Number: RS21239
Title: The Black Lung Benefits Program
Authors: Edward Rappaport, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: The federal black lung program (codified at 30 U.S.C. 901 et seq.) provides medical and income assistance to coal mine workers who suffer disability or death due to pneumoconiosis and related diseases. One of the goals of the program was to make benefits more readily available than they might be under state workers compensation laws. Thus, it uses certain streamlined rules of evidence, but pursuing cases can still be rather involved. A trust fund, supported by a tax on coal, was established to finance the benefits, but the fund has chronically been in deficit. The Treasury Department has proposed a refinancing that would eventually extinguish the accumulated debt.
Pages: 6
Date: June 12, 2002