The Secretary of Labor's vision for the U. S. workforce is Promoting and Protecting Opportunity.
One of the Department’s strategic goals is to “improve workplace safety and health” through the strategic objective “secure safe and healthy workplaces, particularly in
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high-risk industries.” MSHA’s goal in accomplishing this objective is to “prevent death, disease, and injury from mining and promote safe and healthful workplaces for the Nation’s miners.” Under Section 503 of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act), Public Law 95-164, as amended, the Secretary of Labor through the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) may award grants to States to include the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Mariana Islands to assist them in developing and enforcing State mining laws and regulations, to improve State workers’ compensation and mining occupational disease laws and programs, and to improve safety and health conditions in the Nation’s mines through Federal-State coordination and cooperation.