[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 25 (Thursday, February 11, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    JOB LOSSES IN THE COAL INDUSTRY

  (Mr. ROTHFUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of some recently 
laid-off coal miners from Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
  For 7 years, President Obama has been targeting their jobs and, in 
the process, sacrificing the families and communities who depend on 
those jobs. The Obama Administration is using the EPA to conjure up 
regulations to all but eliminate a major part of the energy industry in 
western Pennsylvania.
  What do you say to a hardworking, middle class dad, who has a wife, 
three kids, and a mortgage, whose livelihood has been taken away? This 
particular dad's job is but one of 40,000 jobs that have been lost in 
coal country. This assault on good, family-sustaining jobs is one of 
the reasons the average family income has never fully recovered from 
the Great Recession.
  Yesterday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen testified about headwinds facing 
the economy. I suggest there are a number of manmade anthropogenic--to 
borrow a phrase--headwinds, and the EPA's regulatory assault is one of 
them.
  Sacrificing the livelihood of hardworking Americans for some personal 
political philosophy is unconscionable. I will continue to fight 
against the President's war on middle class jobs.

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