FOSTER, West Virginia- Robert Cash, a third-generation coal miner, prays each morning with his fellow miners before going underground for a long shift.
In the coalfields of Appalachian West Virginia, everyone hopes the mine will keep giving up its coal to pay rare six-figure salaries. But their prayers ask that they return safely to the surface.
While fatal accidents have fallen over the years, cases of black lung disease resurged in the last two decades. It has laid low colleagues and neighbors. Cash, 55, fears it will arrive for him one day, too.
Cash is among those here hoping that President Trump's promises to revive the coal industry's fortunes after years of decline from cheaper natural gas, rising mining costs and environmental regulation will pan out. But in recent weeks, those hopes have been complicated by worries that Trump's federal cost-cutting is simultaneously weakening mine safety.
Earlier this month, Trump's federal workforce cuts hit the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), hobbling the work of a black lung surveillance and prevention program, according to union and health workers.
In addition, the administration delayed a new rule set to go into effect April 14 that would cut in half exposure limits of silica dust, a driver of resurgent black lung that now affects one in five coal miners in Appalachia. And the administration has been reviewing ending the leases of more than 30 Mine Safety and Health Administration offices.
"At the end of the day, the most valuable thing in the mines is the miners," Cash told USA TODAY.
Those concerns have produced a growing pushback in West Virginia, with Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and others calling on the Trump administration to reconsider changes. One coal miner in danger of developing black lung has filed a federal suit challenging the layoffs.
"That would make anybody think about their decision to go in the mines," said Josh Roberts, head of health and safety for the United Mine Workers of America, which recently joined a legal battle over the silica rule to keep it from falling by the wayside.
In what health workers hope could be a sign that those voices are being heard, several dozen laid-off NIOSH staff including some working on the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program got phone calls on April 28 asking them to return from administrative leave but without signaling a change in their planned termination in June, a union leader told USA TODAY on April 29.
Capito said on social media April 29 that some NIOSH functions for coal miner safety were "slated to resume with some select staff" but that "my understanding is that this is temporary, so my focus will continue to be on working with @HHSGov on permanently restoring these functions and personnel in the most efficient and effective manner."
Trump administration officials said that NIOSH would join the Administration for a Healthy America and that critical programs would remain intact.
"There is no greater ally to America's coal miners than President Trump, who immediately unleashed American energy upon taking office and signed an Executive Order to expand production of critical minerals. He is using every lever of his executive power to carry out his energy dominance agenda while keeping our hardworking coal miners safe," Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, said in a statement.
In West Virginia, where 7 in 10 voters supported Trump last year and coal mines employed about 14,000 workers in 2023, the delay in new silica standards and worries about mine safety programs are not the only concerns creating caution and uncertainty around a promised revival.
West Virginia produces 28% of U.S. coal exports to other countries, according to the federal Energy Information Agency. Chris Hamilton, head of the West Virginia Coal Association, said the state produces about half of U.S metallurgical coal exported to China, which is now a key target of Trump's trade war. Others noted that despite Trump's attempt to ease environmental regulations, competition remains from less expensive natural gas and renewables.
But Cash said Trump's attempt to extend the lives of coal-fired power plants and encourage more U.S.-based manufacturing, such as steelmaking that relies on coal, could eventually boost local mining jobs -- whose incomes are hard to replace in his corner of Appalachia.
If, that is, they can do it safely.
In early April, Noemi Hall's pinging phone woke her up at 5:30 a.m. with texts from colleagues at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health who had gotten reduction-in-force notices.
She jumped into her car and drove to their Morgantown office building, where she worked as an epidemiologist in NIOSH's Respiratory Health Division, primarily supporting the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program.
Her badge still worked. But she quickly discovered that she, too, got a reduction notice. She packed up what she could and grabbed her diplomas off the wall. She said the cuts have since stymied the program's work.
Laid-off staffers included those who helped process lung X-rays, critical for miners to obtain black lung benefits or to be relocated to a less dusty work setting, she said. A mobile clinic that travels to remote coal communities to screen workers has been idled.
"I am incredibly worried for the health of these coal miners," she said.
On April 8, the Mine Safety and Health Administration announced it would pause enforcement set to start April 14 of new, long-sought limits on silica dust exposure, citing the restructuring. The rule has faced a legal challenge from industry groups who say it would be costly.
Cutting programs to prevent black lung and its costly treatments and benefits make little financial sense, said Cathy Tinney-Zara, the union president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3430, which represents some of the laid-off workers who organized a rally in Morgantown on April 23.
Meanwhile, Harry Wiley, a West Virginia coal miner, filed a federal lawsuit alleging he is unable to process his mine-transfer rights because of the cuts affecting the NIOSH facility in Morgantown, which union officials estimated to have affected at least 185 union workers.
Cases of black lung, an incurable illness, fell before it began resurging, particularly in Appalachia, nearly two decades ago. It came as more rock was mined to reach ever smaller and more remote coal, mine union officials said. That in turn increased silica dust exposure.
A NIOSH study in 2018 found that 10% of underground coal miners who had worked for at least 25 years had black lung, up from 7% in 2012. In central Appalachia, that figure reached 20%, the highest level recorded in 25 years. That rise included more progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease, and more cases among younger miners.
Enforcement of stricter exposure limits, which require more respirators and dust monitors, falls to mine safety inspectors as DOGE considers closing office buildings. The Appalachian Citizens' Law Center said the offices slated for closure nationwide performed more than 16,000 safety and health inspections between February 2024 and 2025.
Roberts, of the United Mine Workers, said fewer physical locations will only make it harder for inspectors to reach mines in remote parts of Appalachia, where miners often commute for an hour or two each way through remote winding mountain roads.
"We want the coal industry to be successful. We want there to be mining jobs for years to come. But I don't think anybody would want to do that at the cost of health and safety," he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Labor said this week it was looking to "identify workable solutions" to keep Mine Safety and Health Administration teams on the ground, continuing their critical mission to prevent death, illness, and injury and promote safe and healthy workplaces for our miners."
Stanley Stewart knows all too well the importance of safety measures. And the need for strict enforcement.
He was 300 feet underground at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia in 2010 when an explosion caused by excess methane gas and flammable coal dust killed 29 of Stewart's co-workers. Stewart survived but had to stack the bodies of fellow miners.
It was later found that inspectors had cited the mine for excess coal dust and methane, and the disaster drove stepped-up safety rules and inspections, according to the Associated Press.
Stewart, now retired in Org