Support RECLAIM and Black Lung Bills

Take Action: Support RECLAIM and Black Lung Bills

There are only a few weeks left before Congress adjourns for the year, and that means only a few weeks left to get desperately needed proposals passed to help our communities. We at Black Warrior Riverkeeper support the following action alert by our friends at Appalachian Voices.

Rates of black lung disease have hit a 25-year high in Appalachian coal mining states. Unless Congress takes action before the end of 2018, major financial problems face the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which provides black lung benefits to coal miners and their surviving dependents in cases where the miners’ employer has gone bankrupt.

At the same time, the RECLAIM Act (HR 1731) has stalled in Congress despite broad bipartisan support. This bill commits $1 billion to projects that clean up abandoned coal mines and waters polluted by them, and would lay a foundation for future economic development and diversification in communities hit hardest by the coal industry’s downturn.

TAKE ACTION:

Call your members of Congress and tell them to take immediate action in the proposed tax extender package to protect coal communities with these two important investments. Contact the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your member’s office. Find your rep here.

Sign the petition urging Congress to take action to ensure coal companies pay their fair share to provide benefits to miners with black lung: BlackLungKills.org.

Thank you for taking action on this issue. Moving forward, Black Warrior Riverkeeper will send action alerts through our Action Network group rather than this email list. Please sign up for this group if you want to receive our online opportunities to take action: actionnetwork.org/forms/signup-form-for-black-warrior-riverkeeper-action-alerts.