[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H12157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PROTECTING HEALTH CARE FOR RETIRED COAL MINERS

  (Mr. POSHARD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POSHARD. Mr. Speaker, over the weekend the so-called Hancock 
amendment was taken out of the budget reconciliation bill.
  This provision would have put at risk the health care coverage of 
some 100,000 retired coal miners and their families, including several 
thousand people who live in the coalfields of Illinois.
  I appreciate the action taken by the budget negotiators and encourage 
them to resist any further efforts to change the 1992 Coal Act or 
disrupt the balanced approach now in place to care for these miners.
  The men and women who have worked years to fuel the economy of this 
Nation do not need their health care coverage put at risk. I appreciate 
the bipartisan effort which went into putting this law in place and the 
bipartisan effort which continues today to keep it in place.
  In this vein, let me take just a minute to encourage my colleagues in 
Congress and in the administration to put the same kind of effort into 
finding middle ground and solving our budget crisis.

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