WEKU
DOGE cuts seven mine safety office leases across Kentucky
By Shepherd Snyder
Seven leases for Mine Safety and Health Administration offices across Kentucky are being canceled, according to the Department of Government Efficiency’s website.The DOGE website says it’s cutting the leases of offices in Barbourville, Beaver Dam, Hazard, Prestonsburg, Madisonville, Owensboro, Harlan and Sturgis. The website says those cuts will save around $2.5 million in federal spending. The agency is cutting 37 such offices around the country in total.
It’s also cutting Lexington’s Office of Surface Mining and Regulation Enforcement.
Chelsea Barnes is the Director of Government Affairs with Appalachian Voices, a regional environmental nonprofit. She says that could make it more difficult for staff to do their jobs.“All that means to me is that the mines will be inspected even less often, and we know that the less often we have inspections, the more often we have accidents and deaths, and we’ll see higher rates of black lung disease,” Barnes said.
The U.S. Office of Inspector General reported the agency had already missed mine inspections last year because of staffing issues.It’s unclear if staff will be consolidated into the nearby remaining offices. Those include field offices in Lexington and Pikeville, and a district office in Norton, Virginia.“It’s just going to be really challenging to, one, keep up with inspections when you’re having to spend more of your time in the car, and, two, is probably making some families reconsider where they live,” Barnes said.
A spokesperson from the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, says they’re working with other governmental agencies to “secure alternative space.”
“GSA is reviewing all options to optimize our footprint and building utilization. A component of our space consolidation plan will be the termination of many soft term leases. To the extent these terminations affect public facing facilities and/or existing tenants, we are working with our agency partners to secure suitable alternative space.
In many cases this will allow us to increase space utilization and obtain improved terms,” the statement says.
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