Tuesday in Washington, D.C. I met with senior professional staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who has primary jurisdiction over mining issues on that side of Congress. SME has established a cordial, yet professional, relationship over time with staff responsible for mining issues in this office. In these meetings, SME has the reputation of bringing to the table a wealth of knowledge and expertise that this Senate office has come to recognize and appreciate. Today we discussed the results of the National Research Council's report on workforce trends in the US mining industry. SME was largely responsible for generating the workforce details of this report for the NRC. The Ranking Member of this Senate Committee is Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, who has a keen interest in mining in her state as well as the economic impact of the overall mining industry in US. The Senator also has an interest in gathering documentation that supports the industry contention that the existing mine permitting process on federal lands takes between 7 and 10 years. SME agreed to help the Committee in this regard. Lastly we shared with Senate staff a compendium of reclamation success stories from coal, aggregates, industrial minerals and metal operations.
(Jessica Kogel and Dave Kanagy met with Colin Hayes, senior republican professional staff (center) and Tristan Abbey (left), professional staff, of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.)
Our last meeting of the day was with the senior policy advisor for the House Committee on Education and Workforce. This committee has jurisdiction over mine safety and industry workforce issues. We shared SME members' commitment to mine safety as evidenced by the establishment of SME's safety committee that is composed of experts in industry, government and academia, and our successful joint SME/CIM safety and reliability meetings.
Both the House and Senate meetings ended with SME's offer to provide the technical expertise of our membership to give testimony at hearings before their respective committees, or to offer fact-based information to help them make informed decisions with regard to issues related to mining and minerals policy.
Wednesday, we have a diverse set of separate meetings with: the World Wildlife Fund; NSSGA, to discuss solidifying a long term partnership for the popular SME/NSSGA Student Design Competition; as well as Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who has introduced a bill to streamline the permitting process for critical and strategic minerals.
These meetings reinforce my belief that SME is making a difference in the mining industry by being an accessible and dependable resource for these groups to turn to for unbiased information about our industry and its impact on society.