CNN obtains report showing fund for coal miners with black lung is in trouble

6/4/18

A US government fund that helps coal miners sickened with black lung disease is beset by billions of dollars in debt, according to a government watchdog report obtained by CNN. Now, some congressional leaders worry the miners could lose their benefits. More than 14,000 miners depend on the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund to pay their medical bills and help with other expenses when they're too sick to work. The report from the US Government Accountability Office finds that by 2050, the trust fund might have to borrow more than $15 billion to stay afloat. The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund is supposed to be funded by a tax on coal companies, but in its nearly 40-year history, that tax has almost never been enough to cover the fund's expenditures, according to the GAO report. The fund has had to borrow from American taxpayers to make up the shortfall. In fiscal year 2017 alone, the trust fund borrowed about $1.3 billion from the US Department of the Treasury. Overall, the fund is currently $4.3 billion in debt to taxpayers. The fund has not always paid back what it owes taxpayers.

The GAO report proposed several options to address the trust fund's spiraling debt. One option is to increase the tax on coal companies by 25% from its current levels. The authors noted that this option would place the entire burden on coal companies at a time when coal production has been declining. Another option the authors presented includes keeping the tax on coal companies at its current level and forgiving about $2.4 billion in debt to taxpayers. Other options include decreasing the tax on coal companies and forgiving even larger amounts of debt to the taxpayers. The Trump administration says that if in the future, the trust fund can't pay the miners' benefits, the fund can continue to borrow money from the Treasury.

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