{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=6FC28119-4671-4100-93DC-C9EC491818EB", "Warner, Kaine Urge Congressional Leadership to Protect Miners Before End of Year", "2016-11-22", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Mark Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) joined 20 of their Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to Congressional leadership urging passage of the Miners Protection Act by the end of this year. The bill, which would protect the hard-earned health and pension benefits of retired mine workers, has bipartisan support and is currently awaiting consideration in the Senate after passing through the Senate Finance Committee in September by a large margin.\r\n\u201cThis bill is simple \u2013 it is the continuation of a longstanding commitment by our government to lifetime health and retirement benefits for our miners,\u201d the Senators wrote.\r\nRetired miners are facing uncertainty because the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) 1974 Pension Plan is severely underfunded, still reeling from the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the effects of a downturn in the coal industry. The Miners Protection Act\u00a0 would take leftover funds from a federal government program that cleans up abandoned mines to shore up the underfunded health insurance and pension plan. Without the legislation, thousands of retired coal miners \u2013 including nearly 20,000 retirees whose companies filed for bankruptcy last year alone \u2013 face the prospect of significant cuts to their pensions and health care.\u00a0\r\n\u201cThe Miners Protection Act is a responsible, bipartisan solution to an immediate problem that is fully offset and has gone through regular order.\u00a0 We strongly encourage you to pass the Miners Protection Act of 2016 (S. 1714) by the end of this year,\u201d the Senators concluded.\r\nOther signatories to the letter included Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), Patty Murray (D-WA), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Richard Burr (R-NC), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Kirk (R-IL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jim Risch (R-ID), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Jerry Moran (R-KS).\u00a0\r\nFull text of the letter can be found here and below.\r\n\u00a0\r\nThe Honorable Paul Ryan Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nThe Honorable Mitch McConnell\r\nMajority Leader\r\nUnited States Senate\r\nWashington, D.C. 20510\r\nThe Honorable Nancy Pelosi Democratic Leader U.S. House of Representatives \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nThe Honorable Harry Reid\r\nDemocratic Leader\r\nUnited States Senate\r\nWashington, D.C. 20510\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \r\n\u00a0\r\nDear Senator McConnell, Senator Reid, Speaker Ryan and Representative Pelosi:\r\nDuring the month of October, approximately 12,500 of our nation\u2019s retired coal miners received notices\u00a0 informing them that their healthcare benefits will be terminated at the end of this year.\u00a0\u00a0 The funding provided for Patriot Retirees Voluntary Employee\u2019s Beneficiary Association (Patriot VEBA) will be exhausted by December 31, 2016, leaving these miners and their families without the essential healthcare benefits they earned through a lifetime of hard work.\u00a0 On November 1st, another 3,600 miners began to receive notices.\u00a0 And next year, 6,500 more will suffer the same fate.\u00a0\u00a0 Additionally, the pension fund that these miners and their widows rely on for life\u2019s basic necessities will reach the point of no return shortly thereafter.\u00a0 Therefore, we ask that you pass the Miners Protection Act of 2016 (S. 1714) by the end of this year.\u00a0\r\nIn March of this year, the Miners Protection Act was the subject of a legislative hearing before the Senate Committee on Finance.\u00a0 On September 21st, S. 1714 was approved by the Committee with a strong bipartisan vote of 18 to 8.\u00a0 We worked closely with our colleagues to ensure that the bill was fully offset and that no funding was diverted away from either abandoned mine reclamation efforts or annual payments to certified states.\r\nThis bill is simple \u2013 it is the continuation of a longstanding commitment by our government to lifetime health and retirement benefits for our miners.\u00a0 The Krug-Lewis Agreement was signed in 1946 at the White House in front of President Truman by UMWA president John L. Lewis and Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug.\u00a0 This agreement ended a government seizure of the nation\u2019s coal industry after a widespread strike by coal miners.\r\nWhile the agreement itself was not drafted in perpetuity, Congress essentially codified the promises made in that agreement by subsequently passing the Coal Act.\u00a0 The Coal Act and its 2006 amendments re-committed the government to the health and retirement security of our nation\u2019s miners and their families.\u00a0 In fact, prior to passage of the 1992 Coal Act, the Dole Commission (appointed by President George H.W. Bush) issued a report stating that, \u201cThe UMWA Health and Retirement Funds is as much a creature of government as it is of collective bargaining. There is a line running from the original Boone Report to the present system. In a way, the original Krug-Lewis agreement predisposed, if not predetermined, the system that evolved.\u201d\u00a0\r\nThe Miners Protection Act is a responsible, bipartisan solution to an immediate problem that is fully offset and has gone through regular order.\u00a0 We strongly encourage you to pass the Miners Protection Act of 2016 (S. 1714) by the end of this year.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=6FC28119-4671-4100-93DC-C9EC491818EB"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5821107663214207, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}