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1 1 (September 23, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govbbdv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional SResearch Service Health Benefits for Retired United Mine Workers of America Members September 23, 2019 Eligible United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) members receive post-retirement health and pension benefits from one of three multiemployer health benefit plans and one multiemployer pension plan. A multiemployer plan is sponsored by employers in the same industry and is maintained as part of a collective bargaining agreement. The three UMWA health plans are the (1) Combined Benefit Fund (CBF), (2) UMWA 1992 Health Benefit Plan (1992 Plan), and (3) UI\WA 1993 Health Benefit Plan (1993 Plan). The UMWA 1974 Pension Plan pays pension benefits. Funding for the UMWA Retiree Health Plans The plans are funded by employer contributions and two sources of federal financial assistance: (1) interest on investments in U.S. Treasury securities from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund and (2) supplemental payments from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury. No funds from the assets of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, a federal trust fund for cleaning up legacy coal mining sites, itself go to the retiree health plans. There is an annual cap of $490 million per fiscal year on the total of transfers from the General Fund to the health care plans and of grants to certified states and tribes that have reclaimed certain abandoned coal mining sites. In FY2019, the three UMWA health plans received $54.3 million in interest income and $225.1 million from the General Fund. Authority for transfers from the federal government to the UMWA health plans is set out in the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA; P.L. 95-87) in 30 U.S.C. 1232(h) and 30 U.S.C. 1232(i). In 2017 (the most recent year for which data are available), the plans received $139.0 million in employer contributions. Federal Transfers to the 1993 Plan Expanded in 2017 A number of coal companies went bankrupt in 2012 and 2015. Three of these companies were Patriot Coal, Walter Energy, and Alpha Natural Resources. The UMWA had been administering a Voluntary Employee Benefit Association (VEBA) with three separate funds to provide health benefits to those companies' retirees. A VEBA is a tax-advantaged trust fund created to finance employee benefits, such as retiree health insurance benefits. The VEBA for Patriot Coal retirees was projected to run out of money for benefits at the end of 2016. The VEBAs established for Walter Energy and Alpha Natural Resources Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11170 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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