Coal workers diagnosed with black lung could lose federal assistance due to 'Congressional inaction'

March 20--The estimated 25,000 retired coal miners battling health issues associated with the job are facing depleted benefits should the Trump administration opt against maintaining an excise tax that finances the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

Established by congress in 1978, the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund "provides monthly payments and medical treatment benefits to coal miners totally disabled from pneumoconiosis arising from their employment in or around the nation's coal mines," according to the United States Department of Labor. Monthly payments are also available to "surviving dependents."

But a sharp tax cut on coal that supplies the trust fund was slashed on Jan. 1 amid the government shutdown over Trump's border wall -- and it was never restored. The cut could save the industry millions, but at the expense of retired workers struggling with black lung.

RuralOrganizing.org, an organization dedicated to rebuilding "a rural America that is empowered," has started a petition urging Congress to extend the fund. By Wednesday afternoon the petition boasted nearly 11,500 signatures.

"Coal miners across Appalachia are literally fighting for their lives and we're doing everything we can to help build public support for their cause. Rates of black lung, an incurable disease caused by long-term exposure to coal dust, have been on the rise in Appalachia in recent years," it reads.

"In the 1970s, a tax on mining was put in place to pay for the people who have been impacted by black lung. But because of Congressional inaction, the tax on coal productions that pays medical and other costs for black lung victims and their dependents have been slashed."

Pneumoconiosis, widely referred to as "black lung," is a condition caused only by inhaling coal dust, with symptoms including coughing inflammation, and development of scar tissue in the lungs -- which can result in a difficulty breathing and hypoxia.

The condition becomes increasingly taxing on the victim's internal organs, particularly the heart and brain. Eventually the ill miner is left with so little lung capacity, they are unable to breathe at all.

John Robinson, a former coal miner from Coeburn, Va., said bills for his black lung treatment can be as high as $4,000 a month. He fears the worst now that the federal trust fund he relies on to help him cover the cost is being drained of money.

"Coal miners sort of been put on the backburner, thrown to the side," Robinson said. "They just ain't being done right."

President Trump has long been a vocal supporter of "beautiful clean coal" and promised to save the industry during the 2016 presidential campaign. Over the summer, he praised miners as "great people. Brave People" during a rally in West Virginia.

"I don't know how the hell you do that," the President added. "You guys have a lot of courage."

But Trump made no mention of restoring the 2018 tax rate in his proposed budget, which does suggest cuts to Medicare, education and payments to veterans in addition to a request for a barrier along the southern border. The White House in a statement on Tuesday said that "President Trump and this administration have always supported the mining industry by prioritizing deregulation and less Washington interference."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch MConnell told a reporter from Ohio Valley Resource back in the fall that the tax rate would be "taken care of before we get into an expiration situation." But McConnell's spokesperson, Robert Steuer in an email this week wrote that "benefits provided through the Black Lung Disability Fund continue to be provided at regular levels" and that McConnell "continues to prioritize maintaining and protecting benefits."

McConnell is from Kentucky, which is the third state in the nation in coal production.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and other coal-state Democratic lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would shore up the fund by restoring the larger tax for 10 years.

"I'm urging my colleagues to support my bill, the American Coal Miners Act, that will ensure that none of our coal miners or their beneficiaries would lose their healthcare, pension or black lung benefits," he said last month. "It's time to finish the job and keep the promise to our miners."

Should the act fail to pass, support for sick coal workers will almost definitely come up short.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in July reported that as many as one in five miners in central Appalachia suffer from black lung, marking the highest rate in 25 years. The condition also affects one in ten miners nationwide, an increase of 3% since 2012.

With News Wire Services

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