[Daily Caller] Thousands of coal miners gathered in force to protest energy policies and rally for benefits lost to recent bankruptcies in front of the Capitol Building Thursday, demanding Congress act before the year is out.
"The reason why these union coal miners have their healthcare and pensions in jeopardy today is because of senseless and heartless policies from the Obama Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency," Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky who spoke at the rally, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. "He declared a war on coal when he was a candidate and he delivered and 10,000 of my fellow Kentuckians no longer have paychecks. These men and woman worked their tails off for decades underground in a tough environment and what they did was heroic work."
Members of United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) are pushing representatives in the Senate to pass a bill to guarantee healthcare and retirement benefits for roughly 23,000 coal miners and their families, and nearly 120,000 current coal workers. Roughly 94 percent of coal worker pensions were funded before the 2008 recession, however many companies have since gone bankrupt due to market conditions and the increasingly harsh regulations from the EPA and Congress on the industry.
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