{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=9CB62D94-0DAB-4EF8-94C3-307B33A71FF9", "Warner & Kaine Introduce Legislation to Strengthen the Black Lung Benefits Program", "2023-11-21", "2023", "2023-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine joined Senators Bob Casey (D-PA), John Fetterman (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) and U.S. Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA-3) in introducing the Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act, which would help miners who have suffered from black lung disease and their survivors access the workers\u2019 compensation they are entitled to receive under the Black Lung Benefits Program. This legislation would remove barriers that prevent miners and their survivors from accessing their benefits such as lengthy processing times, lack of a legal representative, and inflation.\n\n\u201cFor generations, coal miners across Virginia have made tremendous sacrifices to power America, literally risking their lives and their health to electrify our nation,\u201d said Senator Warner. \u201cMiners living with black lung and their survivors need easy access to the benefits they\u2019ve earned \u2013 but far too often, red tape gets in the way. The Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act would take important steps to make sure miners can access legal representation, have protection against inflation, and more so America can keep making good on the debt it owes to victims of black lung.\u201d\n\n\u201cMany of our nation\u2019s miners have developed black lung disease, and we owe it to them to provide them with the care and support they need,\u201d said Senator Kaine. \u201cThe Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act is critical to helping more miners, miner retirees, and their families receive the benefits and compensation they\u2019ve earned following their tremendous sacrifices.\u201d\n\nMany miners have developed coal workers\u2019 pneumoconiosis\u2014commonly referred to as \u201cblack lung\u201d\u2014a debilitating and deadly disease caused by the long-term inhalation of coal dust in underground and surface coal mines. In response, Congress passed the Black Lung Benefits Act in 1976 to provide monthly compensation and medical coverage for coal miners who develop black lung disease and are disabled. The Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act makes needed updates to ensure Congress is fulfilling its commitment to the Nation\u2019s coal miners by:\n\nRestoring cost-of-living benefit increases for black lung beneficiaries and ensuring cost-of-living increases are never withheld in the future,\n\nHelping miners and their survivors secure legal representation by providing interim attorney fees for miners that prevail at various stages of their claim,\n\nAllowing miners or their survivors to reopen their cases if they had been wrongly denied benefits because of errors in medical interpretations, and\n\nProhibiting unethical conduct by attorneys and doctors in the black lung claims process, such as withholding evidence of black lung, and helping miners review and rebut potentially biased or inaccurate medical evidence developed by coal companies.\n\nWarner and Kaine have long worked to support miners and their families. The Senate-passed draft of the Fiscal Year 2024 government funding bill includes $12.19 million in federal funding for black lung clinics, which the senators are working to ensure is included in the final version of the bill. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the senators helped pass, included a permanent extension of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund\u2019s excise tax at a higher rate, providing certainty for miners, miner retirees, and their families who rely on the fund to access benefits. This followed Warner and Kaine\u2019s successful efforts to ensure that miners receive the pensions and health care they earned. In July, the senators reintroduced the Relief for Survivors of Miners Act, which would ease restrictions to make it easier for miners\u2019 survivors to successfully claim benefits. Warner and Kaine also urged the Biden Administration to issue new silica standards to protect miners across America \u2013 a push that helped contribute towards the release of those standards.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:49:58Z"]], "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?ID=9CB62D94-0DAB-4EF8-94C3-307B33A71FF9"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6580591909587383, "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"}