A dozen U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are backing legislation to shore up a pension plan covering 92,000 retired coal miners that has been depleted during a brutal downturn in the coal industry, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Sens. McConnell (R-Ky.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) introduced a bill yesterday that would transfer excess money from an abandoned mine reclamation fund to a United Mine Workers of America multiemployer pension plan. Without an infusion of public funds, the pension fund is projected to become insolvent by its 2022 plan year. U.S. coal companies that once supported the plan have dropped out over the years as they went bankrupt and sold their assets to new owners. Murray Energy Corp., which filed for bankruptcy last month, is the last major contributor still paying into the pension plan. Now Murray, too, may leave. If the pension plan becomes insolvent, the U.S. government’s pension insurer would be required to step in and cover benefits up to certain caps. The legislation is backed by nine Democratic and three Republican senators. In addition to shoring up the pension plan, it would also give miners whose companies went bankrupt since last year access to medical benefits that Congress established in 2017.
