Running head: POLICY MAKER LETTER 1

Policy Maker Letter

Susan Kelly

King University
POLICY MAKER LETTER 2

January 13, 2017

Susan Kelly, BSN

239 Clifford Price Loop
Mooresburg, T.N. 37811

Senator Mitch McConnell

317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator McConnell,

I am a Registered Nurse currently enrolled in the Master of Science program with a concentration on
becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner. I grew up in a small coal-mining town in Eastern Kentucky and
now reside in a rural area in Eastern Tennessee. I am highly concerned with the state of our coal miners
and their widows. The bill H. R. 179: Miners Protection Act of 2017, reviewed January 3, 2017, by the
House of Representatives relates to the miners and their families.

Coal mining and jobs related to mining coal are the predominant sources of employment in my
hometown. Many of the men and women serving in the mining industry develop coalworkers’
pneumoconiosis or as most people know it, black lung. Unfortunately, there is no cure for black lung.
Therefore, this disease process is costly to both the patient and healthcare organizations.

My father severed over forty years in the mining industry, the majority underground. My father was a
miner that followed all appropriate safety measures. However, the safety measures did not keep him from
being exposed to coal dust and developing black lung. My father endured many horrific years before
passing as a result of this terrible disease. Black lung leaves its victims struggling for every breath they
take. The emergency room and hospital become their home as that is where they spend the majority of
their time until hospice is initiated or they succumb without hospice. The multiple hospital visits and stays
along with the medications become very expensive.

United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) insure these men and women via the UMWA Health and
Retirement Funds. However, there is a substantial loss of funding and investors due to the economy and
the state of coal mining. As a result, retired miners and their spouses received notification the funds could
not contribute as planned in the 1974 United Mine Workers of America Pension Plan (UMWA Health and
Retirement Funds, 2014).

Supporting H. R. 179 permits amending the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation act of 1977
fostering the transition of funds to the Multiemployer Health Benefit Plan and the 1974 United Mine
Workers of America Pension Plan. Moving forward will allow retired miners and their spouses received
what they are entitled to and sacrificed their health and life for (Surface Mining Control and Reclamation
Act of 1977, 2012).
POLICY MAKER LETTER 3

Being a coal miners’ daughter and grand-daughter, I humbly seek your support of bill H. R. 179.

Thank you for your service.

Sincerely,

Susan E. Kelly, BSN

POLICY MAKER LETTER 4

References

Miners Protection Act of 2017, H. R. 179, 115th Congress (2017). Retrieved from

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hr179/text

Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Pub. L. 95-87 (2012). Retrieved from

https://www.osmre.gov/lrg/docs/SMCRA.pdf

United Mine Workers of America Health and Retirement Funds (2014). UMWA 1974 pension plan.

Retrieved from http://www.umwafunds.org/AboutUs/Pages/UMWA-1974-Pension-Plan.aspx