Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, first of all, let me echo everything that Senator Casey and Senator Brown have said. But the reason we are here, beyond the justness of our cause, is the fact that the Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Manchin, has been absolutely relentless. He has not let this issue die. For 18 months, he has gone through every hoop that has been put in front of him. It is getting through. The fact is, Senator Manchin today reintroduced the Miners Protection Act. In 1 day--in 1 day--he picked up 49 cosponsors of this legislation.

We are going to have a vote later tonight. Let me be clear. I am going to join in that protest. But as somebody who has one heck of a lot of Federal employees, we are not going to shut down the government on this issue. We should not even be thinking about choices where we have to trade off Federal workers and miners. That is not what we are sent here to do. But we are going to make sure that this fight does not end tonight. The 49 who signed up today will be in the 50s and in the 60s when we come back.

Let me just close. I know we have other colleagues, and others have commented. I went through these talking points at other times, but you have to hear the voices of people who are being affected. I got a letter recently from Sharon. Sharon is from a coal miner's family in Dickenson County, not too far from West Virginia and Kentucky.

Sharon wrote:

My father is a retired coal miner. For many years he worked at Clinchfield Coal Company's Moss #2 mine. He gave them his time, sweat, hard work, and even his health. In return, he expected nothing more than a paycheck and a little pension, and health care when he retired. He was promised that. He deserves that.

She went on to talk about the fact that her dad grew up in the Depression:

He grew up in a time when you took care of your things--and he believed that you paid for what you got. He's paid dearly for his pension and his health care. Please don't let that get taken from him.

He's also a man who takes care of his money.

She said he was always tight with his money:

He planned for years for his retirement. He saved and budgeted so that he would have enough with his pension to be able to support himself through the rest of his years and not be a burden on anyone.

Sharon, her coal miner family, and countless thousands of other Americans are waiting for us to honor our commitments. We are taking a step forward tonight. But echoing what other Senators have said before, this issue will not go away until these miners get their justice.

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