[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 14751-14752]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 MINE WORKERS' HEALTH CARE AND PENSIONS AND THE 21ST CENTURY CURES BILL

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, right now our Nation's retired coal 
miners--and I know Senator Kaine and Senator Warren care about this, 
too--are on the brink of losing the health care and retirement benefits 
that they have earned over a lifetime of hard work.
  It is within the power of this Congress to stop this, to help the 
mine workers, and to do right by these hard-working Americans. Many of 
them are veterans. Most of them wore their bodies out to give their 
families a better life. There is no more fitting action that we can 
take during this holiday season than to honor this promise that the 
American Government has made to our Nation's mine workers since Harry 
Truman made that promise. The workers held up their end of the bargain. 
It is despicable that we are not holding up ours and that we are 
preparing to leave town without lifting a finger to help these workers.
  United Mine Workers of America's health care and pension plan covers 
some 100,000 mine workers; 6,800 live in Ohio. If Congress fails to 
act, thousands of retired miners could lose their health care this 
year. I emphasize that it is retirement security they worked for, 
security they fought for, and security they sacrificed raises and their 
own health for.
  Understand this: Too many people that dress in suits, work here, draw 
good salaries, and draw good benefits don't understand what happens at 
the bargaining table for workers in our country. They often give up 
raises today to defer that money so that they have retirements and 
pensions in the future.
  Say that again: People at the bargaining table give up dollars today. 
Rather than take a little higher pay today, they are willing to defer 
that so they will have better pensions and health care. This Congress, 
this Senate leadership is blocking us from doing that.
  These are workers who worked for decades in the mines--hard, 
backbreaking work but work that had dignity. I live in a place that 
some national media people, including President-elect Trump, have 
referred to as the ``rust belt.'' When they say ``rust belt,'' that is 
a direct attack on the dignity of work. It demeans their work. It 
diminishes who they are. It is saying that those people, such as 
miners, steelworkers, and others who make things, are in the past.
  For these mine workers, every year in their work in the mines, they 
have earned and contributed to a health plan and pension plan. I have 
met with some of these workers--Ohioans like Norm Skinner, Dave Dilly, 
and Babe Erdos. I have heard their stories. They knew they were signing 
up for tough, dangerous work. They worked in the mines, after all. They 
knew that. But they also know their work had dignity. That work was 
part of a covenant we used to have in this country--a covenant that 
said: If you work hard, if you put in the hours, if you contribute to 
retirement, if you provide for your own health care in the future, you 
will be able to support yourself and your family. It is what built our 
country. It is what created the middle class.
  Today, the value of that work is eroding. Too often, too many major 
corporations in this country are choosing profits over people. We 
haven't lifted a finger, frankly. The political agenda here--some 
people who run this Senate simply don't have respect for the mine 
workers, for the union. They seem to have some anti-union sensibilities 
about this. Whatever it is, they are not lifting a finger to help these 
workers who put in the effort and who are in trouble through no fault 
of their own.
  There is no reason to leave town. We shouldn't be going home for the 
holidays without taking care of the 6,800 mine workers in Ohio, a 
number of mine workers in West Virginia, thousands of mine workers in 
Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, and Southwest Pennsylvania.
  This is a bipartisan solution. It will not cost taxpayers a dime. If 
this bipartisan mine workers legislation were brought to the floor 
today, it would pass with majorities in each party. We shouldn't be 
taking up other legislation. Until we do this, it should be part of the 
Cures Act that we will be voting on later.
  The Cures Act has important components to it, good steps on mental 
health, on hospital reimbursement. It has my National Pediatric 
Research Network Act in it. But it is a 900-page bill negotiated 
entirely in the House. It has major flaws.
  It does include funding for NIH, funds to fight the opioid epidemic. 
We know how important that is. But the funding isn't mandatory. It will 
be subject to the whims of future Congresses. This is pretty good happy 
talk, and we are saying the right things. We are putting language in 
this bill, but it doesn't guarantee the money will be there. It is so 
important to my State.
  A new report released this week showed Ohio had the most drug 
overdoses that resulted in death in the country in 2014, not the most 
per capita. We had more drug overdose deaths than California, three 
times our population; Texas, twice our population; more than Illinois, 
Pennsylvania, New York, Florida--all States with more people than we 
have. More Ohioans

[[Page 14752]]

died from drug overdoses from OxyContin or oxycodone or heroin or the 
new synthetic drugs we are seeing more and more. We have to do more.
  The billion dollars in grants in this bill are critically important, 
but it needs to be mandatory funding. It can't be that down the road 
some powerful Member of the House or Senate stands in the way of 
actually getting these communities the money. We can't fight year after 
year to get these dollars appropriated.
  The Cures Act gives significant concessions to Big Pharma, which is 
the big drug industry, the drug giants in this country, but it does 
absolutely nothing to combat drug prices. We give concessions to the 
big drug companies, but we do nothing to fight the high cost of drugs 
in this bill.
  We shouldn't be spending time on this flawed bill until we keep our 
promises to the 12,000 mine workers I mentioned. These miners worked in 
some of the most dangerous conditions of any jobs in this country. They 
deserve the full pension and health benefits they were promised. They 
have worked a lifetime to earn these benefits. They kept faith with us. 
We must keep faith with them. It is simply irresponsible and immoral 
for us to leave town and not take care of the mine workers.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SASSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Barrasso). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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