American Miners Act of 2019

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, when I became chairman of this committee, I vowed never to do this kind of a package. I thought that each bill deserved to be debated and to be moved as a standalone.

Basically, we in the House did that. Unfortunately, the Senate did not, which is why there are at least 63 House-passed bills in this package, 62 of which were passed on suspension, that have been sitting in the Senate, languishing for up to a year and a half.

If somebody says they don't have time to look at all the stuff that is in here, there have been months that they have been able to look at this stuff as it has been sitting over in the Senate.

Much of it is of parochial significance, which means it solves local challenges.

The very basis of all the bills that are in here is to put people above government. If indeed we are going to have public lands, there should be access to those lands.

That is one of the reasons why, for the first time in years, we have had some sportsmen's activities that are put into this particular bill. So the sportsmen can assume if they are on public land, it is going to be open for recreational hunting and fishing and shooting and all kinds of outdoor recreation, unless it is specifically closed.

And a land manager cannot be arbitrary with that. If they are going to close it, there has to be a public process they go through that mandates consultation with local officials.

It is extremely important that bow hunters get some protection. Even duck hunters get some certainty in here. For the first time, we are going to have special days for duck hunting, for youth and veterans, as well as those who are on Active Duty.

For the first time, there are real reforms of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. When that program was established a half century ago, 60 percent of all the land was supposed to go into the State and local funds.

Those are the programs that your constituents are calling you and saying: These are the good things on why this program should be reauthorized.

But when that cap was taken off, the amount of money going to State and local programs was reduced. In the time of the Obama administration, it was down to 12 percent. Everything else was for land acquisition.

This bill reforms that permanently by saying no less than 40 percent has to go to those State and local funds that your constituents like.

No less than 3 percent has to go to fulfilling facility recreation access. That means that we are, for the first time now, really empowering people and communities, State and local governments, as well as sportsmen.

I have always said that I want to shrink the Federal estate. This bill finally does shrink the Federal estate, in my State as well as nationwide.

We create four new monuments in this bill, but the right way; not expecting the President to make a declaration but, actually, for the Congress to pass a bill, to debate the bill, and then to pass the bill at the same time.

This administration actually did use the Antiquities Act on one of these monuments--nice and cute--but we are going to do it the right way in this particular bill.

We are going to do wilderness the right way. No longer should an agency simply create wilderness by dicta or fiat. Congress will make those decisions of what is wilderness and what is not going to be wilderness.

Let me talk for just a second about wilderness, because it has some controversy in here.

Over half the wilderness that is established in this section of bills is in my home State of Utah, but, as Mr. Curtis will tell you, the county commissioners, the local officials, endorse this action. They are happy with it because they gain access to other areas that can promote recreation and economic development, which they have been trying to get for several decades.

A quarter of this is also in California, in one district. So we create wilderness in the national park, but, at the same time, we are taking wilderness study areas and releasing those at the same time. We are making exchanges so that some of the lands go into trust funds for education purposes, to fund the education of our kids--something that the East doesn't need, but those of us who live in the Federally controlled West, we desperately need to do that.

For the first time we are taking EAJA, and we will actually have some transparency so we will really know what it costs for environmental litigation.

These are all issues we have been talking about for years in the House. These are issues that we repeatedly passed in the House. But, for now, we have a chance of actually making it happen.

Is this bill perfect? No. It is too big to be perfect.

Is the process for creating this perfect? Hell, no. But I am perfectly satisfied and willing to vote for this, because without this there will be no progress. The status quo will be maintained, and that is bad.

Senator Graham used to say: If I am going from Washington back to Houston and I get as far as Memphis, that is not bad. If I end up in Boston, it is bad, but for Memphis, that is not necessarily bad.

We have been complaining for years about elements that are in this package of bills, and now we have a chance to actually be positive, to get to Memphis and beyond, and to actually get something done.

And if someone says: ``It is not good enough; I am holding out for something better,'' we are holding out for something that never has been and never will be.

And it puts to the lie the complaints that we have exaggerated in the past. Congress is finally ready to act.

We should not refuse the solutions that are in front of us right now. This is a step forward, and this, obviously, is better than the alternatives.

