Coal country, with its shuttered power plants and mines, helped push Pennsylvania — and the presidency — into Donald Trump’s hands earlier this month.
Mr. Trump’s campaign message to “bring back” jobs to economically depressed regions of the state resonated with those struggling to make ends meet.
While it remains to be seen how the president-elect can revive an ailing coal industry, Mr. Trump does have an immediate opportunity to provide some relief — and an early test to see whether he will uphold commitments to coal miners.
Legislation introduced 17 months ago that would shore up retired coal miners’ union pensions and health care amid a wave of coal company bankruptcies has been stalled by Senate Republicans.
The Miners Protection Act, sponsored by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and co-sponsored by Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey, would redirect excess funds from the federal Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund — a pot of money collected from coal companies to fund mine restoration projects.
The money would prop up United Mine Workers of America pension funds, relied on by more than 89,000 miners nationwide, including 13,000 miners in Pennsylvania. The move would honor a promise by the federal government dating to the Truman administration to guarantee UMWA retirement funds.
The UMWA has said the fund risks insolvency as soon as next year amid widespread layoffs and companies’ attempts to shed pension liabilities in bankruptcy proceedings.
On Tuesday, Mr. Casey sent a letter to Mr. Trump, calling for the president-elect to support the bill. In the letter, joined by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Mr. Casey wrote it was “unconscionable” for Republican leaders to refuse, for more than a year, to bring it up for a vote.
“Action cannot wait, nor does it need to,” Mr. Casey wrote. “The pension fund that our miners, their widows and families rely on for basic necessities, will be at risk of insolvency at the beginning of next year.”
Further, he told Mr. Trump there are two remaining large pieces of legislation to which Republican leaders could attach the miners bill: the 21st Century Cures Act, a health care bill, and a temporary appropriations bill that is expected to pass.
