[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 43 (Wednesday, April 13, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E642]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCTION OF THE ABANDONED MINE LANDS RECLAMATION REFORM ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. NICK J. RAHALL II

                            of west virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 13, 2005

  Mr. RAHALL. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to join our colleague 
Representative Barbara Cubin in introducing the ``Abandoned Mine Lands 
Reclamation Reform Act of 2005'' in recognition of the pressing need to 
make continued progress in restoring the environment in coalfield 
communities throughout the Nation.
  Originally authorized as part of the landmark Surface Mining Control 
and Reclamation Act of 1977, to date over $5 billion has been 
appropriated under the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program in an effort 
to restore lands and waters adversely affected by past coal mining 
practices. These restoration projects normally involve threats to the 
public health and safety from dangerous highwalls, subsidence, refuse 
piles and open mine portals. They also include the construction of new 
water supply systems to coalfield communities where water supplies have 
been contaminated by past coal mining practices. Over the years, funds 
have also been made available under this program for emergency coal 
reclamation projects, the Rural Abandoned Mine Program, the Small 
Operators Assistance Program, certain noncoal mining reclamation 
projects and the administration of the program.
  The primary delivery mechanism for these funds is through annual 
grants made through the annual appropriations process to 26 eligible 
States and Indian tribes. This effort is augmented by funds expended by 
the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in States and 
tribes without approved reclamation programs. By most accounts, this 
effort has been a success achieving far more in real on-the-ground 
environmental restoration than programs such as the Superfund.
  Yet, the mission of this program has not yet fully been accomplished 
which is the reason for the legislation I am introducing today. As it 
stands, there currently exists about $3 billion worth of high priority 
human health and safety threatening abandoned coal mine reclamation 
costs in this country. There are other costs as well, associated with 
lower priority abandoned coal mine sites. The fundamental purpose of 
the ``Abandoned Mine Lands Reclamation Act of 2005'' is to raise 
sufficient revenues which, when coupled with the unappropriated balance 
in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund and the reforms proposed by the 
legislation, to finance the reclamation of the remaining $3 billion 
inventory of high priority coal reclamation sites and draw this effort 
to a successful conclusion.
  In this regard, it is essential to note that this program is not 
financed by the general taxpayer but rather through a fee assessed on 
every ton of coal mined. The unreclaimed coal sites eligible for 
expenditures under the program were primarily abandoned prior to the 
enactment of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 
which placed stringent mining and reclamation standards in place. The 
authority to collect these fees was originally for a 15-year period. 
However, on two prior occasions through legislation I sponsored the 
Congress extended those fees collections in recognition of the 
continued need to address health, safety and environmental threats in 
the Nation's coalfield communities. Those fee collections are currently 
set to expire at the end of June this year.

  A central feature of this legislation then is to extend that fee 
collection authority through the year to 2020. This is the period the 
OSM estimates will be necessary to generate the additional revenue to 
complete the high priority coal site inventory. However, that alone 
will not allow us to achieve that goal which is the reason for the 
reforms proposed by this bill.
  Simply put, in my view over the years there has been a hemorrhaging 
of some of the funding made available under this program to lower 
priority projects. One of the reasons this reduction in focus on health 
and safety threatening projects has occurred is due to a late 1994 OSM 
policy shift that corrupted what is known as the general welfare 
standard in the coal reclamation priority rankings. This new policy has 
had the affect of allowing States to bootstrap what would normally have 
been lower priority 3 projects into the higher priority 1 and 2 
rankings. To be clear, not all States or even a majority of States have 
taken advantage of this new policy and I commend them for that. Yet it 
is a fact that as a result of this new policy the bona fide $3 billion 
inventory of unfunded priority 1 and 2 projects has swollen to over $6 
billion. I do not recognize this $6 billion figure and neither does 
this legislation.
  The reforms proposed by this bill include eliminating the general 
welfare standard and restricting the use of State/tribal share grants 
and supplemental federal share grants to bona fide coal priority 1 and 
2 projects involving threats to human health and safety. Once those 
projects are completed and only when those projects are completed, with 
two minor exceptions, can a State or tribe undertake the lower priority 
coal projects under the certification program with their State/tribal 
share grants. The exceptions to this rule involve situations where a 
priority 3 site is undertaken in conjunction with a priority 1 or 2 
site, or where a priority 3 site is addressed in association with a 
coal remining operation. In effect, this legislation seeks to target 
the lion's share of available funding to coal priority 1 and 2s keeping 
faith with the original mission of the program. Among other reforms 
envisioned are federal approval of any additions made to the official 
Abandoned Mine Reclamation Inventory and a review of those additions 
made since the OSM policy shift on the general welfare standard.
  The purposes of these reforms are intended, as previously noted, to 
complete those projects which are necessary to complete for the sake of 
protecting the health and safety of coalfield residents. At the same 
time, they are also intended to give the coal industry which finances 
this program reasonable assurances that the fees it pays will not be 
squandered but put to good use, and to give the industry a time frame 
which it can count on when the assessment of those fees will no longer 
be necessary.

  I would like to make note of two additional changes to current law 
proposed by this bill. As already noted, in the past appropriations 
were made available from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to the 
Rural Abandoned Mine Program (RAMP), an Agriculture Department program. 
No such appropriations have been forthcoming for six fiscal years now. 
I find this disappointing. While the Interior Department and the States 
from the very beginning were against RAMP funding, contending it was 
duplicative of their efforts, this in my view and in that of many 
others was not the case. RAMP served a distinctly different purpose 
involving a closer working relationship with landowners and sought to 
address reclamation projects on a more holistic basis. Another problem 
that also dogged RAMP was the fact that while it is an Agriculture 
Department program, its appropriations were being made out of an 
Interior Department trust fund by the Interior Appropriations bill. 
Obviously, Interior officials had little interest in this arrangement 
and so beginning in 1995 we have not been able to obtain funding for 
RAMP. In my view, this situation will not change if the status quo is 
maintained. For that reason, the legislation I am introducing today 
would authorize RAMP for general fund appropriations rather than out of 
the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund so that funding can be pursued 
through the Agriculture Department's Natural Resources Conservation 
Service's budget.
  Finally, this legislation also seeks to deal in a comprehensive 
fashion with the problems which have been plaguing the coal miner 
health care program.
  In that regard, the bill would lift the restriction that interest 
accrued in the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund can only be transferred 
to what is known as the Combined Benefits Fund for unassigned 
beneficiaries. Under this bill, all accrued interest would be available 
to keep faith with the promise made by the federal government many 
years ago to guarantee health care benefit for certain retired coal 
miners. Further, this legislation would also make accrued interest 
available for what are known as the 1992 and 1993 Plans. Due to a 
variety of factors, such as the rash of steel company bankruptcies and 
the Horizon decision of last year, these plans are coming under 
financial hardship and we must also keep faith with those retired coal 
miners and their dependents covered by them.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time, far past the time, for this Congress to move 
forward with this legislation.




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