Casey calls proposal “betrayal’ of miners
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Wednesday blasted a Republican-backed proposal supposedly helping coal miners as a “betrayal” of miners and their families that ignores a pension crisis and does little to guarantee health care benefits.
“This so-called ‘fix’ designed in secret by Congressional Republican leadership is nothing more than a profound betrayal of coal miners and their families in Pennsylvania and across the nation,” Casey, D-Pa., said in a statement.
Casey said a continuing resolution to fund the federal government would not protect retired miners’ pensions and only extends health care benefits, set to expire at the end of the month, for another four months.
“Recipients would be notified almost simultaneously that they are both eligible for benefits and that their benefits will terminate,” Casey said.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., did not respond to an email asking about his stance on the proposal contained in a continuing resolution meant to keep the federal government funded.
In September during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, Toomey voted for the bipartisan Miners Protection Act, which would have permanently addressed the crisis.
On Monday, Casey and other Democratic senators from coal states said they would block any “fast tracked” legislation in the Senate until the miners’ predicament was resolved.
Then on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of coal-producing Kentucky, said that he made clear to House Speaker Paul Ryan that the healthcare issue would be addressed in the continuing resolution, but the future of the pension plan was left dangling.
Once the continuing resolution’s language was revealed, Casey said Ryan and McConnell “have refused to work in good faith to schedule a vote” on the Miners Protection Act. Casey said the continuing resolution provisions are “a shameful slap in the face to men and women who have given so much for our nation.”
About 16,300 are in danger of losing their health-care benefits without congressional action and 120,000 pensioners could have their pensions affected if the United Mine Workers of America 1974 pension plan becomes insolvent.