I urge adoption of this package of compromise bills that have been worked out in advance, and I appreciate my colleagues on the Democratic side who have worked so hard to try and come up with a package of bills that we can all support.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the dean of the House, someone who has forgotten more about public lands than the rest of us will ever know.

(Mr. YOUNG asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Curtis), my colleague.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), one of the senior members from Kentucky who can talk about how you do a monument the right way.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from

Oregon (Mr. Walden), someone who used to be on our committee but went over to the dark side and is now former chairman somewhere else.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman), one of the hardworking members of our committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), a gentleman who has never been on our committee, but we have appreciated his friendship and helping to move this package.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse). We are sending out our members all over the place. He used to be a member of our committee. He has moved on to lesser roles now.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Gianforte), who worked very hard, especially in December, for the passage of this package.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan), a former member of our committee, but also a leader in the sportsmen's community.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett).

Yes, I have a couple speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I appreciate those who have come down and spoken on this particular bill, especially when you can say the word ``Oglethorpe'' all the time. It is one of the great names in American history.

This is a good piece of legislation that will make some solutions and move this forward. It is not perfect, but it actually solves some problems. Many are parochial, but significant, local concerns.

That is why this package is here. It passed the 63 bills that we have passed in the House but were sitting in the Senate. This has a chance of actually bringing some kind of cloture to all of that.

Mr. Speaker, I urge favorable adoption of this piece of legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam President, once again, I stand here on behalf of our hard-working and patriotic coal miners. We have been here before, and we are going to stay here until we get the job done.

Right now, retired coal miners' healthcare, pensions, and black lung benefits are on the chopping block again, and, once again, there are 1,200 new coal miners and dependents who will lose their healthcare coverage due to coal company bankruptcies. This could happen later this month if the court, as expected, allows Westmoreland to shed their Coal Act liabilities.

This has happened time after time because of the bankruptcy laws--the inadequate bankruptcy laws--to protect the hard-working men and women who do all the work.

At the end of last year, Westmoreland indicated they would provide 8 months of healthcare funding to the UMWA, but there was a condition. It was dependent upon the sale of certain mines for which they have received no qualified bids, according to documents filed in court.

Our broken bankruptcy laws are about to let another coal company shirk their responsibilities and get out of paying for healthcare and pensions the coal miners have earned and deserved. They have worked for this. They have negotiated. They are not asking for a handout. They are asking to get what they paid for, what they negotiated for, and what they didn't take home to their families.

We have to keep our promise that was signed into law in the Krug- Lewis agreement. This goes back to 1946--1946. It is the only one of its kind. The agreement makes sure we protect our patriotic coal miners' healthcare and pensions.

We have the chance today to pass my bill that was cosponsored with my colleagues, the American Miners Act, that will ensure that none of these coal miners or their beneficiaries would lose their healthcare, pensions, or black lung benefits.

The American Miners Act uses the same funding mechanism that the Miners Protection Act did to protect retired miners' healthcare. It is the same funding mechanism Congress has used time and again to protect our miners' hard-earned healthcare after our bankruptcy courts have ripped them away. This is not going to be a drain on the Treasury. It does not cost the taxpayers money. We have pay-fors, and this will be taken care of, as we have taken care of our healthcare benefits.

I am asking you to keep the promise just the way we did when we passed the Miners Protection Act and saved the healthcare for 22,600 miners. We need to finish this job. Save the healthcare of these miners suffering from new bankruptcies, protect the pensions of 87,000 miners nationwide, and do it by passing the American Miners Act, which would also ensure the future of the Black Lung Trust Fund, a lifeline for the growing number of miners with black lung.

I don't know if you all understand the background or if you have heard about what happened, but with the passage of the bills we are working on, it cuts the black lung fund from $1.10 down to 50 cents. You would think that if you were reducing it, we had found a cure, and there is less need for the money to save our coal miners and to heal them. That is contrary to what is happening. If anything, it is exacerbating, and it is growing quicker, faster, and younger people are getting this horrible disease more than ever before.

What we are asking for--my colleagues on both sides of the aisle--is to join us here today to demonstrate our commitment to our promise. That is all it is.

