Tina Smith: “On June 10, Senator Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, issued a statement concerning the Coal Act…”

“On June 10, Senator Grassley, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, issued a statement concerning the Coal Act, included in the 1992 Energy bill, and very specifically the intolerable situation regarding reachback and superreachback coal companies. The tax levied on these companies in that act is unfair. It never should have been enacted to begin with. It even applies to companies that are no longer in the coal mining business. The Coal Act created the combined benefit fund, CBF, in an attempt to solve many of the pension problems of retired coal miners. There were never any hearings. There was no serious debate on the Senate floor. The combined benefit fund is approaching insolvency. There are accountants who today would say it is already insolvent. It has been saved from terminable illness only by annual appropriations in recent Appropriations bills. These appropriations do not permanently solve the problem. I, for a number of years, have attempted to pass legislation to solve this issue. It is my hope that the House of Representatives would at last send to the Senate a bill rectifying this problem so we might also enact it and at least put an end to this inequity.”