Washington, DC – On the verge of its expiration date, Congress decided to extend the excise tax on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which funds the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, for one year. This is the second year that a one year extension has been included in the expenditure account.
Legislation to extend the excise tax by ten years instead of tackling a one year extension has eased in Congress. These include House Resolution 3876 and Senate Bill 3172.
Although the extension is only for one year, it is a huge relief to the Black Lung Associations and other advocates who have met with officials and senators and petitioned for an additional one year extension without a ten year extension.
“It’s difficult. Every year we wander to DC for a sequel, and it seems like the trust fund continues to go into debt every year as more companies file for bankruptcy. A ten-year extension would allow us not to any.” Year to worry about it and if it’s going to be included in a tax expansion bill. Every year we go up there and they say something is going to happen, but instead they do nothing as more companies file for bankruptcy and keep the fund in debt, ”said Gary Hairston, president of the National Black Lung Association.
Since 2018, the Black Lung Associations (BLA) and other leaders have been urging Congress to take steps to ensure the trust fund’s long-term solvency. In addition to the tax expansion, the BLA has asked Congress to consider other sources of revenue, such as closing a loophole that allows companies to avoid paying taxes on exported coal. The current excise tax only covers domestic coal sales.
“A consumption tax should be levied on exported coal. This could help miners never have to worry about trust fund resources, ”said Vonda Robinson, vice president of the National Black Lung Association. “Not taxing the exported coal is just robbing the miners of the money they make. The coal is still processed the same way and it doesn’t matter where it goes: it’s still made and processed in the States, and the miners are still exposed to dust and developing black lungs. “
During his campaign, Joe Biden pledged to support miners with black lung disease by increasing coal company payments for the black lung benefit program and improving that system. Thousands of miners and their families rely on the modest living grant and health benefits of the trust fund. Miners with no beneficiaries often receive less than $ 9,000 per year, while miners with three or more dependents receive less than $ 16,500 per year.
Robinson notes, “We have to go to DC for this every year and the men are getting older and sicker.”
The rate of black lung disease has reached a 25-year high in the Appalachian coal-mining states and has reached epidemic proportions in coal communities across the country.
Miners and their widows who can prove they have black lung disease are legally entitled to modest life and medical benefits after a potentially excruciating legal process that sometimes outlasts the miner’s life. The trust fund pays benefits to miners and their surviving dependents in cases where the miner’s employer has gone bankrupt or has not been found responsible.
A wave of bankruptcies in the coal industry put pressure on the trust fund, which was compounded by a 50% cut in excise taxes introduced in late 2018. The tax cut was reversed for a period of one year at the end of 2019.
