Bill Text: WV HR18 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Expressing appreciation to Senator Joe Manchin for leading the effort to secure pensions and healthcare for nearly 100,000 coal miners and their families; and to Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Representative David McKinley for their leadership in passing the 2019 Bipartisan American Miners Act
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-04 - To House Rules [HR18 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2020-HR18-Introduced.html
HOUSE RESOLUTION 18
(By Delegates Caputo, Anderson, Angelucci, Atkinson, Azinger, Barnhart, Barrett, Bartlett, Bates, Boggs, N. Brown, S. Brown, Butler, Byrd, Cadle, Campbell, Canestraro, Capito, Cooper, Criss, Dean, Diserio, Doyle, Estep-Burton, Fleischauer, Fluharty, Graves, Hanna, Hansen, Hanshaw (Mr. Speaker), Hardy, Hartman, Hicks, Higginbotham, Hill, Hornbuckle, Hott, Householder, Howell, D. Jeffries, J. Jeffries, Jennings, D. Kelly, J. Kelly, Lavender-Bowe, Little, Linville, Longstreth, Lovejoy, C. Martin, P. Martin, Maynard, McGeehan, Miley, Miller, Pack, Paynter, Pethtel, Pushkin, Pyles, Queen, Robinson, Rodighiero, Rohrback, Rowan, Rowe, Skaff, Sponaugle, Staggers, Summers, Swartzmiller, Sypolt, C. Thompson, R. Thompson, Tomblin, Toney, Walker, Westfall, Williams, Worrell, and Zukoff)
[Introduced March 4, 2020]
Expressing the appreciation of the House of Delegates to Senator Joe Manchin for leading the effort to secure pensions and healthcare for nearly 100,000 coal miners and their families; and extending that appreciation to Senator Shelley Moore Capito and Representative David McKinley for their leadership in passing the 2019 Bipartisan American Miners Act.
Whereas, Senator Joe Manchin has made these pensions and benefits a priority for the past five years, introducing the original Miners Protection Act on July 7, 2015; and
Whereas, Representative Alex Mooney and Representative Carol Miller have also supported this cause; and
Whereas, Coal miners from all across West Virginia and other coal mining states lobbied Congress, asking our government to keep their promise of “cradle to grave” benefits to coal miners; and
Whereas, The Bipartisan American Miners Act keeps the promise that the United States’ government made to our miners and their families back in 1946; and
Whereas, 25,000 West Virginian retired coal miners and their families were saved from losing their pensions and health care benefits with this bill’s passage; and
Whereas, Current bankruptcy laws allow pension plans to be treated as unsecured creditors, meaning our coal miners’ benefits are at the back of the line to be paid out in terms of debt when West Virginia mines are forced to close; and
Whereas, Chronic underfunding, lax government oversight, and serial bankruptcies have left pension funds in critical condition, despite the fact that coal miners have spent their working years contributing to those pension funds in anticipation they’ll have access to those funds when they retire; and
Whereas, The House of Delegates stands firmly being our coal miners, whose hard and dangerous work has kept the lights on for millions of United States’ citizens over the past century; therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Delegates:
That the House of Delegates hereby expresses its appreciation to the entire Federal Delegation for their votes to protect the hardworking coal miners of West Virginia and their families; and, be it,
Further Resolved, That the Clerk of the House forward a copy of this resolution to Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Representative David McKinley, Representative Alex Mooney, and Representative Carol Miller.
