National Coal Council Reestablishment Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGARVEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. This is my first time to publicly congratulate him on the House floor on assuming the chairmanship of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

What I can tell you about Mr. Guthrie, having known him for a long time, is he has always acted and led with civility, kindness, and respect, going all the way back to the time in the State Senate in Kentucky.

I have never served a day of my life in the majority. It might go without saying I was sort of hoping that Mr. Pallone would be the chairman this year. But if the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee can't sit on this side of the House, I am certainly glad it is a gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill not just because it is a waste of our time. It is also a wasted opportunity to, for once, do something for coal miners instead of coal companies.

As Ranking Member Pallone said, the President has already reestablished the National Coal Council. It is a waste of our time to focus on something that already exists just days before the government runs out of funding and mere weeks before people receive notice of their health insurance premiums going up by thousands of dollars next year, unless the House Republicans extend healthcare tax credits for working families.

Most importantly, it is a wasted opportunity to spend 1 hour of precious floor time in service of Republicans' obsession with removing coal from the ground while doing nothing for the men and women who work the mines.

The House has not spent 1 minute debating an increase in black lung benefits. Current levels are totally inadequate to cover the cost of living for miners with black lung or their survivors after their death.

The House has not spent 1 minute on improving the long-term solvency of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund.

The House has not spent 1 minute on the Trump administration's efforts to delay the life- and limb-saving proximity and silica dust rules. These are delays which the United Mine Workers of America president has called ``a death sentence for more miners.''

The House has not spent 1 single minute on stopping Trump's cuts to the Coal Workers' Health Surveillance Program, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's black lung research programs, or black lung screenings. These are cuts that are taking place at a moment when this disease is killing coal miners at the highest rates this century.

The Republicans have made clear that they are for coal, but I am for the men and women who mine the coal: the coal miners. We must do better for them.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote.

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