The Kentucky House of Representatives Thursday passed a bill for the second year in a row that would weaken a safety protection for coal miners created after the workplace death of a Harlan County miner.?

The GOP-dominated House voted 76-16 to advance House Bill 196, sponsored by Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville. It would reduce the required number of trained and certified coal miners able to respond to medical emergencies, known as mine emergency technicians (METs), depending on how many miners were working a shift.

Under the bill, a shift with 10 or fewer miners would be required to have only one MET, down from the current requirement of two. METs are trained to provide emergency medical care and stabilize a miner’s condition.?

Two METs would still be required for larger shifts with more than 10 but fewer than 51 miners, For underground mines, the bill would require shifts with more than 50 miners to have an additional MET on site for every additional 50 miners on a shift.?

Blanton on the House floor reiterated his reasoning for the bill, arguing that smaller mines have had to shut down because only one MET has been available. He said he wants to keep mines operating.?

“If they only have two employed and one of them has to be off of work that day, then the whole mine has to shut down,” Blanton said. “If he’s got the flu and he’s out of work for the week, the whole mine shuts down for a week. And people are living paycheck to paycheck.”

Tony Oppegard, a long-time mine safety advocate, who helped write the? 2007 law that required two METs on every shift has pushed back on those arguments and opposes the bill, saying every mine shift needs a backup MET in case of medical emergencies.?

The requirement to have two METs was spurred by the 2005 death of a Harlan County miner, David “Bud” Morris, who didn’t receive proper first aid to stop bleeding after a loaded coal hauler nearly amputated both of his legs. The only MET on site failed to give Morris necessary medical care.?

The minority of Democrats in the House opposed the bill except for Rep. Adam Moore, D-Lexington who supported it. Moore in a post on X, formerly Twitter, said the bill’s sponsor had worked with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and “substantially” improved the bill compared to last year’s version.

Blanton previously said the UWMA had a neutral stance on the bill.The union? had opposed earlier iterations of the bill but didn’t oppose a version of the bill that failed to gain full passage last year.