{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=8F4540F0-86E3-481F-9F70-1C2C7EC03BED", "Barrasso: Democrats\u2019 Eight Year War on Coal is the Real Reason Coal Miners are Suffering", "2016-12-09", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks.\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding Senate Democrats threatening to shut down the federal government over an extension of a health plan for coal miners.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso\u2019s remarks:\r\n\u201cIn just a few hours, funding for the federal government will run out.\r\n\u201cIt looks like we\u2019re going to blow through that deadline right here in the United States Senate.\r\n\u201cPolitico, one of the local newspapers, had an article this morning, and this is what the headline said: They ran an article with a headline \u2018Democrats push government toward shutdown.\u2019\r\n\u201cThe article says that: \u2018Democrats are pushing the government to the brink of a shutdown, with coal country Senate Democrats leading a strategy to oppose a GOP spending bill if their demands aren't met for a longer extension of expiring health care benefits for coal miners.\u2019\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re talking about a continuing resolution that passed the House with overwhelming numbers and it was bipartisan support. The vote was 326 to 96.\r\n\u201cRepublicans and Democrats joining together in the House to keep the government open. But not the Senate Democrats.\r\n\u201cNow the continuing resolution that\u2019s being asked to be voted on, actually includes money to help these miners well into the new year through April. We\u2019re going to be looking at everything in the legislation again when it expires in April.\r\n\u201cSo there\u2019s no rush to settle this issue today. But here we are in Senate, with Democrats preparing to shut down the government of the United States.\r\n\u201cOur goal should not be to bail out a union health plan\u2014and it\u2019s a fund that does have problems.\r\n\u201cThe solution ought to be to let coal miners mine coal again. Let them go back to what they know how to do, mine coal.\r\n\u201cThat\u2019s a way they can take care of themselves and take care of their own.\r\n\u201cI want to be really clear on this point. The only reason we\u2019re in the position we are today, is because the Obama administration and Democrats in Washington have been waging a war on coal for the past eight years.\r\n\u201cIn 2008, when Barack Obama was running for president, he promised that that\u2019s what he was going to do. He said it.\r\n\u201cHe said that under his policies, \u2018If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can; it\u2019s just that it will bankrupt them.\u2019\r\n\u201cOnce he got into office, he did everything that he could to keep that promise \u2013 and bankrupt as many coal companies as possible. That\u2019s actually what happened.\r\n\u201cHis administration has pushed out one unnecessary regulation after another on coal producers, on power plants, and on customers.\r\n\u201cThe Environmental Protection Agency wrote new regulations on power plant emissions that when the emissions go from one state over to another.\r\n\u201cThe agency put out extremely stringent rules on emissions from any new power plants that are built in this country.\r\n\u201cThen they wrote tough rules on the power plants that were already in existence.\r\n\u201cThe Obama administration hasn\u2019t just tried to bankrupt anyone who used coal. They\u2019ve been doing all they can to make sure that the coal never gets out of the ground.\r\n\u201cThe Bureau of Land Management imposed a moratorium on new mining leases on federal land. And in the Rocky Mountain West, that\u2019s a significant amount of the land. And in many states its over half of the land.\r\n\u201cAnd the Obama administration has been doing all they can to make sure that American coal can\u2019t be used not just here in America, but can\u2019t be used anywhere in the world.\r\n\u201cThe Department of the Interior wrote a new rule on coal valuation, to discourage coal exports.\r\n\u201cThe Army Corps of Engineers has even delayed or denied permits for new coal export terminals \u2013 so we can ship a product that is produced in the United States to people who want to buy our product overseas.\r\n\u201cThe Obama administration even worked to get the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to stop financing new coal fired power plants in developing nations. Even though for them it\u2019s the least expensive cost for electricity, for energy, for the people there that don\u2019t have energy and desperately need it.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s been one roadblock after another for the last eight years. Layer after layer of red tape, strangling the coal industry and coal miners.\r\n\u201cAnd now someone wants to say the issue is bailing out one union health plan and pension fund?\r\n\u201cThe Democrats have waged an all-out, comprehensive war on coal. That\u2019s why we\u2019re in this situation.\r\n\u201cThe administration has blocked coal production. They\u2019ve made it more expensive.\r\n\u201cThen they\u2019ve tried to use the smaller market for coal\u2014since you can\u2019t mine it, you can\u2019t sell it, you can\u2019t export it\u2014so there is a smaller market for coal and they use that as an excuse to impose even more burdens.\r\n\u201cThe people who are hurt by these policies are hard-working Americans who just want to go to work make a living and support their families.\u201cThat\u2019s what the coal miners have been up against by the Obama administration in the last eight years.\r\n\u201cAny attempt by Democrats to blame someone else is just a distraction. They want to hide the simple fact that it is their intentional and intensive campaign against coal that has led us to where we are today, on the brink of a government shutdown tonight.\r\n\u201cHealth and pension funds can pay benefits for retired workers as long as the mines are actually working and they can mine coal, and sell coal and make money.\r\n\u201cIf the money coming in goes down, then the money that they need to pay out is not there.\r\n\u201cCompanies can\u2019t meet their obligations. And it\u2019s the Democrat policies that have caused it.\r\n\u201cIf Democrats want to help retired miners, they should let the other miners get back to work. Well that\u2019s not what they\u2019ve done.\r\n\u201cThis administration, the Obama administration has done all they can to destroy the market for coal, to force mines to cut production, and to put miners out of work.\r\n\u201cI understand that there are people in the home states of these senators who are very worried\u2014and they have a right to be worried.\r\n\u201cLet\u2019s just be honest about the real reason these people are hurting.\r\n\u201cMiners are struggling because President Obama has been standing on their necks for a straight period of eight years.\r\n\u201cWhen Democrats focus on things like health benefits for retirees, they\u2019re missing the point entirely \u2013 and they\u2019re just trying to dodge the responsibility for their own disastrous policies.\u201d\r\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0###", 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": ["http://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=8F4540F0-86E3-481F-9F70-1C2C7EC03BED"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9400276467204094, "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"}