Dec. 12, 2006
 
Rockefeller Announces Victory in Congress for Funding Miners' Health Care; Senate Deal Also Includes Almost $1 Billion for Mine Reclamation in West Virginia
 
By HNN Staff, from Sen. Jay Rockefeller press release
 
Washington, DC (HNN) -- A long-time advocate of coalminers, U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV has announced that, in the waning hours of the 109th Congress, the Senate agreed to provide billions of dollars to help fund promised lifetime health benefits for retired miners and their widows, as well as the cleanup of West Virginia’s old, abandoned mines.
 
The funding for the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program will enable the reclamation of additional abandoned mine sites, which are dangerous and unhealthy for people and communities living around them.
 
Rockefeller, who has worked with his Senate colleagues for months to pass these provisions, said, “Miners have always faced unique circumstances when it comes to their health care. That’s why I’ve fought so hard during my time in the Senate to make sure that the retired miner health benefits. I’m proud to say that this legislation should ensure that there will not be a health benefit cut for more than 17,000 West Virginia miners and their widows – whose average age is nearly 80. They can finally know that the promise of their benefits has been kept and won’t be broken.”
 
A change in the way historic coal producing states are treated under this law benefits West Virginia substantially in terms of reclaiming old, abandoned coal mines. West Virginia is expected to receive just over $18 million this year under the old law, but because of the new law, the state will receive almost $41 million next year. That number will increase substantially each year. In fact, over the next 15 years, West Virginia will receive more than $986 million for mine reclamation.
 
After months of the Republican leadership refusing to pass the AML bill to strengthen miners’ health care funds, Rockefeller and a bipartisan group of Senators pushed hard during the last days of the legislative session to make sure that the AML fix went through. Rockefeller urged that the AML fix be part of a popular tax-extenders bill that will extend a critical research-and-development tax credit, the college tuition deduction, and an exemption for state and local sales tax in states with no income tax.
 
Specifically, the bill extends the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program for 15 years. This provision also reduces AML fees for operators and repays states for sharing their program with the federal government. The bill also allows transfers to the Combined Benefit Fund and the 1992 and 1993 Plans to prevent a health benefit cut to orphaned miners and their families.
 
“The bottom line is that miners covered by the Coal Act of 1992 should not have to face another benefit cut, and there will be a significant upsurge in the cleanup of West Virginia’s abandoned mines,” said Rockefeller.
 
The bill also gets rid of the ongoing shortfall in the UMWA Trust Funds that would trigger health benefit cuts. The Combined Fund and the 92 Fund get additional money, as does the 1993 Fund, which covers most of the former Horizon retirees.
 
“This is an enormous victory for our miners and for all West Virginians,” said Rockefeller. “I’m proud that we never gave up.”
 
The bill now goes to the President, who is expected to sign it.