Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I am really pleased to be here with my fellow West Virginia Senator, Mr. Manchin. We have joined each other on this topic before, but he has been a real champion for our miners, and I am really grateful to him and others who have participated, but I think we have got to talk about this every day and make sure that we underscore the urgent need to pass the Bipartisan American Miners Act. I appreciate Senator Manchin and certainly appreciate Leader McConnell who has been a champion for our miners as well--Senator Portland as well--who have made this retirement security a top priority.

Back in 2017, time was running out on the healthcare benefits for 12,000 retired miners. I remember it well, particularly following the Patriot Coal bankruptcy. We came together as a bipartisan group to pass legislation with the House that protected healthcare for those men and women. While we are in a similar situation today, which we knew we were going to be here, the Senate needs to act soon to save the healthcare of 13,000 retired miners and protect the pension benefits of 92,000 people.

Time is of the essence here because roughly 1,000 retirees from Westmoreland and Mission Coal will lose their healthcare at the end of the year if we do not act; 12,000 more could lose their healthcare by next spring, and the pension benefits are at risk in 2020. This is a critical, critical issue for my State and many others.

I am going to take a brief moment to explain how this legislation works, and it is a bit complicated. In 2006, when we passed the last reauthorization of the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, we had a capped permanent direct appropriation that was created for transfer of payments. That permanent direct appropriation, along with the interest on the AML--the Abandoned Mine Land--trust fund has been used to fund AML payments to certified States and to provide healthcare for our miners. What do we do to certify States? The whole point of the AML is to do reclamation and repair of previously mined lands all throughout our country.

That permanent direct appropriation has been used for the payments for the certified States and also to provide healthcare to our orphaned miners. Well, for those who are not from a coal company, what is an orphaned miner? An orphaned miner is someone who earned a vested right to retiree healthcare benefits through years of hard work but worked for a company that either no longer exists or is no longer financially solvent.

The Bipartisan American Miners Act makes use of the same appropriation that was created in 2006 to cover the healthcare for retirees whose healthcare would be lost due to the bankruptcies in 2018, 2019. The bill would provide resources to guarantee the long-term solvency of the mine workers' pension fund. This is critical. Previous versions of this bill that many of us supported were able to accomplish this goal of protecting those retirement beneficiaries without lifting the cap on the direct appropriation that was set in 2006.

Because Congress has delayed action for so long, our current legislation must lift the cap in order to provide healthcare and pension benefits for our miners. Protecting these benefits is a top priority for me because it impacts so many mining families and communities in West Virginia. Just last weekend, I talked to three miners directly impacted, just kind of randomly ran into them in different areas of our State.

But I think it is important to understand that this bill does not place other policy items in jeopardy. That is a misconception. Passing this bill does not disturb the principal balance of the AML trust fund. That means we are not jeopardizing funds that are used to clean up abandoned mine sites, and passing this bill will not cut funding for other transfer payments that are authorized by the law.

What the bill will do is protect retirement benefits for tens of thousands of retired miners and their families--benefits that have been worked for, benefits that have been earned through the hard work in our mines; 25,451 West Virginians received benefits from the pension fund during 2018. They were joined by more than 11,000 Pennsylvanians, 8,500 Kentuckians, and thousands more from Illinois, Virginia, Alabama, and Ohio. The pension benefits of all the men and women are at risk if Congress fails to act.

The average benefit--listen to this--the average benefit for our miners is $590 a month, so these are not lavish benefits, but they are critical to our retirees. One retired miner from Logan, WV, who worked for 36 years in the mines, wrote me and said, ``Please keep fighting to save our pension. I receive $303.34 monthly. We need this badly to help us pay for our food, our medicine and other bills.''

A miner from Richwood, WV, who mined coal for 17 years, wrote, ``My monthly check is $192. It is not a lot of money, but it means a lot to my ability to make ends meet.''

I would add to both of these, these men, these gentlemen, they worked for these pensions. They paid into the pensions. They should receive them. Pension benefits from the mine workers plan went to individuals in all 55 West Virginian counties, so this is truly an issue that impacts my entire State. But in the areas that have the largest number of pensioners, which is Raleigh, Logan, Wyoming, Marion, and Boone Counties, cuts to the pension and healthcare benefits of our retired families would have significant impacts on our entire community.

If these retirees face severe reductions in their pensions, it means less money spent at the local businesses, less money at a local restaurant, and it would cause further economic harm to the areas that cannot afford another blow.

So I ask my colleagues to join me, Senator Manchin, Leader McConnell, Senator Portman, and many others, by supporting the Bipartisan American Miners Act.

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