Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. President, in just a few hours, funding for the Federal Government will run out. It is going to run out in just a few hours. It looks like we are going to blow through that deadline right here in the Senate. POLITICO, one of the local newspapers, had an article this morning, and this is what the headline said. They ran an article with this headline: ``Democrats push government toward shutdown.'' Let me repeat that: ``Democrats push government toward shutdown.'' The article says that Democrats are pushing the government to the brink of a shutdown. They are doing it with ``coal country Senate Democrats leading a strategy to oppose a GOP spending bill if their demands are not met for a longer extension of expiring health care benefits for coal miners.''

We are talking about a continuing resolution that passed the House with overwhelming numbers, and it has bipartisan support. The vote was 326 to 96--Republicans and Democrats joining together in the House to keep the government open--but not the Senate Democrats. I have been on this floor time and again with Democrats talking about shutting down the government, and they say that it is the Republicans.

The headline today says: ``Democrats push government toward shutdown.'' Now, the continuing resolution that is being asked to be voted upon actually includes money to help these miners well into the new year-- through April--and we are going to be looking at everything in the legislation again when it expires in April. So there is no rush to settle this issue today.

But here we are in the Senate, with Democrats preparing to shut down the Government of the United States.
Our goal should not be to bail out a union health plan--and it is a fund that does have problems. The solution actually ought to be to let coal miners mine coal again. Let them go back to what they know how to do--mine coal. That way they can take care of themselves and take care of their own.

I want to be really clear on this point. The only reason we are in the position we are in today is because the Obama administration and Democrats in Washington have been waging a war on coal for the past 8 years. That is the reason we are in the position we are in today. In 2008, when Barack Obama was running for President, he promised that this was what he was going to do. He said it. He said that under his policies, ``if somebody wants to build a coal-fired powerplant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them.''

The President was very clear. So the Democrats should not be surprised with what we see happening today.
Once he got into office, he did everything he could to keep that promise and bankrupt as many coal companies as possible. That is actually what happened. His administration has pushed out one unnecessary regulation after another on coal producers, on powerplants, and on customers.

The Environmental Protection Agency wrote new regulations on powerplant emissions where the emissions go from one State over to another. The Agency put out extremely stringent rules on emissions from any new powerplants that were built in this country. Then they wrote tough rules on the powerplants that were already in existence--rules, not new laws but rules.

The Obama administration hasn't just tried to bankrupt anyone who used coal, but they have been doing all they can to make sure the coal never gets out of the ground. The Bureau of Land Management imposed a moratorium on new mining leases on Federal land. In the Rocky Mountain West, that is a significant amount of the land, and, in many States, it is over half of the land.

The Obama administration has been doing all they can to make sure that American coal can't be used not just here in America but can't be used anywhere in the world. The Department of the Interior wrote a new rule on coal valuation to discourage coal exports.

Now, the Army Corps of Engineers has even delayed or denied permits for new coal export terminals so we could ship a product that is produced in the United States to people who want to buy our product overseas. So Americans can't sell the product that we have--that coal-- overseas.

The Obama administration even worked to get the World Bank--the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund--to stop financing new coal- fired powerplants in developing nations, even though for them, it is the least expensive cost for electricity, for energy, for the people there who don't have energy and desperately need it. It has been one roadblock after another for the last 8 years. Layer after layer of redtape, strangling the coal industry and coal miners--the people who go to work every day.

Now, someone wants to say the issue is bailing out one union health plan and pension fund. The Democrats have waged an all-out comprehensive war on coal. That is why we are in this situation. During the Presidential campaign, President Obama has said to Americans: Please elect Hillary Clinton. Vote for her to protect the Obama legacy. Well, candidate Hillary Clinton during the election, during the campaign, said that she would put a lot of coal miners out of business. So as to the actual people who work, she wants to put them all out of business.

It has been a war on multiple fronts and a Presidential election all designed in many ways to keep Americans from using coal, from exporting coal, and even from mining coal. The administration has blocked coal production. They have made it more expensive. Then they have tried to use the smaller market for coal--since you can't mine it, you can't sell it, and you can't export it; so there is a smaller market for coal--as an excuse to impose even more burdens.

The people who are hurt by these policies are hard-working Americans who just want to go to work, make a living, and support their family. That is what the coal miners have been up against by the Obama administration in the last 8 years. So any attempt by Democrats to blame someone else is just a distraction.

They want to hide the simple fact that it is their intentional and intensive campaign against coal that has led us to where we are today--on the brink of a government shutdown tonight. Health and pension funds can pay benefits for retired workers as long as the mines are actually working and they can mine coal and sell coal and make money. If the money coming in goes down, then the money they need to pay out is not there. That is why we have this problem.

Companies can't meet their obligations, and it is the Democrat's policies that have caused it. So if the Democrats want to help retired miners, they should let the other miners get back to work. That is the way to help the retired miners, let the other miners get back to work. Well, that is not what they have done. The Obama administration has done all they can to destroy the market for coal, to force mines to cut production and to put miners out of work.

Now, I understand there are people in the home States of these Senators who are very worried, and they have a right to be worried, but let's just be honest about the real reason these people are hurting: Miners are struggling because President Obama has been standing on their necks for a straight period of 8 years. When Democrats focus on things like health benefits for retirees, they are missing the point entirely, and they are just trying to dodge the responsibility--the responsibility for their own disastrous policies.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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