[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 72 (Thursday, April 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2589-S2590]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Coal Miner Pension and Retiree Health Benefits

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, it is no great secret that the American 
people do not have a great deal of confidence in their government. It 
is no secret that the American people think the Congress is way out of 
touch with their needs and aspirations. In fact, just confirming that 
point, a recent poll appeared in the Washington Post and ABC News, and 
it found that 58 percent of the American people believe that President 
Trump is out of touch with the concerns of most people in the United 
States today; 62 percent of the American people believe that the 
Republican Party is out of touch with the concerns of most people in 
the United States; and 67 percent of the American people believe that 
the Democratic Party is out of touch with the concerns of most people 
in the United States today. Those are numbers that should cause a great 
deal of concern to Members of the Senate and the House, to Democrats 
and Republicans, to everybody.
  I think one of the reasons is that there is a world outside of 
Capitol Hill where people are in pain; where people are working longer 
hours for lower wages; where people are scared to death about facing 
retirement because they have, in many cases, no money in the bank; 
where people today are paying 40 percent, 50 percent of limited incomes 
for affordable housing; where single moms can't afford childcare for 
their kids; where young people can't afford to go to college; where 
other people are leaving college deeply in debt. And all of that is 
taking place within the context of almost all new wealth and income 
going to the top 1 percent.
  We have the absurd situation today where the top one-tenth of 1 
percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and 52 
percent of all new income is going to the top 1 percent. The middle 
class is shrinking. There are 43 million Americans living in poverty, 
and the very wealthy are getting wealthier.
  In the midst of all that, my Republican colleagues and President 
Trump are desperately trying to provide hundreds of billions of dollars 
in tax breaks for the top 1 percent and cut back on programs that 
working families desperately need, whether it is Pell grants to make it 
easier for kids to go to college, whether it is afterschool programs, 
whether it is the Meals on Wheels program, whether it is affordable 
housing, or whatnot--tax breaks for billionaires, cutbacks on programs 
that people desperately need.
  The American people will not regain confidence in the U.S. Congress 
unless we keep promises that were made to them. Today I want to talk 
about promises that were made to coal miners. For decades, coal miners 
contributed to their pension funds with the promise that when they 
retired, they would receive a pension and retiree health benefits that 
would last for a lifetime. Those were the promises to the people who 
went underneath the ground, who worked incredibly difficult jobs, who 
died of black lung disease or a myriad of other diseases or injuries. 
Promises were made to those workers, and those promises were broken.
  If Congress does not act by tomorrow, the retiree health benefits of 
more than 22,000 coal miners will be eliminated. We cannot allow that 
to happen. It is not only unfair to the retired coal miners and their 
families, it once again will tell the American people that they cannot 
trust their government. Promises were made, but they were not carried 
out.
  My understanding is that an agreement to protect these retiree health 
benefits may be included in the continuing resolution to keep the 
government from shutting down. As I have walked the hallways here in 
the Senate, I have met with members, retirees of the United Mine 
Workers, who have been back here week after week after week, and I 
applaud them for their persistence.
  Let us hope that, in fact, the continuing resolution does contain an 
agreement to protect those retiree health benefits. It is absolutely 
imperative that the agreement contain those benefits and that those 
promises be kept.
  Even if we do put that provision in the CR, it still does not address 
another problem faced by retirees in the coal industry and retirees all 
over the country, and that is the fact that we are doing nothing to 
protect the pension benefits of coal miners and tens and thousands of 
other workers. This is an issue that is of major crisis proportions all 
across this country, and it is an issue that must be addressed. That is 
why I am a proud cosponsor of the Miners Protection Act. That is also 
why I will be introducing legislation on May 9 to protect the pensions 
of not only 90,000 coal miners throughout this country, but the 
retirement benefits of 10 million workers in multiemployer pension 
plans--10 million workers.
  Over 40 years ago, the Federal Government made a solemn commitment to 
the workers of this country. If a retiree is promised a certain pension 
benefit after a lifetime of hard work, a company could not renege on 
that promise. Making that commitment 40 years ago was exactly the right 
thing to do. When someone works for their entire life, when they give 
up pay raises, when they work overtime, when they work weekends in 
order to make sure that he or she has a secure retirement, it is 
absolutely unacceptable to pull the plug from that worker's benefit.
  Guarantees were made, and those guarantees must be kept. This is not 
the negotiating of wage increases. This is not the negotiating of 
overtime. This is a promise made to workers and paid for by workers, 
which simply cannot be nullified if people are to have any faith in our 
political system.
  But more than 2 years ago behind closed doors, a provision was 
slipped into a must-pass spending bill that now makes it legal to cut 
the pension benefits of about 10 million workers and retirees in 
multiemployer pension plans. As a result, retirees all over this 
country are waking up to the unacceptable reality that the promises 
made to them could be broken and that the pension benefits they are 
receiving today may soon be cut by 30, 40 or even 65 percent. What this 
means is that retirees who are currently receiving a pension benefit of 
$18,000 a year are in danger of seeing their benefits cut by $3,843, a 
21-percent cut. Retirees who are currently receiving a pension benefit 
of $36,000 a year could see their pension benefits cut by up to 
$21,000, a 60-percent cut.
  In other words, tens of thousands of retirees all over this country 
who today are in the middle class, who worked hard their entire lives, 
who gave up on wage increases, who worked overtime in order to protect 
those pensions may be seeing significant reductions in what they 
anticipated. We are talking about retirees who will no longer be able 
to pay their mortgages. We are talking about retirees who will not be 
able to pay their utility bills. We are talking about families who may 
have to go on food stamps to feed their families after working their 
entire lives. That is unconscionable. We cannot allow that to happen.
  In my view, we have to send a very loud and very clear message to the 
Republican leadership in Congress and to the President of the United 
States, and that is when a promise is made to the working people of 
this country with respect to their pensions and retiree health 
benefits, that promise must be kept.
  Today, about 150 multiemployer pension plans are in trouble 
financially, but let's be clear. The retirees are not

