21st Century Cures Bill

Floor Speech

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Mr. BROWN. Madam President, it strikes me as pretty unbelievable that we are in the process of voting--debating a continuing resolution, and yet nobody has read it and nobody understands what is in it. We hear news reports, but nobody who I know here--at least on our side--has been in the negotiations even though we have a Democratic President and the Senate is 45, 46 percent Democrats, even though more people voted for Democratic Senators than Republican Senators in this election and most of the last several elections. Even with all that, that shouldn't matter, but Senator McConnell and the Republican leadership are asking us to vote on something this complicated with this many add-on amendments that we have not even read yet. What kind of way to run the Senate is that? We do know, though, from the reports I can get, what they have told us is that Majority Leader McConnell's response to the mine workers has been pretty pathetic.

Today I met with Senator Hatch in his office. Today I met with Senator Wyden in his office. One of the things we did in the Finance Committee on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, joined by my Republican colleague from Ohio, Senator Portman, and other coal State Democrats and Republicans--Senator Capito, Senator Manchin, Senator Warner, Senator Kaine, Senator Casey, Senator Toomey--all of us in this committee supported a bipartisan fix for mine worker pensions and health care. Yet the continuing resolution at best--at best, we understand; again, we haven't read it yet because they won't show it to us yet even though they want us to vote on it--at best, it has some 4 months of health care and nothing for pensions.
This is not a taxpayer bailout; this is moving money--unused money-- from the abandoned mine fund in to fund the pensions and health care for mine workers and mine worker widows. Keep in mind--I know the

Presiding Officer doesn't represent coal States. She may not know a lot of miners, as I and some of my colleagues do, but she knows about mining. Understand, there are more miner widows than there are likely to be insurance salesmen widows or realtor widowers or whatever. Mine- working is a dangerous job. Mine workers too often get injured and killed on the job. Their lives are shortened from injury. Their lives are shortened from illnesses, black lung and other illnesses. So mine workers who marry at 20 or 25 are likely--their spouses are likely to outlive them by a number of years. That is the other reason we should do this.
The third reason we should do this is that almost 70 years ago, President Truman made a commitment that we have lived up to until now.

The reason we aren't living up to it now is because the majority leader of the Senate said no. I don't know exactly why he said no. I know he is not a big fan of the United Mine Workers union. I support the United Mine Workers union. I care about unions. I know unions helped create the middle class in this country. But that is not the point. My caring about this is--there are 12,000 mine workers in my part of the country, more than 1,000 in Ohio, for which this will be a very, very bad Christmas because they have already gotten notice, as Senator Manchin said, that their health care is going to be cut off. If we do a 4-month fix, then they will get another notice in January that their health care is going to get cut off. How do you treat people that way? I mean, we dress well. We are all well paid. We have good health care. We have good pensions. We are telling these mine workers: Yeah, you may have earned this under the old rules, but, sorry, we can't take care of you.
My friends over there could bail out the banks--that is OK--and then banker compensation keeps going up and up, but they can't take care of mine workers with a relatively small pension and health care. They can't take care of them.

We passed a bipartisan mine worker pension and health care bill. We passed it out of committee. We did it the way Senator McConnell, the majority leader, wanted us to. We went through the process. Now he is not willing to honor that. It is pretty outrageous. At the same time, they are doing something special in this bill for Wyoming. Nothing against Wyoming. I like Senator Enzi. I like Senator Barrasso. I want to help them help their State. But this is a part of the country. It is Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia. These are States that have thousands of mine workers, and this Senate is betraying them. If my colleagues think we should go home for Christmas starting next week without doing this, that is morally reprehensible.

Senator Manchin and I were talking today and Senator Casey and Senator Kaine and Senator Warren and I were talking today about how we are willing to stay until Christmas, we are willing to stay until December 25--literally, to Christmas--to get this done because it is morally reprehensible and it is outrageous that we would leave here without taking care of these mine workers.

I know some of them. I know Norm Skinner. I know Dave Dilley. I have known Babe Erdos for 35 years. These are people who worked very hard in the mines under dangerous conditions. They are the reason we are able to have so much manufacturing in Ohio. The coal they mine helps to produce the electricity that makes our standard of living so much higher than it would be without it.

