LWVUS joins call to restore Black Lung Disability Trust Fund

LWVUS joined other organizations urging committee members to support the restoration of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund (BLDTF) which provides health insurance and a living stipend to thousands of coal miners and their families. 

The Honorable Robert C. Scott

Chairman, House Education & Labor Committee

Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Patty Murray

Chair, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions

Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Richard Neal

Chairman, House Ways & Means Committee

Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Ron Wyden

Chairman, Senate Finance Committee

Washington, DC 20510

January 13, 2022

Dear Chairpersons Scott, Neal, Murray, and Wyden:

On December 31st, 2021, the single source of revenue for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund (BLDTF) was cut by more than half. Thousands of coal miners and their families rely on the BLDTF to pay their benefits - health insurance and a small living stipend. The living stipend for a miner is less than $700 a month, but the health insurance can make all the difference for the survival of families dealing with this awful disease. The stipend, though small, is often one of the primary sources of income for widows and family members left behind when miners succumb to the disease.

The only source of revenue for the BLDTF is a small excise tax on domestically sold coal. If the tax is cut or goes away, taxpayers end up picking up the bill, the Trust Fund goes further into debt, and the benefits that miners have earned are put under a cloud of uncertainty. That’s why the Black Lung Association has been fighting for a long-term extension of the excise tax. Legislation introduced by Representative Scott and Senators Manchin, Warner, Casey, Kaine, and Brown would extend the excise tax at its historic rate for ten years, but this legislation needs your support to pass. For the past two years, the historic excise tax rate ($1.10 per ton for underground coal and $0.55 for surface-mined coal) has been maintained by one-year extender bills, but our mining families need to know this program will be funded for the long term.

Last year, your Committees worked diligently to include a four-year extension of the excise tax in the Build Back Better Act (BBBA) alongside other impactful policies for miners including incentives for manufacturers to locate and create jobs within coal communities, and policies to ensure that workers have the right to form a union. However, without a 2021 tax extender bill or the passage of BBBA, the tax rate was cut by more than half at the end of 2021, putting the BLDTF further into debt and putting miners’ benefits at risk. Based on 2021 revenue collection, we can estimate that the fund is losing, on average, approximately $2.8 million each week that the tax rate is not extended. That amounts to new tax benefits for coal companies and new expenses that fall on taxpayers.

Given the urgency to restore the excise tax to its prior rate and the uncertainty concerning the passage of the BBBA, as leaders of your committees, the Black Lung Association members, the United Mine Workers of America and 67 supporting organizations signed on below urge you to act expediently in 2022 to support and pass the Black Lung Benefits Disability Trust Fund Act of 2021 (S. 2810). Miners and families impacted by black lung need the stability of a longer term extension of the excise tax so they can address other urgent issues - including a study on the adequacy of the benefits, the need for workplace protections to prevent the disease, and legislation that addresses the BLDTF’s solvency crisis over the long-term.

Sincerely,

See All Signatories in Attached Letter