Arlen Specter: “The Coal Act of 1992 mandated coal operators to fulfill their promise to provide their employees and families with…”

“The Coal Act of 1992 mandated coal operators to fulfill their promise to provide their employees and families with health benefits, and those obligations could not be modified. As an original cosponsor of this legislation, along with the Senators from West Virginia, Senator Rockefeller, and Senator Byrd, I am very closely aware of the effect on 14,000 retired coal miners and their dependents in Pennsylvania. Nationally, this act affects over 60,000 individuals, including every State except for Hawaii. These health benefits form a central underpinning for the medical care structure of the coalfield community. It is a tough job being a coal miner. I have, in the course of my representation of the coal miners, gone 30-stories-deep underground, ridden in a cable car, crunched over like a corkscrew to avoid being hit by the ceiling as the cars moved in on the long wall to perform the mining operation. The issue came forcefully home to me when I visited several hundred of the coal miners in Washington County, PA, more than a decade ago along with Richard Trumka, distinguished Pennsylvanian who had been president of the United Mine Workers and is now secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.”