[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1525-S1526]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Miners Protection Act

  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to call for immediate action 
on the Miners Protection Act. Today, as we sit here, 22,600 miners have 
received letters. This is a copy of the letter, and I am going to read 
it to you. This is a letter they received today letting them know their 
healthcare benefits will be terminated at the end of April. This letter 
basically says:

       The UMWA 1993 Benefit Plan notified you in December 2016--

  This is one of multiple letters they received. Can you imagine 
getting a 4-month extension? Then by law you have to have 90 days 
before they can terminate you. Every time you get an extension, within 
30 days you get another letter saying you are going to be terminated. 
That is the inhumane treatment our retired miners and mostly widows are 
receiving--

     that the U.S. Congress had passed the Continuing Health 
     Benefits for Miners Act, which provided for the transfer of 
     federal funds to the Plan to cover the health care benefits 
     you receive through April 30, 2017. The Plan cautioned that 
     further Congressional action would be necessary in order for 
     the Plan to provide health care coverage to you after April 
     30. At this time, Congress has not taken the action needed to 
     continue your benefits. Unless Congress acts before the end 
     of April, the 1993 Benefit Plan will not be able to provide 
     you with the health benefits that you have been receiving 
     from the 1993 Plan, and those benefits will terminate 
     effective May 1, 2017. In addition, your Funds' Health 
     Service Card will no longer be valid.

  Can you imagine a 75- or 80-year-old woman--a lady, a widow--who has 
lost her husband, probably because of black lung, and all the work he 
did for our country and for himself and his family, and she has 
received that three times or more now--not knowing what in the world or 
why they can't do something that we promised, something that was done 
in 1946, where the Krug amendment and the Krug act basically said that 
we would take care of our miners so that they would have permanent 
healthcare and a pension. It was not done by taxpayers' dollars. It was 
done by the coal they mined. For every ton of coal, there would be so 
much set aside. Then we had the bankruptcy laws happen in the 1980s, 
which basically destroyed a lot of companies for paying into it. Then 
we had the crash of 2008, which took it further down.
  Now we stand here today, and we have a fix coming out of the AML, the

[[Page S1526]]

abandoned mine lands, coming, again, from coal that was mined to pay 
for the miners' pension and benefit plan, and we can't get it done.
  I will tell you, if that piece of legislation was allowed to be voted 
on tonight, we would have well over 60 votes, bipartisan. My Republican 
colleagues and all of our Democrat colleagues here understand the 
importance of the working people.
  President Trump is speaking about this every time. Last night he 
shouted out to miners. I was so pleased. I have not heard that since I 
have been here--anyone saying: Thank you for the job you have done. We 
are not leaving you behind. You have given to this country the country 
we have, the superpower of the world. You have produced the energy 
through the toughest of times, and we appreciate that.
  I was very, very appreciative to see that type of recognition. I 
can't tell you how much more appreciative I would be right now to see 
us as a bipartisan group--Democrats and Republicans--standing up for 
the working people that we talk about every day and saying: Listen, as 
to the pension guarantee act, which basic to the Miners Protection Act, 
we are going to pass that. We are going to put this aside. We don't 
have to worry about this anymore. We have done it.
  That is all we are asking for. Everybody who has joined me in this 
journey understands that we are all fighting for the working people, 
which is what we were sent here to do, from your wonderful State of 
South Carolina to my beautiful State of West Virginia. They depend on 
us. The retired miners are walking our halls. Maybe you have seen them. 
If not, I am sure they will come by and say hi to you. They are very 
appreciative of the consideration we are all giving them. They are 
hoping we finally get this done.
  I am doing it for them and for their families and what they have done 
for our country. The 4-month extension is not even humane. I have said 
that. My reason for saying that is that these people can't comprehend 
it. I can assure you that, when I go back to my office after I leave 
the floor, I will get phone calls: Joe, they are going to take my 
healthcare again. What am I going to do?
  I keep saying: Ma'am, please, trust us; hold tight.
  We could have had this fixed before. We kicked the can down the road 
4 months. Now I have been told--and we all seem to accept it--that they 
are going to do a permanent healthcare fix. I am appreciative of that. 
The bottom line is that we have pensions out there hanging, which is 
going to be a bigger albatross around us if we don't something, and we 
have a chance to fix it all and put that aside.
  I spoke to President Trump, and I am hopeful that he will speak out 
on this, and he has spoken out. He has told me that he supports it.
  I said: Please, Mr. President, speak to our friends on the other 
side--our leadership--and let them know how much you support this, and 
let us put this behind us because we can fix it once and for all.
  We were told to get a legislative hearing, and we did that. We were 
told to go through regular order. We went to the Finance Committee, and 
it was passed out--bipartisan, overwhelmingly bipartisan.
  I know we have the 60 votes. I was told we have to reintroduce it 
again. So here we are. I reintroduced it, and we have bipartisan 
support again. We are ready to go.
  Why do we put these people through this type of agony? I don't know. 
We have so many other challenges, and we have to come together. This is 
one we have already agreed we are together on and can't move it.
  I know you have always been a dear friend and supportive, and you 
know the hard work our people have done, and I appreciate that. 
However, it is time to act. It is time to get this done. If we wait 
until April, that is exactly when our continuing resolution is coming 
up, and, basically, we have no budget to work off of. So we have to do 
another extension until we can get something more permanent. They could 
get caught up in that CR again. We are going to say: We are sorry; we 
couldn't get it done, but we will give you another 2, 3, or 4 months.
  I can't go home and continue to tell these wonderful people who have 
been so good and so patient that I am sorry, but we just have to wait 
another few months.
  When is enough enough? When are those few months going to be up and 
we do the right thing? I am asking all of you; I am asking all of my 
colleagues: Please, this is one time when we can do something and feel 
good about it and go home over the weekend and go back to our 
constituents and tell them that this one is finished, that we fixed 
this.
  I am asking for that vote. I would encourage all of my colleagues to 
do the same, to speak to the leaderships to make sure that we can move 
the miners protection and make sure the miners get the healthcare and 
the pension benefits they were guaranteed and they have been promised 
and which has been kept until now, and that we are not going to let 
them down.
  With that, Mr. President, I thank you, and I thank all of my 
colleagues for the support we have been receiving. I am asking the 
majority leader to please let us have this vote and put it on the 
floor. Let's go from there and see what happens. I am willing to do 
that.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.