J. Davitt McAteer, who was head of MSHA under the Clinton administration, said "it's not an exact science" when trying to evaluate if budget changes have led to the increased number of mine accidents during the past few years, but the budget stagnation could be a factor in mine safety.

In its first budget request after taking office, the Bush administration did not request any increase in MSHA funding for the 2002 fiscal year over the previous year. The flat funding in fact amounted to about a $4 million decrease when adjusted for that year's inflation.

For fiscal year 2003, Congress enacted roughly $273 million for MSHA, and the White House requested $266.8 million for fiscal year 2004.

The administration has requested $313 million for fiscal year 2008, which when adjusted for inflation is higher than the $301 million approved by Congress for the 2007 fiscal year. But the increase comes after the Sago mine disaster in West Virginia last year prompted Congress to pass the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006. The new law calls for MSHA to hire 170 new inspectors, among numerous other reforms.

MSHA provided the budget figures for this story, and MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere said that the president "consistently submitted a budget that provided for increased funding to MSHA." She did not comment on the lack of inflation adjustment, but she added that "in many instances, the president's budget was finalized before final congressional approval of the previous submission, which often included earmarked funding increases. This accounts for the perceived 'cut.'"

But McAteer, who is now a vice president at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia, said the MSHA budget was in a state of decline until the Sago accident and until the Democrats took control of Congress. He said in any given year, if a budget does not rise with the inflation rate, salary increases alone can eat up most of the difference between one year's approved budget and the next year's request.

During the Bush administration, McAteer said, the coal-mining industry grew, but the number of federal safety inspectors did not. Federal law requires that underground mines be inspected four times a year and surface mines twice a year, so it is important to make sure that the federal budget can support the staff to complete that required number of inspections on all the mines, he said.

According to MSHA documents, the number of the agency's coal-enforcement employees decreased from 1,141 full-time employees in the 2002 fiscal year to 1,016 in the 2007 fiscal year. A portion of the lower number can be attributed to inspectors retiring and not being replaced.

McAteer said while the president's budget did not have a "slice" in the number of inspectors, it did show that there was not much being done to replace the inspectors who left.