[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7130-S7133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Bipartisan American Miners Act
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about something very
rare in Congress these days. On Monday--on Monday, after 4 long years
of working hard through many uncertainties, Congress came together--
Democrats and Republicans--to secure healthcare and pensions for our
Nation's coal miners. We did our job. This confirms to me that we can
do so much more. This is so important.
It was the coal miners of America who made us look beyond politics.
These were hard-working people. They weren't Democrats or Republicans;
they were hard-working Americans who built America.
I want to give my sincere thanks to all of my colleagues for putting
partisan politics aside and for rising above the divisiveness and
tribalism in order to keep the promise that was made in 1946.
Over 70 years ago, President Harry Truman recognized the importance
of the workers who produced the coal for this country. After World War
II, we had to keep this economy moving, we had to keep it churning, and
we couldn't do it without the energy. Coal was basically the driver of
this at that time, and there was a promise that the government would
guarantee our brave coal miners benefits in return for their services.
This agreement was a sacred promise between workers and our country,
and it captured the very best of our American values.
This week, we kept the promise by including the Bipartisan American
Miners Act in the end-of-the-year funding bill. We kept our promise to
13,000 retired coal miners and their families who will not lose their
healthcare by the end of the year. We kept our promise to the 92,000
coal miners and their families who will not see their pensions
drastically reduced starting next year.
Coal miners are the most patriotic people in America. They have done
the heavy lifting. They have done everything that has been asked of
them by this country. They provided the energy that made us the
greatest country on Earth and the superpower--the only superpower in
the world today.
Because of what they have done for our country, we have won two World
Wars. We have built iconic American cities, and we have a strong middle
class. They continue to provide the resources that make us the energy
leader of the world, all while advancing the American dream.
The journey has not been short, and it sure hasn't been easy. In
2015, we knew the United Mineworkers of America's 1974 pension plan was
severely underfunded. Unlike other public and private pension plans,
the 1974 pension plan was well managed and funded prior to the crash in
2008--the economic financial crisis we had--which hit at a time when
the plan was being drawn down more than ever because more people were
retiring. The mining of coal, with the new automation, was being
replaced, and a lot of miners were retiring out of it. This was coupled
with the fact that many of the
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beneficiaries are often retirees whose employers are no longer in the
coal business--companies would shut down. In fact, there are only
10,000 active workers for 120,000 retirees. It doesn't take a
mathematician to figure out that this is not going to work.
It placed the plan on the road to insolvency, and that was what
started the collapse. If the plan became insolvent, these coal miners
would have had their pensions cut, and the government Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation would have had to step in and assume billions of
dollars in liabilities. That would have started a tumbling effect on
all of our privately insured and private pension plans. That is what we
were trying to prevent from happening.
That is why I wrote the Miners Protection Act and introduced it with
my fellow Senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito, and
Senators Bob Casey and Sherrod Brown. It was bipartisan from day one.
I was told to go through the regular order, which I did. In March of
2016, Cecil Roberts, the President of the UMWA, testified in front of
the Senate Finance Committee, and the Miners Protection Act was passed
out of the Finance Committee in September with strong bipartisan
support and the chairman of the majority.
A month later, 16,300 retired coal miners and their widows received
notices that their healthcare would be terminated by the end of that
year. I knew--I knew we could not let Congress leave for Christmas
without fixing it. This is a tactic that I haven't used. It is one of
the rules and one of the privileges as a U.S. Senator that each one of
us has. In December of 2016, at that time, I said I will shut down the
government. I will make us go through the process and stay here as long
as it will take to get this taken care of. I wanted to make sure that
not one coal miner would lose their healthcare.
Mitch McConnell would agree to nothing more than a 4-month extension
on healthcare at that time. So 16,300 coal miners would have been
forced to sit through the holidays and another 4 months of uncertainty,
not knowing when it was going to come to an end. You talk about cruel
and unusual punishment--that was it.