I am asking the President of the United States, President Trump, please join in, Mr. President. I know you know the miners. I know you have spoken eloquently about the miners and your support for the miners. This is one way to truly support the miners, to make sure they get what they worked for and what they have earned--what they worked for and what they have earned. We have it paid for. It does not add one penny to the Nation's debt. Everything is ready to go. Please call Senator McConnell and tell him to put this on the agenda. You put it on the agenda, Mr. President, and you have Senator McConnell put in the amendment--a Senator from Kentucky who has an awful lot of coal miners in his State also. I will assure you we will get it passed, and we will do the job we should have done a long time ago for the people and families who have given everything they have, who have patriotically committed themselves to the energy this country has needed, and who have defended this country every step of the way.

With that, I yield to my friend from Ohio, Senator Brown.

Madam President, I want to mention one more thing and then I will turn it over to my colleague, my friend from West Virginia, Senator Capito.

The reason this is so urgent, our miners' pensions are in dire need. It goes first. They come to insolvency by 2022. What happens is we are one bankruptcy away--one bankruptcy from one coal company--of this thing tumbling down in 2019. When it starts tumbling, then you have the Central States that will come right behind it, the PBGC becomes insolvent, and then we have serious problems. That is why we are

working with urgency for this to be adopted and fixed now.

With that, I want to go ahead and turn it over to my friend and colleague, the Senator from West Virginia, Mrs. Capito.

Madam President, at this time, I would like for the former Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the senior Senator from Virginia to please have the floor.

Madam President, I thank, first of all, the Senator from Virginia for fighting for his coal miners in Southwest Virginia.

They have been out there fighting in Westmoreland, and we have 1,200 miners about ready to lose everything that we had to fight for to gain. They are going to lose their pensions. They are going to lose, also, the healthcare. We have to get them in the bill. We have to get our trust fund on the black lung restored.

I am going to make one more plea to the President. I will do that after my good friend and senior Senator from Pennsylvania speaks about his miners, whom he supports.

Madam President, I will wrap up now, and I want to, first of all, thank the Senator from Pennsylvania and the Senators from West Virginia and Ohio for speaking so eloquently for the people who have worked so hard for our country.

This has been a bipartisan movement. This has been bipartisan. I thank all of my Republican colleagues for supporting the hard-working people they all had in their States. We all benefited from the energy they produced for our great country, to defend ourselves in two wars. We had the greatest economy--the only superpower in the world--because of what they have done every day and the sacrifices they have made for us.

Mr. President, if you are watching, if you get a copy of this tape, I am pleading with you. I am pleading with you, Mr. President, on behalf of 87,000 retirees: Please help us. One phone call from you to Majority Leader McConnell to support and adopt the American Miners Act of 2019, which is S. 27--ask him to take this up immediately. We can put it on the bill that we are about ready to open to keep the government open or he can take immediate action. But, Mr. President, you can make a difference. These are people who supported you, and I know you support them, and this is the way you can show it.

They are only asking for what they worked for. It does not cost the government one penny of debt--not one penny of debt for the taxpayers. We have pay-fors. It has been bipartisan. It came out of the Finance Committee in a bipartisan movement under the leadership of Senator Hatch. I am very grateful for that.

You will see the miners going around; they make an effort every week, faithfully, to come here. There are real faces, real people, real families who are involved and affected by our inaction. We are asking for your help, Mr. President.

I yield the floor, respectfully.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 47) to provide for the management of the natural resources of the United States, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that debate under clause 1(c) of rule XV on a motion to suspend the rules relating to S. 47 be extended to 50 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today on behalf of a significant bipartisan benefit for conservation in the United States.

S. 47, the lands package, is the product of many months of negotiation and many years of committee process.

The bill benefits all Americans.

By protecting ecosystems, preserving our cultural heritage, and connecting the people to their lands, we demonstrate this Congress' commitment to public lands that serve all Americans.

I am particularly proud that this package will permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that supports recreation access and conservation in all 50 States.

LWCF works for the people at no direct cost to the taxpayer. It enhances Americans' enjoyment of public lands across this Nation. It is time to guarantee the future of this very important program.

In addition to LWCF, the package would add over 1 million acres of wilderness, designate new national monuments, and expand three national parks, to name a few of the over 100 provisions.

