[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1733]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          APRIL BROOKS' STORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Jenkins) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JENKINS of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the war on coal touches 
nearly every family in southern West Virginia. President Obama and his 
EPA regulations don't just close mines. They put families out of work.
  Coal miners call it job scare. Every time miners go underground, they 
don't know, when they come up, if they will receive a WARN notice 
telling them that they are going to be laid off. Families worry about 
making ends meet or moving to find work someplace else.
  Businesses that depend on coal are suffering, too. CSX recently 
announced it is closing its Huntington division and moving its jobs to 
another State, in part because of the decline in coal shipments. 
Norfolk Southern in Bluefield is also moving jobs out of Bluefield, 
West Virginia.
  Shops and restaurants are closing their doors, as families leave town 
and have less disposable income. Walmart in McDowell County has 
recently shut its doors, and the residents in the area have to drive to 
another State just to get groceries. The uncertainty can be paralyzing.
  This is reality for so many of my constituents like April Brooks of 
Princeton in Mercer County. April writes me:
  ``My husband has worked in the mining industry for the last eleven 
years, and my dad was a coal miner for over thirty years.
  ``Like every family that depends on coal for a living, we live day to 
day worrying about what will happen tomorrow. You can't plan for the 
future because of the uncertainty.
  ``I went back to work several years ago so that we would have 
supplemental income in case of layoffs. We love our State, but how does 
one stay here and survive if the jobs aren't there?''
  Mr. Speaker, President Obama's job-killing overregulations are having 
real consequences for real West Virginians. We need to pass policies 
that create jobs and ensure a future for all West Virginians, all West 
Virginia families, so they can stay and work and live in our great 
State.

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