National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am proud to stand here with my colleagues and friends--Senator Manchin from West Virginia, Senator Casey from Pennsylvania, Senator Brown from Ohio, and, shortly after me, Senator Wyden from Oregon--to echo what has already been said.

Senator Brown said it best. He wears that canary pin. If we don't act now, if we don't hear that call and respond to it, then the basic promise and premise that so much of our country is founded on will really be crushed.

I join my colleagues in standing up and urging the Senate to pass the Miners Protection Act. We have mines--just as in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia--in southwest Virginia. Quite honestly, I think, as do my colleagues, that no one fully understands what it is like to mine coal until you have been underground, until you see the enormous challenges and conditions that men and women--mostly men--worked under for decades to power our Nation.

Senator Manchin often recites the history of this proud industry. But that industry has gone through dramatic changes. Some of those changes are due to activities of certain companies that may or may not have been responsible. Some of these changes are because of a desire of many of us, frankly, on this side of the aisle, to make sure that we find cleaner ways to use energy. In a way, that is good. But it has meant that many of these coal companies and many of these operators that continue to mine what powered America are under enormous fiscal stress. The result is not enough miners, coal companies that went bankrupt, and, unfortunately, the pension funds that would protect these miners are now in jeopardy.

So now, through no fault of their own, these workers who have sacrificed their bodies, their health, and their livelihoods--when it comes to the U.S. Government to uphold our end of the deal to make sure that these workers or, more specifically, as my colleagues have pointed out, more often it is their widows, as so many of these miners have passed on due to things like black lung disease--are going to get the health care and pensions that were promised and whether we are going to be able to honor that commitment.

The UMWA 1974 Pension Fund affects about 100,000 miners and close to 10,000 in the Commonwealth of Virginia. They are looking to us and whether we are going to honor our commitment.

As Senator Brown mentioned, I met a number of these miners, who are direct beneficiaries, when we had our most recent hearing. Many of these miners I had worked with and supported when I was Governor of Virginia, and I saw the challenges their communities had gone through. If we don't do our job, these communities that have been hard hit all throughout Appalachia--if these widows don't get the health care and their pensions, communities that have already been devastated will be further devastated. If we allow this pension fund to go bankrupt and go insolvent, it will put additional strains on the PBGC, which is already under enormous strain.

The truth is, as Senator Manchin has pointed out, there is a solution, and there is funding available for this miner pension act. It is critically important that we act. It is critically important, morally and economically. I would ask any of my colleagues to speak to any of these widows and explain why we wouldn't keep our end of the bargain when, come the end of this year, if we don't act, these health care benefits will disappear. I hope we will act on this bipartisan legislation. The Senator from Ohio has indicated it would pass this body overwhelmingly.

I appreciate all of my colleagues' work. I see and turn the floor over to the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He doesn't have a lot of coal in Oregon, but he understands that, when a commitment is made--particularly a commitment that was initially made by the President of the United States, President Truman, back in 1946-- those commitments need to be honored. I look forward to continuing to work with his leadership to get this legislation out of the Finance Committee, get it to the floor of the Senate, get it passed, and make sure these miners' and their widows' health care pensions are honored.

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