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Show MMmRSQinft by ServtaOrnn fitch S8ijW New law restores solvency of Black Lung fund There is an important lesson that is learned by every kid who's spent his tickets too fast at Lagoon. You can only spend something for so long before it's gone, and the faster you spend it, the faster it goes. Federal officials who oversee a number of ailing government programs would do well to learn that same lesson; many citizens who really need the programs now face the threat of subsisting on their own. A case in point is the Black Lung Disability Fund, which was established to help coal miners who are disabled with pneumonconiosis, or black lung. The fund is deeply in debt, some say in danger of collapsing. This problem is addressed in a recent bill I sponsored that would restore fiscal integrity to the fund. If the fund were to remain short of funds, it would be a shaky shelter indeed in-deed for those who must rely on it for support. Were it to collapse, those who depend on it, including 466 Utahns who are stripped of their self-sufficiency by i black lung, would have no where else to turn. The coal industry, which has the final responsibility for the solvency of the fund, has unlimited borrowing authority from the treasury Department, Depart-ment, but faced with interest payments that would be too heavy for the fund to bear, it chose another route. Thus, coal miner representatives and operators and Labor Department officials Joined my in drafting the bill, which wus passed by Congress and signed into law by President Reagan on Dec. 23. Aimed at restoring solvency to the black lung fund, the bill will change the eligibility criteria to discourage the payment of benefits to claimants who are not truly disabled with black lung. An alarming 1980 report by the General Accounting Office showed that 88.5 percent of the cases approved for payment were approved by inadequate medical evidence of disability or death from black lung. In order to be perfectly fair, present beneficiaries of the fund are exempted from the tightened requirements, which will only affect claims filed on or before Jan. 1, 1982, when the bill became law. In addition to tightening the eligibility criteria required of those who receive assistance, the bill increases in-creases the current tax rate on coal on roughly $1 a ton for underground coal and $.50 a ton for surface coal. Economic studies from the Labor Department shows the increased revenue will rejuvenate the fund's strength by the mid-1990s. The coal tax will automatically revert to its prior level in 1995, when the fund is expected to have retired its loan debts and regained its solvency. If the fund enters the black sooner, the tax will be cut sooner. Almost 4,000 Utah coal miners walked off their jobs to demonstrate their concern over the fund last March. Their representatives visited me in my Washington office, and I certainly share their concern. Coal miners make contributions to Utah's economy that benefit all of us. It's only fair that Congress should provide some kind of assurance that any of them who are afflicted with black lung can get the aid they've been promiscd. After Congress's action, It's nice to know that when they need the black lung disability fund, it'll be there. |