In response to the horrific 1968 Farmington mine disaster, which killed seventy-eight men, Congress passed the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act (FCMHS). The FCMHS concretely established that underground mines were to be inspected four times a year to ensure health and safety standards, while surface mines were to be inspected twice, the first time these mine were included in federal regulations. Regulatory authority was finally ceded to the Bureau of Mines and the Department of the Interior, relieving the state agencies of the entire burden, and grating federal inspectors the right to enter mines and levy fines.  Mandatory monetary fines were finally instituted as an enforcement tool, although the sizes of the fines were not large enough to deter larger companies ($10,000 was the maximum, with no minimum limit). Criminal penalties were made available for chronic or conscious violators. FCHMS even included an entire segment devoted to monetary recompense for miners crippling disabled by “black lung”. The Social Security Administration had to compensate black-lung victims, giving the average miner and his family about $200 a month in 1969.