Despite legislation that prohibits it from being enforced — at least until the GAO completes a report on the proposal — the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has quietly announced plans to finalize its new rules aimed at ending black lung disease.

A new Labor Department regulatory schedule, posted on the Internet, but not publicly announced by the agency, lists a date for publication of the final rule as April 2012.  I asked MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere about it, and she said in an email:

The rider does not restrict MSHA’s ability to promulgate the rule, only MSHA’s ability to implement or enforce the rule.