Bob Wise: “I rise in strong support of this rule and strong support of this bill. I think it is time. It is justice long overdue.…”

“I rise in strong support of this rule and strong support of this bill. I think it is time. It is justice long overdue. It is not complete justice. It will not take care of all the inequities, but it is a start. It is a start, for instance, for those claimants who have been in this process year after year after year, who retire because of pneumoconiosis or black lung, as it is popularly known, and then begin to go through all the administrative hoops and procedural barriers of the black lung programs. It is the case, for instance, of people who have cases pending anywhere from 7 to 10 years. It is the case, for instance, of somebody who knows that they will never receive their benefits. Their one hope is that they will last long enough and so finally there will be victory and their spouse, usually their widow, will receive those benefits. This would, for instance, end the practice of running claimants around to different medical examiners until there is a decision adverse to them. So that it ends the practice of making them go to doctor after doctor after doctor trying to get that decision that will eventually rule against them. It would assume, for instance, that death that would come from pneumoconiosis, if the claimant was receiving benefits or was disabled by pneumoconiosis at the time of death. That makes sense, does it not? Unfortunately, not in the administration of the black lung program.”