Things started to look up, though. In January of 2017, I received
assurances from then-President-elect Donald Trump that he was committed
to finding a fix, but by March, 22,600 coal miners received letters
telling them their healthcare would be terminated by the end of April.
By the end of April, it would be gone.
In typical fashion, Congress waited until the very last minute, but
on May 1, we secured a permanent healthcare fix for 22,600 retired coal
miners and their families.
Although this was a huge win, we still needed to fulfill other
obligations and secure the miners' pension because it was in dire need,
and it was in jeopardy of being cut drastically. Now I was more
determined than ever. I turned around and immediately introduced the
America Miners Protection Act with Senator Capito, Congressman
McKinley, and Congressman Welch to secure pensions for 92,000 coal
miners. Now it was not only bipartisan; it was bicameral.
In February of 2018, I was appointed to the bipartisan, bicameral
Joint Select Committee. I had the task of solving the country's pension
crisis, including our coal miners, with all of our other pensioners in
our Central States who are in dire need of our help too.
The United Mine Workers pension fund was the first fund in jeopardy.
So I made it very clear during that--I said: If this starts tumbling,
if this goes down, we will have to count on the PBGC, which basically
is Federal Government funded, and if that happens, we are going to put
that in insolvency. Then everything starts tumbling at a much faster
rate, and it would be an absolute financial calamity for this country.
Things came to a head in October of this year. Murray Energy declared
bankruptcy just this October. The largest coal producer we have for
union workers was the Murray coal company. They declared bankruptcy.
Basically, that significantly sped up the deadline for pensions and
truly put us in a debt spiral.
Instead of going insolvent in 2022, which is what was predicted, the
UMWA pension fund would now expedite--speed up to insolvency by 2020,
next year. Not only that, but in between the time of securing
healthcare and now three coal companies had gone bankrupt, putting
another 13,000 more coal miners in jeopardy of losing their healthcare,
1,000 would have lost theirs at the end of this month and another
12,000 at the end of March.
This bankruptcy, in particular, got the attention of many of my
colleagues. I appreciate all of you so much, knowing how difficult this
was going to be on so many people and their families.
It was a call to action for Congress to step up to the plate and
honor the promises made to our miners. In 1946, that was the only
pension system in America that had the silver approval of Congress and
the President of the United States--the only one.
In November, I was proud to partner with a bipartisan group of my
colleagues again, including the majority leader this time, which I am
so appreciative of. It is an act that would introduce the Bipartisan
American Miners Act that would secure pensions for 92,000 coal miners
and their families and 13,000 coal miners and their families who would
get healthcare. Even though that was good news, we still weren't over
the finish line.
On December 11, for the first time since I have been here--9 years--I
put a hold on all Senate legislation. I said there is no way I am going
to go home or anyone else is going to go home and enjoy Christmas with
their family and New Year's when you have this many people in dire
straits in jeopardy--people who built America. If we can't stand up for
them, whom do we stand up for? So I said: This is what we are going to
do. I was very clear. I telegraphed it by December 11. There were no
surprises.
After many negotiations with the House of Representatives and the
White House, we finally secured a permanent fix in the spending deal,
ensuring retired coal miners will not lose their healthcare or
pensions.
Throughout all of these years, thousands of retired coal miners from
all across the country have come to Congress. I know you have seen them
walking around. They have their shirts on, their proud green shirts, if
they are working. They are walking the halls, meeting with every person
in Congress they possibly can to tell their stories and meeting with
every Member. The reason for that is, these are people who have truly
given their heart and soul, their blood, and their sweat to this
country, and they are just saying: This is something we negotiated. We
didn't take the money home. We basically invested this money into our
pension and our healthcare, and now because of a bankruptcy loophole,
we are the last in line, and we lose everything. Something is wrong. It
is not who we are as Americans.
So we worked through all of this. They walked the halls tirelessly,
fighting for what they earned, for what they paid for, and truly for
what they deserved.
