[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 41 (Thursday, March 9, 2017)]
[House]
[Page H1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         HEALTH CARE FOR MINERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Jenkins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I met last week with a 
group of West Virginia coal miners who are worried about their future. 
They are worried about their pensions and healthcare benefits that will 
expire soon, benefits that they worked their whole life to earn, 
benefits the Federal Government promised them more than 70 years ago.
  During our meeting at the UMWA Career Center in Beckley, I met 
Preston Thomas of Raleigh County. He spent 36 years in the mines before 
retiring in 2010. Preston relies on the healthcare benefits he earned 
to provide prescription drug coverage for his wife. If this coverage is 
allowed to expire in April, his wife will no longer have access to the 
medications she needs.
  Mr. Speaker, Preston is asking--I am calling on--Congress to keep the 
promise we made to him, to his fellow miners, to their wives, to their 
husbands, to their widows. We must pass legislation I have cosponsored 
to protect these hard-earned benefits.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation and 
protecting the hardworking miners like Preston. We owe it to all of 
them to keep our word.

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