[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 32 (Wednesday, March 6, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S1230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER (for himself, Mr. Manchin, Ms. Warren, and Mr. 
        Brown):
  S. 468. A bill to protect the health care and pension benefits of our 
nation's miners; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, in West Virginia, we revere our 
miners--the men and women who put their lives on the line every single 
day to provide for their families and bring light and heat to millions. 
Their grit, their courage and their determination are inspirational to 
each of us. The work they do every day provides nearly half of our 
Nation with power and it helps underpin the economy of the State we 
call home.
  For their hard work in these grueling jobs mineworkers receive 
promised pensions and lifetime health benefits. Health care for all 
retirees is important. But, in many cases, it is even more so for 
retired miners, who have stared the possibility of injury or illness in 
the face every day. Unfortunately, today there are looming threats to 
the pensions of more than 100,000 mineworkers and to the healthcare 
benefits of nearly 12,000 miners and their dependents.
  The miners' pension fund is on the road to insolvency. It has been 
hit by the perfect storm--the recent financial crisis, the smaller 
number of active mineworkers who provide the funding base for the 
pension plan, and the large number of ``orphans'' who receive their 
pensions under the plan. These ``orphans'' are retired mineworkers for 
whom a company no longer makes contributions to the pension fund, 
typically because the company is out of business.
  Additionally, the bankruptcy of one coal company is threatening the 
health benefits of nearly 12,000 miners and their dependents, the vast 
majority of whom never worked for the company that is actually going 
bankrupt. So despite the fact that they were promised lifetime 
healthcare benefits by their employers when they gave their lives to 
this industry doing the hardest work imaginable under that sacred 
pledge they are now losing those benefits because a company they never 
worked for is going bankrupt. That is unfair and unjust.
  That is why today I am introducing the Coalfield Accountability and 
Retired Employee Act. This legislation protects pensions for more than 
100,000 mineworkers by taking excess funds from the Abandoned Mine Land 
Reclamation Program and transferring that money to the miners' 1974 
pension plan. The Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act 
also would protect retiree health benefits by making any retiree who 
loses benefits following the bankruptcy or insolvency of his or her 
employer eligible for the health benefits provided by the COAL Act. 
And, importantly this legislation would hold employers accountable for 
the commitments they make to their workers. That is just basic 
fairness.
  Supporting our Nation's miners is not a new issue for our country and 
it is not a new fight of mine. Dating back to President Harry Truman, 
the Federal Government has assumed a responsibility to our mineworkers. 
In 1992, I was deeply proud to work on the passage of the COAL Act, 
through which we recommitted to our miners that a promise made would be 
a promise kept. That bill allowed the transfer of interest accruing to 
the unappropriated balance of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to be 
used to provide health care for a large number of orphaned miners and 
their widows. This helped avert a nationwide coal strike and it 
preserved health benefits for 200,000 retired miners and their widows. 
This Federal commitment was renewed in the 2006 amendments to the 
Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program that again protected the healthcare 
plans of miners from insolvency.
  Now, 20 years after passing the COAL Act, I am again renewing my 
commitment to the hardest working people I have ever known with the 
Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act. We must preserve the 
solvency of our miners' pension plans and protect the healthcare 
benefits they need, earned and were rightfully promised. This is about 
human decency, it is about doing what is right, and it is about having 
the backs of those who have ours deep underground.
                                 ______