I am proud to support LWCF; I am proud to support S. 47; and I hope my colleagues will similarly support this bipartisan effort.

I want to offer my sincere thanks to my fellow collaborators on the legislation: Congressman Bishop and Senators Murkowski, Manchin, and Cantwell. Their willingness to work and to compromise was crucial in turning this bill into a reality. I congratulate them on their efforts.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Cunningham), a member of the Committee on Natural Resources.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Neguse), a member of the Committee on Natural Resources.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lowenthal), chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources of the Committee on Natural Resources.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Haaland), chair of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Subcommittee on the Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Dingell), a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

I yield the gentlewoman from Michigan an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), a member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Hill).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Mrs. Trahan).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Schrader).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Schrier).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for her comments.

Mr. Speaker, I wonder if I may inquire if the gentleman from Utah has any additional speakers.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I thank everyone who voiced their support for S. 47.

Before we close and turn to a vote, I again express my thanks to my colleagues who helped bring this bill before us today. It is a major win for conservation across the United States, and I strongly encourage all my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation.

The American people need to know from this Congress that there are opportunities to produce bipartisan wins, whether it is for conservation or public lands or, more importantly, for the people of this country. I think this bill represents that.

I extend my appreciation and my thanks to respective staffs on both sides of the aisle, for their hard work in bringing this together.

As my friend from Utah said at the outset of this conversation today, it is not a perfect bill, but it is an effort on the part of many of us who came to this with disparate views, different opinions, and opposition to some of its content. It was an effort to try to do something that reflected common ground. I think this bill reflects common ground. I think it is a win for all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all my colleagues to vote in support of S. 47, and I yield back the balance of my time.

First of all, Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from West Virginia, Senator Capito, for her comments. I know shortly we are going to hear from the Senator from Pennsylvania. We heard from the Senator from Ohio.

This is sometimes hard for me to say as a former Governor of Virginia to a former Governor of West Virginia, but I want particularly those who are following this issue to know that no one in this body has fought for miners harder, longer, more passionately, more consistently than Joe Manchin.

It was only through his repeated efforts--and this man is like a dog with a bone in his mouth who will not let it go. At times he is stiff in the spine with folks on this side of the aisle when they wanted to say: Well, maybe no. We ought to move to something else. He has come back and back and back again.

So I am honored to stand with him one more time. Let me again say that it is with some challenge that someone from the Commonwealth of Virginia has to say these many nice things about somebody from West Virginia, but the folks in the Gallery ought to know there has been no one who has been a better advocate for miners than the Senator from West Virginia.

I don't think there is a Member of the Senate--I know at least on this side of the aisle--who has not heard at least a half dozen times about the promises Harry Truman made to the miners in 1946 and how it is our obligation to keep that word and to keep that promise.

The Senator from West Virginia has indicated why this is timely. Again, it is because we have the challenges around the pension fund. We have other challenges, but we have a crisis right now.

We talked about Westmoreland--the Westmoreland bankruptcy, 1,200 miners, 500 of those live in Virginia. If we can't get a solution on this deal right now on the American Miners Act, then a lot of those miners and their families are going to go bankrupt because their day of reckoning is already upon us.

I want to echo what the Senator from West Virginia said to urge the majority leader and, for that matter, the minority leader that there is a way--if we do the rational, sensible thing and not shut down the government on Friday, we ought to take advantage of making sure the American Miners Act is part of that provision. I can think of nothing better, as we go into the work period, than to try to give miners some certainty.

Let me just mention one other item that the American Miners Act had, and that is the strengthening of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. This is also an issue that, if we don't get it resolved, the amount of contributions that go into that trust fund will drop in half.

I don't think many folks realize--and I think this is particularly the case in West Virginia and Southwest Virginia--black lung is still a real, enormous medical challenge. As a matter of fact, we have now seen growth in large populations in my State, and I know in West Virginia, as well, of advanced black lung cases called complicated black lung, which has an even more devastating effect.

If this trust fund is cut in half, based upon legislation that took place at the end of calendar year 2018, the ability of the trust fund to meet the needs of these miners and their families, who are still hard hit by a debilitating disease--we are not going to be able to give them, again, the high-quality care they deserve. It is way past time to fix this problem. Let's take that step.