This would have never happened without their relentless dedication. I
have said this. They dedicated themselves religiously, for almost 4
years, day in and day out, coming here--coming here at their expense.
It has been the honor of my life to fight alongside them. I can't be
more proud of anything I have been able to do in public service than to
stand shoulder to shoulder with the people who have made America great.
I feel so honored to have had that opportunity.
I thank all of my colleagues, current and former Members of this
body, who have stood with them throughout the years, even when the
going got extremely tough.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a list of all
of those who have cosponsored these bills.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Senate Cosponsors of Senator Manchin's Miners Pensions and Healthcare
Bills
S.2788--Bipartisan American Miners Act of 2019 (116th Congress)
1. Capito
2. McConnell
3. Jones
4. Kaine
5. Duckworth
6. Brown
7. Casey
8. Durbin
9. Warner
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10. Portman
11. Sinema
12. Van Hollen
13. Reed
14. Carper
S. 27 as Amendment to NDAA--American Miners Act (116th Congress)
Entire Democratic Caucus
S. 27--American Miners Act (116th Congress)
1. Kaine
2. Warner
3. Brown
4. Jones
5. Casey
6. Durbin
7. Sanders
8. Warren
9. Van Hollen
10. Blumenthal
11. Harris
12. Gillibrand
13. Markey
14. Sinema
15. Duckworth
S. 1105--Miners Pension Protection Act (115th Congress)
1. Capito
2. Brown
3. Casey
4. Warner
5. Franken
6. McCaskill
7. Nelson
8. Warren
9. Murray
10. Kaine
11. Donnelly
12. Heitkamp
13. Portman
14. Whitehouse
15. Durbin
16. Heinrich
17. Burr
18. Sanders
19. Booker
20. Duckworth
21. Wyden
S. 175--Miners Protection Act of 2017 (115th Congress)
1. Capito
2. Casey
3. Brown
4. Kaine
5. Warner
6. Portman
7. Tester
8. Murray
9. Sanders
10. Durbin
11. Franken
12. Booker
13. Donnelly
14. Heinrich
15. McCaskill
16. Heitkamp
17. Nelson
18. Burr
19. Sullivan
20. Whitehouse
21. Murkowski
22. Warren
23. Risch
24. Duckworth
25. Cotton
26. Udall
27. Harris
S. 1714--Miners Protection Act of 2015 (114th Congress)
1. Capito
2. Casey
3. Brown
4. Kaine
5. Warner
6. Roberts
7. Cotton
8. Risch
9. Rounds
10. Burr
11. Durbin
12. Tester
13. Kirk
14. Portman
15. Murray
16. Sanders
17. Boxer
18. Franken
19. Moran
20. Sullivan
21. Murkowski
22. Booker
23. Donnelly
24. Heinrich
25. Coons
26. McCaskill
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, they have all recognized, just like
President Truman, that our country would not be where it is today
without them and that we needed to get this done--and we did.
I want to give you a little bit of a background and history of why
this is so near and dear to me.
My grandfather came to this country--this wonderful country, the
United States of America--in 1900 as a baby. He started working in the
coal mines at 9 years of age. So he was able to get a fourth grade
education before he had to go help support his family.
In 1927, he and my grandmother had four children, and my grandmother
was pregnant with my uncle. So she would have had four and three-
fourths of a child at that time. My grandfather would always tell me:
Joey, we couldn't pay the bills at the end of the month. He said: I
never did see any money because it was all script, and it went to the
company house or the company store. So the old song lyrics, ``I owe my
soul to the company store''--he truly did. He just said: We can't make
it.
He would go out, and he would tell people: We have to do better than
this. We have no healthcare. We have nothing to look forward to and we
can't pay our bills and we are working 6 days like dogs. He had a mule.
Poppa had a mule; he had a buggy; and he had a carbide light.