I spoke at the rally. Thousands of mine workers were here late this summer--I think in July. I am not sure what month it was; maybe in September they were here. It was a very hot day. I remember the president of the International Mine Workers, Cecil Roberts, asked the question: How many of you are veterans? A huge number of people waved their hands. They were all standing at this rally. How many of you had fathers or mothers who were veterans? It seemed as if it was the whole crowd. These are people who served their country, they make our communities work, and we are going to betray them, we are going to forget them because one Senator, who happens to be the majority leader, for whatever reason doesn't like the United Mine Workers. That is fundamentally what it is. I don't ever want to embarrass anybody, I don't want to call people out, but there are 12,000 mine workers who are going to have a bad Christmas. Their lives will be shortened if we don't take care of them. The stress they are under--they have already gotten one notification. If we do this for another 4 months, they will get another notification in January saying: Sorry, I know we gave you health care again for a while, but we are cutting it off again because Congress can't get its act together.

The President wants to do this. Even the House of Representatives wants to do it--the House of Representatives that took out of a bill this week ``Buy American'' provisions for steel and aluminum. That is a whole other issue; I don't understand why they would do that. The fact is, the House did it, the President wants to do it, and a strong majority of the Finance Committee wants to do it. If we brought this to a vote on the Senate floor, there is no question it would pass. It doesn't cost the taxpayer money. It is not a bailout. It is honoring a pledge that Harry Truman made, that we made in the 1950s and 1960s and 1970s and 1980s and 1990s and 2000, and all of a sudden we are not honoring that pledge. It is outrageous. We can fix this. We know how the Senate should do it.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Manchin for driving this issue. It was done better with him than without him. I thank him for making a world of difference and Senator Casey for his impassioned pleas and reading the letters from mine workers, retired mine workers, widows, retired mine workers in Western Pennsylvania and all over West Virginia and Southeast Ohio. We are all getting letters in our offices that are heartfelt and just make me wonder, why aren't we doing something?

I want to share a letter from a lady in Gallipolis, OH, a village. I was just there in the community of Rio Grande earlier this week. She wrote a letter to Mitch McConnell, who is, frankly, the single person standing in the way of doing this.

Dear Leader Mitch McConnell:

Just to inform you as a member of UMWA that it is vitally important that we keep our insurance.
My Husband (Larry) worked 35 years as a miner. He has had bypass surgery this last Aug 8, 2016, also has black lung-- COPD--chronic idiopathic gout, acute bron- chitis . . .

And other things.

I have history of cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. . . . We need members of all Congress to consider all that the Coal Miners has contribution to the welfare of this country. Now we ask that they remember commitments made to the Coal Miners. Please keep that promise made to the Coal Miners.

Over and over: Please keep that promise made to the coal miners. But instead we hear all kinds of excuses. Again, one man--the majority leader of the Senate, the Republican Senator from Kentucky--one man standing in the way.

Senator Manchin just said that if this came to a vote right now on the Senate floor, it would easily have enough votes to pass, but one man has blocked this in the continuing resolution. He has kind of distributed--dropped a few crumbs to a few miners for a few weeks on health care but not pensions. But it is one man standing in the way.

When I look at the other Senators--the two Senators from Pennsylvania, one Democrat, one Republican; two Senators from West Virginia, one Democrat, one Republican; two Senators from Ohio, one Democrat, one Republican; two Senators from Virginia, both Democrats-- all of them want to move on this, but we keep hearing excuses from one man, the majority leader of the Senate, from Kentucky.

We were told by the majority leader we need bipartisan support. Well,we got it, the bill cosponsored by Republicans and Democrats. As Senator Manchin said, if it were brought up to a vote, we could pass it tonight.

Then we were told the bill needs to go through regular order, which is a way, in Washington-speak, of simply
saying: Send it to a committee, examine it, debate it, bring a couple witnesses in, bring in experts, talk about it. We did that. Senators Warner and Casey and I also, on the Finance Committee, helped get this bill through with a bipartisan vote of 18 to 8--not even close. Again, the Republican Senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio joined the Democratic Senators from those two States. Eighteen to eight.

Then we were told by the majority leader--the one man who is stopping this--find a pay-for. Find a way to pay for it. We did. The bill is fully offset. As Senator Manchin said, as Senator Casey said, as a number have said, this does not cost taxpayers a dime. This isn't a bank bailout that cost real dollars. This isn't even the auto rescue, which was so important to my State. That cost real dollars, although the money was paid back. This won't cost taxpayers anything. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it would reduce the Federal deficit by $67 million over 10 years because they would get the right kind of health care rather than having to rely on other kinds of government programs.

