U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) called on President-elect Donald Trump to make preserving retirement benefits for coal miners a priority when he takes office next month.
Capito helped introduce the bipartisan Miners Protection Act, which would transfer funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund to help keep a pension fund solvent for 22,000 retired coal miners and 122,000 future coal miner retirees.
In a letter sent to Trump on Friday, Capito wrote that preserving retirement benefits for coal miners is among the most important and pressing items on the congressional agenda.
“I look forward to working with you on policies that will help put our miners back to work and rebuild local economies that rely on energy production,” Capito wrote. “It is just as important that we act to preserve health care and pension benefits for retirees who have suffered from the downturn in the coal industry.”
The last eight years have been difficult for the coal mining industry, Capito noted.
There were 60,000 fewer coal jobs in 2016 than what existed five years earlier. In addition to lost jobs, bankruptcies in the coal industry have jeopardized retiree health care benefits and lowered contributions to the mineworkers’ pension plan.
“The Miners Protection Act is bipartisan legislation that would use existing funding sources including interest on the Abandoned Mine Land Trust Fund and a permanent direct appropriation authorized in 2006 to continue retiree health care and protect the solvency of the pension fund for miners,” Capito said.
The Senate Finance Committee approved the measure in September, and language in the recently approved continuing resolution would provide a short-term fix to prevent retirees from losing health coverage in the coming weeks.