Published: July 1, 2019 |

US Senator, Joe Manchin.
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A U.S. senator from West Virginia was critical of the Republican majority leader, saying he blocked an amendment adding a miners’ benefits bill to the National Defense Authorization Act.

The American Miners Act has to be attached to a must-pass bill because Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has turned the U.S. Senate into a “dysfunctional and unproductive body,” Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said. McConnell blocked a vote on an amendment attaching the miners act for funding for health care and pensions for miners, Manchin said.

“I appreciate that we are voting on the NDAA to ensure funding for our military, but there are amendments that benefit Americans and West Virginians that are being blocked by one person: Mitch McConnell,” Manchin said. “He is the sole person that is blocking a vote on my amendment to the NDAA that would secure coal miners’ health care and pensions, even though it has bipartisan support and would better the lives of every West Virginian, Kentuckian and American. The American Miners Act has to be attached to a must-pass bill like the NDAA, because Mitch McConnell has turned the Senate into a dysfunctional and unproductive body that no longer practices regular order.”

The defense bill was passed by the Senate on Thursday. A comment from McConnell was not immediately available on Friday.

“While I don’t understand Mitch McConnell’s motives or why he refused a vote on my amendment, I voted for the NDAA to ensure that our military receives the funding they need to keep our country safe,” Manchin said. “However, our coal miners are running out of time and I refuse to play Mitch McConnell’s political games with their lives.”

The Senate passed the $750 billion defense spending bill 86-8 with Manchin, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in favor. It next goes to the House.

The defense authorization act was amended to include an act sponsored by Capito and other senators on the regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFOS and PFAS. Water systems in the Parkersburg area and in Martinsburg have been contaminated with C8, also in the same chemical family as PFAS, and PFAS.

The amendment requires the Environmental Protection Agency to devise PFAS drinking water standards within two years, a national survey to determine impacted areas and sources of PFAS contamination, more studies on health and environmental impacts, adds additional PFAS compounds for unregulated contaminant monitoring and adds PFAS to the Toxic Release Inventory.

“PFAS pollution has created significant public health challenges across the country, and it’s time that we formulated a common sense, yet effective, national response,” Capito said. “As the Environmental Protection Agency has moved slowly with its own efforts to address PFAS concerns, this measure will help us take responsible and measured legislative action to protect the health of Americans across the country, as well as the environment. This is an important step in laying the foundation for a PFAS response, and I will continue leading the way toward a broader PFAS strategy.”

Also amended into the defense authorization act was the Gold Star Spouses and Spouses of Injured Servicemembers Leasing Relief Expansion Act sponsored by Portman and other Democratic and Republican senators, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. The act allows spouses dealing with the death or catastrophic disability of a loved one because of their service to cancel a lease without incurring high termination fees, Portman said.

“I’m glad this bipartisan bill was included in the Senate-passed NDAA this week as it will provide much-needed relief for these families,” Portman said.

Source: The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

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