Bill addresses pensions, health care for miners, retirees

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is co-sponsoring a bill with West Virginia’s two U.S. senators and others aimed at preserving the pensions of about 92,000 retired coal miners and the health-care benefits of another 13,000 working miners.

Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia announced the bill Wednesday.

McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, says in the statement that he raised the issue of protecting miner pensions and health benefits with President Donald Trump this week, and is “committed to continuing to work with him and my colleagues” toward a solution.

The bill would transfer money from the Abandoned Mine Land fund to prevent the insolvency of a 1974 miners’ pension plan, and add coal company bankruptcies from 2018 and 2019 to 2017 health-care legislation.