Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague from Virginia, Senator Casey, Senator Brown, and Senator Manchin. They have been relentless in putting this issue of justice for the miners in front of the Finance Committee. Week after week, month after month, they have been saying: When is this going to get done? When is the Congress--particularly the Senate-- going to step up and meet the needs that these workers richly deserve to have addressed? We have had this documented again and again. I heard Senator Casey talk about it--how difficult this work is. We have had that put in front of the Senate Finance Committee. Yet there has been no action. Senator Warner is right--my home State of Oregon does not mine coal. We do have a lot of communities with economies that over the years have been driven by natural resources. They have been up and down the boom- and-bust roller coaster. A lot of those communities are experiencing the very same kind of economic pain you see in the mining towns Senator Casey and our colleagues represent. You don't turn your backs on workers and retirees in these struggling communities, these struggling mining towns, just because the times are tough. These workers have earned their pensions. They have earned their health care benefits. But the fact is, if Congress does not act soon, all of this could be taken away. There is a broader crisis in multi-employer pensions that I have talked about on the floor and in the Finance Committee.…”