We have one of these large pieces of legislation, hopefully, that the President will not decide to veto, that we will get through. Wouldn't it be--I ask the Senator from West Virginia this

before I cede to the Senator from Pennsylvania, but sometimes, with these giant bills, strange things pop out at the end of the day, and you kind of wonder how they got in. Wouldn't it be great if, on this mini giant bill, one of the things that popped out might be the promised relief for our miners in terms of healthcare and their pensions? This is something I believe, we, as a country, owe to the miners--back, yes, to President Truman's promise in 1946.

I stand with all of my colleagues on this issue. I particularly thank, again, my friend the Senator from West Virginia for his great leadership and his willingness to stand tall time and again. Let's see if we can get it done this time.

With that, Madam President, I yield to the Senator from West Virginia.

Right, all we have to try to do with the trust fund is to get it back to the status quo.

Madam President, I am really pleased to be here to join in the colloquy with my fellow Senators, Mr. Manchin, Senator Brown from Ohio, and Senator Warner from Virginia.

This is important. This is really important. I could say I look around the room, and it is important to us, but it is important even more granularly to some other folks who are right here watching what we are doing.

Many of us have worked together previously in order to save retiree health benefits for 22,000 retired miners in 2017, following the bankruptcies of Patriot, Alpha, and Walter Resources. Today we are back together to advocate for another over 1,000 retirees and beneficiaries whose healthcare is impacted by the Westmoreland Coal bankruptcy, as Senator Manchin described.

It is also critical that we redouble our efforts to find a solution to the 1974 UMWA Pension Fund. If we do nothing--if we do nothing, which I don't believe is an option--this pension fund, which provides 83,000 current beneficiaries with their pensions, will be insolvent by 2022. That is getting close, and insolvency can come even sooner, depending on market conditions.

So combined with the 20,000 people who have a vested right to future benefits, more than 100,000 people are covered by this pension plan. As Senator Manchin said, these are hard-working people who were promised and who, in the course of their working lives, gave up something so they could have a better peace of mind later on. They worked hard day in and day out. They powered our communities and industries and helped our country achieve greatness, even in the toughest times, and they did that with the promise of healthcare and a pension that would allow them to live with dignity in retirement.

We are not talking about lavish pensions. I think this is an important point. The average benefit paid by this fund is $560 per month. These retirees are not getting rich on their pension plans, and they are not taking lavish expenditures, but without this monthly benefit, many of them would be living on the edge of poverty, if they are not already.

One miner from Logan, WV, who worked in the mines for 36 years wrote:

Please keep fighting for our pension. I receive $303.34

monthly. We need this badly to help pay for food, medicine,

and other bills.

Another retired miner from Richwood, WV, who worked in the mines for 17 years, wrote that his monthly check of $192 ``is not a lot of money, but it means a lot,'' and on top of that, he earned it. It helps him make his ends meet.

Another miner from Kistler, WV, who mined for over 35 years, expressed concern that he might not be able to pay his expenses or help his daughter in college without that monthly pension check.

Failing to fix the pension fund would have a terrible impact on communities where many of these miners live. More than 25,000 pension fund beneficiaries live in the State of West Virginia, and they received $200 million in benefits last year. If they didn't spend that money in their community supporting businesses and other jobs in our coalfield communities--if you subtract those funds out of the community, you would have a significant economic blow.

We have a solution that will prevent the insolvency of the pension fund and protect our retired miners, their families, and their communities. We should pass legislation that expands the use of the same transfer of payments used to support retiree healthcare to make the pension fund solvent. I have supported various forms of that kind of legislation over the years, but as we come closer to the time-- 2022--when the pension fund will become insolvent, we must redouble our efforts. That is why I appreciate Senator Manchin's advocacy. I appreciate his sense of urgency, and I share that.

At the same time, our West Virginia representatives, along with representatives from the States--David McKinley, Alex Mooney, and Carol Miller--are leading a bipartisan effort in the House to fix this problem as well.

I will keep fighting alongside all of you and all of them and others I see until we enact a solution that keeps the promise of our hard- working coal miners.

Thank you.

I yield back.