[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 120 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1500-E1501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        OPPOSITION TO H.R. 1370

                                 ______


                           HON. ROBERT W. NEY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, July 24, 1995
  Mr. NEY. Mr. Speaker, these remarks were submitted to me by Robert E. 
Murray, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio Valley Coal 
Co., H.R. 1370 will virtually put this company out of business and 
place 4,400 employees out of work. I share Mr. Murray's strong 
opposition to H.R. 1370, and the general practice of dumping retirees.
  H.R. 1370, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reduce 
mandatory premiums to the United Mine Workers of America [UMWA] 
combined benefit fund, is very bad legislation. This legislation will 
have disastrous consequences for the Ohio Valley Coal Co.--Ohio 
Valley--and other coal companies, while benefiting multibillion-dollar 
companies, which have repeatedly attempted to dump their retiree 
benefit costs for employees, who have 

[[Page E1501]]
worked only for them, onto other coal companies.
  Prior to enactment of the Coal Industry Retiree Benefit Act of 1992--
Coal Act--47 percent of Ohio Valley's payments to the United Mine 
Workers of America health and retirement funds were contributed to 
cover obligations of other coal companies for people who never worked 
for Ohio Valley or its predecessor. Yet these companies have the 
audacity to claim that their obligations for their former employees are 
no longer theirs. They would have gotten away with this dumping of 
their bona fide liabilities onto Ohio Valley and other coal companies 
had it not been for enactment of the Coal Act.
  H.R. 1370 would overturn much of the Coal Act, which was a carefully 
crafted compromise among Democratic and Republican legislators and the 
Bush administration. The concept of this compromise was to require 
present and former employers of UMWA-represented persons to be 
responsible for their retirees and to avoid imposing UMWA retiree cost 
on other companies, such as Ohio Valley, that never employed these UMWA 
retirees.
  Further, the limited number of corporations lobbying for H.R. 1370 
and the repeal of much of the 1992 Coal Act are simply not being 
truthful when they claim that the UMWA combined fund will have a long-
term surplus. A recent study by Ernst and Young shows that the fund 
will have a deficit as early as 1998 and up to $147 million in 2004.
  To claim that H.R. 1370 protects companies, such as Ohio Valley, 
because no funding would be required pursuant to formula to increase 
operators' premiums if there is a shortfall, is a total smoke screen. 
If the large corporate dumpers of their liabilities on the funds and 
other coal companies, such as Ohio Valley, are not required to pay 
their fair share, the time at which and the amount that a company, such 
as Ohio Valley, will be required to pay to the funds will be 
accelerated.
  Having served as the chief executive officer of one of the companies 
lobbying for H.R. 1370, I can personally assure you that their game is 
to dump their retiree liabilities onto other coal companies. The Coal 
Act, which H.R. 1370 will largely overturn, stopped this practice.
  There is no question that, if the situation is returned to that which 
existed prior to passage of the Rockefeller legislation, Ohio Valley 
will be put out of business and the 4,400 jobs that it accounts for in 
Ohio, according to the Pennsylvania State University, will be 
eliminated. Congress must do everything possible to see that H.R. 1370, 
or any legislation like it, is not passed.


                          ____________________