Coal companies to pay less to in-debt black lung program
The Black Lung Benefits Program is more than $4 billion dollars in debt, and a 55 percent reduction scheduled at the end of 2018 in the amount paid by coal companies will cause that deficit to nearly quadruple over the next 30 years, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International says allowing the amount paid into the program by coal companies to decrease would be wrong.