Status of black-lung fund raises concern

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — President Donald Trump’s administration and coal industry allies are insisting that a federal black-lung trust fund will continue to pay benefits to sick miners despite a cut in funding.

But the expected shortfalls will be covered by taxpayers instead of coal companies, adding more debt to the already struggling fund. And at least one Republican congressman from the coal fields has added his voice to the chorus of miners and advocates worried that the fund’s promise to sick workers and their families ultimately might not be kept.

Longtime U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky’s Appalachian region, said a government report shows the trust fund “is on an unsustainable path, potentially putting the benefits on which many families in my region rely in jeopardy.”

The cut potentially means hundreds of millions in savings for coal companies, though Trump’s Labor Department acknowledges that the trust fund’s purpose was for the industry to pay for the health of workers who got sick mining coal.

In January, the tax rate coal companies pay to support the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund was cut in half, leaving sick miners and their advocates fearing future benefit cuts from a fund that is already about some $4 billion in debt.

The Labor Department said in a statement Wednesday that it is obligated to continue paying benefits to sick miners, so a shortfall would be covered by borrowing from taxpayers.