He would go in and have to do everything. He would have to, as he
would say--he loved to say: Fire in the hole. He would always tell me
that. Basically, what he meant by that is, he would have to go back
into the mine. He would have to get a block of coal he was assigned to,
and he would have to drill it. He would have to tamp it and put the
dynamite in it, and he would pack it. Then he had to go back, and he
would fire it. Then everything would blast away, and he had to get all
the coal and load it by hand. This is what he did from 9 years of age.
He was trying to improve the quality of life for all coal miners. He
said: This is not right. Well, he fought for those rights of coal
miners. It is engrained in my family history.
The rest of the story is, in 1927--with those four children and being
pregnant with Uncle Jimmy, because he was talking about improving the
quality of life for the people who did this unbelievable work for this
great country, at a time when this country needed it, and the
industrial age was coming--on Christmas Eve, they came to the company
house where he lived and rented, took all of their furniture and threw
it in the middle of the street. They threw them out because they said
he was an organizer.
Papa was a survivor. He was just trying to survive, and he wanted
other people to have the same quality of opportunity to survive. I know
this is ingrained in me. Let me just tell you, when you saw these
miners and you saw the fight they had in them, that is why. There is
still more that we have to do. We have to do much more.
If you want to stop this from continuing and repeating itself in so
many different professions, we have to change the bankruptcy laws in
America. We cannot allow the bankruptcy laws in this country that put
hard-working people--that take money out of the paychecks of hard-
working people and let people from Wall Street come in and take over--
through hedge funds or whatever they do--and rob them and put them at
the back of the line.
Every working person in America who pays in out of their paychecks
and their sweat and their blood and their hard work should be at the
front of the line getting equal treatment, not just the financial
institutions. That is why I am asking in a bipartisan way that we make
sure we protect the people who continue to make this country go and
make this economy turn. We can do that in this body and nowhere else.
In January, when we get back from recess, I will be working with my
colleagues to move this legislation through Congress because if we
cannot continue to stand for American workers ahead of the almighty
dollar and Wall Street greed, what in the world are we here for? What
is our purpose? How do you go home and look at people? ``So sorry you
lost everything. I wish we could do more.'' Well, we can do more. We
just showed them we can do more for the miners. Let's make sure every
working person is protected.
I have always said that we must set our priorities based on our
values. If you can't set your priorities based on your values, you
better check the box in the morning before you go to work. We have done
that with the fight for our coal miners, and we will continue to do
that for all American workers.
By working together across party lines since 2016, we have been able
to secure lifetime healthcare benefits for 36,000 coal miners and their
families. We have also secured pensions for 92,000 miners and their
families. Most of these pensions are going to widows. Their husbands
have passed away. Do you know what the average pension for a coal
miner's widow is today? It is less than $600. She doesn't have a
portfolio. She doesn't have investments in the
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stock market. She has Social Security and that $590 pension, and they
want to take that away.
That is what we fought for. That is why every one of us should be
proud, Democrats and Republicans. We did our job because we stood here
as Americans. We stood here representing America, not representing our
parties and our tribal interests and not condemning each other. We did
this working together, and we can continue to do a lot more.
Again, I thank all of my colleagues. I thank Cecil Roberts, president
of the United Mine Workers, for being shoulder to shoulder all the way
with us. I thank all the coal miners and their families, my colleagues
in the House and the Senate, and President Trump for coming together to
keep the promise that we have all made and that we should continue to
make and keep.
I thank you all very much from the bottom of my heart. Merry
Christmas to all, and to all, a good night. This has been very
emotional, as you can tell. I know what this place can do. I have been
here long enough that I have heard enough.
When I was Governor of the State and Bob Burr was sitting in his seat
over there, I saw the good that came from him. It was basically all of
us. Everybody in here has good in them or they wouldn't be here.
Everybody came here for the right reason or they wouldn't have gotten
here. This is not an easy place to get to, and by golly, when we get
here, we try to do the right thing, and we did it. I can go home and
you can go home, and we can be proud of what we did here. We finally
did the job we were asked to do, and I want to continue doing that with
you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.