[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 19 (Thursday, February 28, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E228-E229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                CARE 21

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 27, 2002

  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 is 
the distinguished gentleman from Ohio, Bob Ney.
  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 providing for a transfer of reclamation fund 
interest to finance orphaned miner care.
  However, a barrage of litigation and adverse court decisions 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 has 
rendered two especially harsh decisions; in the Eastern Enterprise case 
adding some 8,000 retirees to the orphaned miner rolls and just last 
week ruling that successor companies to signatories of the national 
wage agreement are not responsible to continue paying premiums for 
former employees. The result: Without a new source of funds, the CBF 
will face a cash shortage most likely beginning at the end of this year 
which could force curtailments in health care coverage for some 50,000 
retirees and widows whose average age is 78.
  CARE 21 takes a relatively simple and straightforward approach to 
addressing this impending crisis: It would lift the restriction in 
current law that reclamation fund interest can only be used for 
orphaned miner health care. Rather, it would allow AML interest 
transfers to be made for the purpose of offsetting any deficit in net 
assets in the CBF.

[[Page E229]]

  I would note that interest accrues to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation 
Fund at a rate of, for example, $103 million last fiscal year. 
Meanwhile, there is a $1.8 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 sector 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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