What the US elections mean for miners

The U.S. mid-term elections for the most part followed prognosticators’ predictions: Republicans swept their way to power in the House of Representatives and Democrats maintained a slim majority in the Senate.

Needing a net gain of 39 seats to wrest control of the House, Republicans got at least 60 (there still are a few races undecided). They needed a net gain of 10 seats to take over the Senate, and picked up six.

So what does this mean for the mining industry? A lot.

The mid-term elections created a large shift in Congressional power, with major implications in the policy battles being waged in the natural resources arena. With the Republican takeover of the House, all committee chairmanships will change. In the House, a simple majority rules and committee chairmen set and control the agenda. In other words, a bad mining law bill will not see the light of day in the 112th Congress.

There are also significant changes to the make-up of mining-relevant committees in the House and Senate. The Northwest Mining Association (NWMA) will go to work immediately to build and strengthen relationships with key lawmakers and to educate them on issues important to the mining industry.

A major focus for the NWMA during the 111th Congress was to stop the effort to greatly expand federal jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act. Significantly, the chief legislative sponsors of that effort, Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) were defeated in the Nov. 2 election.

We can expect committee chairs in the House to exercise their oversight authority over federal agencies, particularly with the wide-ranging proposed and pending rules and regulations emanating from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA), incoming chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, in a statement declared, “The committee will provide much needed oversight of the Obama Administration’s policies that have largely gone unchecked for nearly two years.”

Being forced to spend time appearing before Congressional committees may slow the regulatory onslaught we have seen from this Administration, but we don’t expect it to come to a halt. The NWMA will continue its work to protect mining’s interests in the regulatory arena.

When Doc Hastings takes the reins of the House Natural Resources Committee, he will be succeeding Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV). Rahall announced he will leave the Natural Resources Committee to become the ranking minority member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. In that case, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) would likely become the Natural Resources Committee ranking minority member.

As important as the Congressional races were for the near-term outlook of the mining industry, the gubernatorial and state legislative elections may hold even a longer-term significance. Redistricting and reapportionment will occur in 2011 with decade-long implications for the make-up of Congress. In governor’s races, Republicans had a net gain of at least six seats. Republicans also made huge gains in state legislative races and are at their highest point since 1928.

The NWMA staff will travel to Washington, D.C., for the first week of the lame-duck session, during which leadership elections for the 112th Congress will take place. — Founded and based in Spokane, Wash., the Northwest Mining Association is a 115-year-old non-profit, non-partisan trade association with over 2,000 members in 40 U.S. states, six Canadian provinces and territories, and five other countries. www.nwma.org