CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Health care and pension benefits for thousands of retired coal miners and their families in West Virginia and across the U.S. will be sustained in the New Year only if an extension measure makes it into a continuing resolution in Congress before Dec. 31.
U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said it’s most likely too late for a stand-alone bill.
“I think it looks favorable in terms of getting it onto a continuing resolution and we’re just keeping the pressure on here in the Senate and in the House to look at every possible vehicle,” Capito reported Tuesday from Capitol Hill.
“Our backs are kind of against the wall,” she admitted.
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) originally introduced the Miners Protection Act and Capito is one of its original co-sponsors.
The measure advanced out of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee with an 18-8 vote in September.
In general, the proposed bill would shore up United Mine Workers of America pension and health benefits programs that are nearing insolvency as fewer coal companies pay into programs seeing growing numbers of beneficiaries.
Funds from an existing mine cleanup program would be tapped to put as much as $220 million each year into the union health and retirement plans.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly questioned offering such support only to UMWA member plans.
“I think we have to look at what precedent’s already been set here,” Capito said. “Since the 1940s, the promise has been made and kept to our miners, because of the difficulties of their jobs and laying their lives on the line, to have a lifetime health care benefit.”
On Monday, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin issued a statement urging passage.
“For decades, West Virginia’s coal miners have given tirelessly of themselves to power our nation, lift up our economy and support our families. Today, we stand at an important juncture in the test of support for them,” Tomblin said.
“Here in the Mountain State, we know that a promise made should be a promise kept.”
To start the week, Capito was talking with members of the U.S. House about the importance of passage of the Miners Protection Act after members of Congress returned to Washington, D.C. following the recess.
It’ll be up to the House to take the initial steps on the measure.
Among the members of the U.S. Senate, “I think we definitely have 51 and we’re pretty close to 60. If we’re not there, I would be surprised,” Capito said during an appearance on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“We’re pushing hard because too much is at stake here to have these folks lose their health care.”