Political Quotes

“I rise today to express the urgent need to take up and pass a piece of legislation which has great meaning for me and my fellow West Virginians and which is important to our Nation's coal-mining community, and that is the Miners Protection Act. Seventy years ago, in 1946, President Harry Truman secured an agreement committing the Federal Government to protect lifetime health and pension benefits for our Nation's miners. These men and women earned this care through their tireless and often very dangerous work to produce the coal that has powered our Nation and spurred economic growth for years. Over the course of seven decades, Congress has kept their promise. In 1992, a bipartisan effort in Congress led by my predecessor, Senator Rockefeller, resulted in the passage of the Coal Act to address the health care needs of orphaned coal miners. Those are miners whose companies are no longer in existence. In 2006, I voted for legislation that built upon the Coal Act and continued the bipartisan congressional tradition, fulfilling our promise to coal miners and their families and retirees and protecting their promised health care benefits. In 2012, the bankruptcy of Patriot Coal placed the health care of more than 12,000 retirees and dependents at risk. A temporary solution, which has been going on for a couple of years, has preserved health care for these individuals, but that short-term solution is nearing an end.…”