Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Coalfield Accountability and Retired Employee Act of 2010, CARE Act. Senator Goodwin joins me in introducing this important legislation. It is the first bill we have worked together on, and I look forward to many more as partners in the Senate fighting for West Virginians. The CARE Act protects the pensions for over 100,000 mineworkers. It takes excess funds from the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program and transfers that money to the United Mine Workers of America, UMWA, pension plan. These are AML funds that go unused and are not needed, according to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the UMWA. So what our legislation does is put that money to good use, and protects the pensions of our hardworking mineworkers. Congress needs to act because the UMWA pension fund is on the road to insolvency. It has been hit by the perfect storm--the recent financial crisis, the small number of active mineworkers who provide the funding base for the pension plan, and the large number of ``orphans'' who receive their pensions under the plan. These ``orphans'' are retired mineworkers for whom a company no longer makes contributions to the pension fund, typically because the company is out of business. So Congress and the Federal Government have to act in order to make sure that the pensions of our mineworkers are protected.…”