HJR236 Summary

• Expresses Alabama Legislature's support for federal legislation protecting retirement and health care benefits for retired coal miners and their families, citing 70 years of federal government commitment to guarantee these benefits.

• Identifies a crisis affecting more than 26,000 retirees left without health care benefits due to multiple coal company bankruptcies that shed their retiree obligations.

• Notes the UMWA 1974 Pension Fund will become insolvent by 2022 due to losses in the 2008-09 recession and insufficient employer contributions from the declining coal industry.

• Endorses and urges Alabama's Congressional delegation to cosponsor and pass four specific federal bills: S. 27 (American Miners Act), S. 671 (Miners Pension Protection Act), H.R. 934 (Health Benefits for Miners Act), and H.R. 935 (Miners Pension Protection Act).

• Recognizes the sacrifices of coal miners, noting more than 105,000 killed on the job and more than 100,000 deaths from black lung disease in the past century.