These miners--again, we keep saying this over and over. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Almost seven decades ago, President Truman made this commitment. We have lived up to this commitment through Presidents of both parties, including this President, Barack Obama, but one person--again, one person--has stood in the way. The miners in my State can't afford to have this reduced to political gamesmanship. They are hard-working people. They spent their careers doing dignified work.
I remember when we spoke at the rally on a really hot day earlier this year. There were thousands of miners there. I remember Cecil Roberts, the president of the United Mine Workers, stood up and said: Put your hand up if you are a veteran.

Hundreds of hands went up.

He said: Put your hand up if your father or mother was a veteran. Again, hundreds more hands went up.
These are people who served their country. And those who weren't off to war were producing the coal to produce the electricity to power the war machine, whether it was World War II or Korea or Vietnam or anything since.

Not taking up the mine workers protection act is violating the promise made by President Truman, violating the promise we all made. The bill should ride on the continuing resolution. The majority party has the ability to make that happen right now.

I was talking a moment ago quietly, privately, with Senator Casey. We were talking about--unlike the spouses of insurance agents or realtors or teachers or Senators or bankers, mine workers are much more likely to die at a younger age. When you talk about so many, by any cross section, by any analysis of who is most in need of this kind of help, mine workers--there are a lot more mine worker widows than there are in other professions because of the danger of the work. There is a much greater likelihood of dying on the job, much greater likelihood of getting hurt on the job, much greater likelihood in later years of developing brown lung and developing various kinds of heart ailments and bronchial ailments because they worked in the mines. That makes it an even more fundamental moral question, that we do something about this.
How many mine workers are sick and need health care? How many need these pensions? How many mine workers die and their widows need this help? And we sit here doing nothing.

I just say again to Leader McConnell: Get out of the way. Just let this come to an up-or-down--however you want to do this, however you want to schedule this, however you want to move this through the Senate, we should be doing it now. We shouldn't go home for our Christmas break until we take care of these miners. It is the right, moral thing to do. It is the right thing for our country. It is a promise we made, a pledge we made. We should honor it, starting this evening.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, this legislation sounds pretty good. It is bipartisan, but I also know that in my State there are more than 1,000 retired mine workers and their widows. We know that people who have worked in the mines for 30, 35, or 40 years are more likely to be sick and die younger. These 1,000-plus mine workers have been denied their pensions. Their pensions and health care have been threatened. Many of them are widows of mine workers.

Yet, we have bipartisan support. It passed out of the Finance Committee 16 to 8, and Senator McConnell--one person in this body--has blocked the mine workers pension and health care legislation for weeks and weeks and months and months.

I would be very happy to support and help Senator Gardner in this legislation, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act. I hope he will speak to the Republican leader and ask him to do the right thing to help these pensioners, widows, and mine workers whose pensions are threatened and whose health care is about to be cut off.

Mr. President, I object.

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Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I can't exactly speak for my colleagues, but I know a number of Senators on this side of the aisle will be pleased to work with the Senator on this legislation, and I am hopeful we can do both in the days ahead.

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Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate those words. I also recognize that we have not seen a continuing resolution yet. There is a rumor that it has 4 months of health care but it doesn't have any pension assistance, and there is nothing about fully funding their pension and continuing with their health care. They have already gotten a notice saying their health care will be terminated. If we continue this for 4 months, they will get another notice in January. That is all hearsay because we still have not seen the bill.

I know we are working on separate calendars. I understand that, and maybe the House is going to take the ball and go home, showing a real maturity in its leadership. The fact is we need to stay here. I don't know why we need to get out and go home for Christmas tomorrow or even Friday. I think we should stay here until we finish. We have been here until December 24 before. I am fine with that. I want to be home. I have a wife whom I love and kids and grandchildren, and I want to see them all, but I want to take care of these miners.
Show us a bill. Let's talk about it, negotiate this, and follow regular order. I believe we had an 18-to-8 vote on taking care of this health care for miners. We can honor what Senator Gardner, the Senator from Colorado, wants to do. I am fine with doing that, but we are not going to do any of those things until we take care of the miners. We have an obligation to them that President Truman had begun with a pledge. It is morally reprehensible to betray that commitment to 12,000 retired miners and their widows in the country.

I want to do all of that, and I know Senator Gardner does too. It is up to my colleagues to push the majority leader, who, for whatever reason, is blocking this and is continuing to block our ability to do this. We should stay here until it is finished.

I yield the floor.

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