Miners Protection Act Reintroduced in U.S. Senate and House
United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil Roberts.
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The debate over whether to extend a lifeline to retired miners whose health insurance and pensions are in jeopardy is primed to begin anew.
A previous version of the Miners Protection Act died after it did not receive the required votes for passage before the close of the 114th Congress. Instead, lawmakers signed off on a temporary four-month solution to guarantee health care benefits for certain retired miners, including hundreds in Southern Illinois, as part of a stopgap budget solution with a promise to readdress the issue in the new session.
The 115th Congress was seated earlier this month, and strong> said Wednesday, in a statement, that a new version of the Miners Protection Act has since been reintroduced in both the U.S. Senate and House.
Roberts said the measure was introduced Wednesday morning in the upper chamber by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia and 18 other Senate co-sponsors representing both Republicans and Democrats. It was reintroduced as the Miners Protection Act of 2017 in the House on Jan. 3, the first day of the new Congress, by Rep. David McKinley, R-West Virginia, and six original House co-sponsors, including Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro.
Bost said he is supportive of the measure. In a late December interview, he also said that Congress should address the bankruptcy laws that have allowed companies to shift assets and shed retiree obligations. “We’ve got to figure out a long-term fix on that,” he said, defining the “that” as “the games the coal companies have played” in federal bankruptcy proceedings.
Roberts pleaded for Congress to take action swiftly to bring peace of mind to the retired miners wondering what they will do if their health benefits expire in April, or if their pension payments evaporate later on. According to the UMWA, there are about 3,500 affected retired miners in Southern Illinois whose benefits are set to expire this spring, at the close of the four-month extension Congress approved in late 2016 or shortly thereafter.
The majority of them worked for St. Louis-based Peabody Energy, but were affected by the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of Patriot Coal in 2013 and 2015.
In 2007, Peabody spun off Patriot Coal as a separate company, and when it did, Patriot Coal took with it some of Peabody’s liabilities for retiree healthcare. It was a move that came as a surprise to many local miners who later learned that their promised retirement benefits would be compromised in bankruptcy proceedings for a company for which they never worked.
Several hundred UMWA members and their loved ones rode on charter buses to Washington, D.C., in September to join thousands of others from around the country for a rally on the Capitol lawn to encourage action on the measure. UMWA officials expressed disappointment when the previous session closed with legislative leaders only offering four months of temporarily relief, punting the issue into the next session.
Roberts called that action “clearly insufficient” and said both Republican and Democratic leadership in both houses have recognized as much.
“Congress must act, and act fast, to resolve this issue and allow these senior citizens to live their lives without a continuing sense of doom hanging over their heads,” his statement continued.
Roberts noted that this has been an issue up for consideration in Congress for more than four years. While there has been more widespread consensus on the need to preserve health care benefits for retirees affected by the bankruptcies of coal companies, some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns about using federal funds to bail out the UMWA’s struggling pension system, concerned over the precedent that might set for other private retirement funds in jeopardy.
“The Senate majority leader and the president-elect support the long-term preservation of health care benefits for these retirees, which we appreciate very much, although we need to preserve their pensions as well. The funding source is already there, and a way to pay for it without increasing the deficit is there as well,” Roberts said.
“Lives are on the line,” the statement concluded. “Regional and local economies are on the line. Congress has stepped up and honored America’s moral promise to these miners on multiple occasions. It must do so again, and without delay.”
Source: (January 19, 2017) The Southern Illinoisan
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