[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.