards mine operators must follow, underground and on the surface. It is run by an Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health⧉.