[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 38 (Thursday, March 30, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        INTRODUCTION OF CARE 21

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 30, 2000

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation to 
restore our Nation's historic commitment to insuring lifetime health 
care for retired coal miners. Joining me in introducing this bill, 
which will be known as CARE 21, is a bipartisan group of our 
colleagues: Bob Ney, Spencer Bachus, Rick Boucher, Tim Holden, Ron 
Klink, Alan Mollohan, John Murtha, Ted Strickland, and Bob Wise.
  Enactment this year of CARE 21, the ``Coal Accountability and Retired 
Employee Act for the 21st Century,'' is necessary if we are to avoid 
seeing a curtailment in health care coverage for thousands of retired 
coal miners and their widows. Indeed, this would not be the first time 
that Congress has acted in this matter. In 1992, in what is known as 
the ``Coal Act'' enacted as part of the Energy Policy Act, Congress 
established the UMWA Combined Benefit Fund (CBF) combining the union's 
1950 and 1974 benefit plans. This action came in response to changes in 
the coal industry which created a large class of `orphaned' miners 
whose benefits were no longer being paid by an active coal company. A 
key feature of the Coal Act was the financing of orphaned miner health 
care costs through an annual transfer of a portion of the interest 
which accrues to the unappropriated balance in the Abandoned Mine 
Reclamation Fund.
  Simply put, in restoring abandoned coal mine lands we must not 
abandon the retired coal miner.
  The Coal Act was working well, health care for retirees whose former 
employers could be identified would be financed by premiums paid by 
those companies while to date, $193 million in reclamation fund 
interest and a one-time $68 million additional appropriation has 
financed orphaned miner care.
  However, a rash of recent adverse court decisions have been rendered 
which once again is threatening the financial integrity of the program. 
Among them, what is known as the ``Chater'' decision which overturned 
the Social Security Administration's premium determination reducing 
premiums by 10 percent. Another court decision ordered the CBF to 
refund about $40 million in contributions. And the Supreme Court's 
decision in the Eastern Enterprise case added some 8,000 retirees to 
the orphaned miner rolls. The result: Without a new source of funds, 
the CBF will face a cash shortage beginning next year forcing the 
curtailment and ultimately the cessation of health care coverage for 
some 70,000 retirees and widows whose average age is 78.
  CARE 21 takes a relatively simple and straightforward approach to 
addressing this impending crisis. First, it would transfer the amount 
of interest that is currently languishing in the Abandoned Mine 
Reclamation Fund to the CBF that was not previously made available for 
orphaned miner health care. This would provide an immediate infusion of 
roughly $172 million. Second, it would lift the restriction in current 
law that reclamation fund interest can only be used for orphaned miner 
health care. This action would serve to cover future shortfalls in the 
CBF.
  I would note that interest accrues to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation 
Fund at a rate of about $83 million a year. Meanwhile, there is a $1.7 
billion unappropriated balance in the Fund. CARE 21 in no way adversely 
affects the abandoned mine reclamation program. The principal remains 
intact for that effort, and is fueled by annual reclamation fees 
assessed on every ton of mined coal which finances the program.
  As such, one of the key features of CARE 21 is that the general 
taxpayer is not being called upon to pay for retired coal miner health 
care, but rather, the coal industry itself would provide for this 
coverage through the interest which accrues to the fees it pays into 
the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund.
  Mr. Speaker, I noted earlier there is a historical commitment to 
providing health care for retired coal miners. This is a unique 
situation in that what would normally be a matter solely for the 
private sectors is not in this instance. The genesis for this situation 
dates back to 1946 in an agreement between then-UMW President John L. 
Lewis and the Federal Government to resolve a long-running labor 
dispute. At the time, President Truman had ordered the Interior 
Secretary to take possession of all bituminous coal mines in the 
country in an effort to break a United Mine Workers of America strike. 
Eventually, Lewis and Secretary Julius Krug reached an agreement that 
included an industry-wide, miner controlled health plan.
  In fact, the 1992 Coal Act itself was formulated partly on the basis 
of recommendations from the Coal Commission, established by former 
Labor Secretary Libby Dole, which in 1990 recommended a statutory 
obligation to help finance the UMWA's Health Benefit Funds.
  Mr. Speaker, the people covered by this health care program spent 
their careers producing the energy which powered this Nation to 
greatness. We must not forsake them. We must not cast them adrift in 
their later years, robbed of the health care they so desperately need.

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