[[Page S2590]]

the reason these pension plans are struggling financially. The reason 
many of these pension plans are in trouble is because of the greed, 
recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street that drove this 
country into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 
1930s. Let us never forget, when the largest financial institutions 
were on the verge of collapse 7 years ago, it was the taxpayers of this 
country who bailed them out. I didn't vote for it, but a majority of 
the Members of Congress did.
  Congress gave Wall Street some $700 billion in financial assistance. 
The Federal Reserve provided $16 trillion in virtually zero-interest 
loans to every major financial institution in this country and to 
foreign banks throughout the world because they were, as we will all 
recall, too big to fail. If Congress can bail out Wall Street, if 
Congress can bail out foreign banks, we have to protect the pension 
benefits of American workers.
  The legislation that I will be reintroducing on May 9 would prevent 
the retirement benefits of about 10 million workers and retirees from 
being cut by repealing the anti-pension rider that was included in an 
appropriations bill 2 years ago. It establishes an emergency fund 
within the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to make sure that 
multiemployer pension plans can continue to provide every pension 
benefit owed to every eligible American for decades to come.
  It is fully paid for by closing two tax loopholes that allow the 
wealthiest Americans in this country to avoid paying their fair share 
of taxes. Closing these loopholes will allow us to protect the earned 
pension benefits of every worker and retiree in multiemployer pension 
plans in this country.
  At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when half of all 
older workers have no retirement savings at all, when 20 percent of 
seniors are living on less than $13,000 a year, we have to do 
everything we can to protect and expand the fine pension benefit plans 
in America.
  I look forward to the support of my colleagues for this important 
legislation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The remarks of Mr. Merkley pertaining to the introduction of S. 987 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. MERKLEY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.