LOGAN, W.Va. — Third District Congressman Evan Jenkins is pushing for an extension on unemployment benefits for laid off miners, in a bill called the COAL Miners Act.
The bill, which Jenkins said has received bipartisan support, stands for Creating Opportunities for America’s Laid-off Miners, and would give those miners looking for a new job a little financial leeway.
“Currently under law, an unemployed individual has a maximum capability of receiving 26 weeks of unemployment benefits,” explained Jenkins. “In these tough economic times, and candidly through no fault of their own, these miners being put out of work. We need to extend that.”
The bill would extend the unemployment benefits for an additional 16 weeks.
“Is that going to be enough for some? No. Will it be a help for many? You bet,” Jenkins said.
Laid-off miner Bo Copley said he’s luckier than most miners, considering a career outside of the coal industry, but the bill would still greatly help him and his family.
“I’ve already exhausted my unemployment benefits, so it would be huge for us,” Copley said. “I’m looking at possibly venturing into the fishing field here in our area.”
But many miners, Copley said, have nowhere else to turn to.
“We’re fortunate that we have the situation that we have,” he said. “Most of the miners in our state and in our region, they don’t have what we have. It’s almost to the point where they have to leave, they have to find jobs and they don’t have something else to fall back on. It’s either that or a lot of families turn to the welfare system.”
Jenkins didn’t think it was hypocritical to ask the federal government to take “its foot off the throat of the coal industry,” while at the same time asking for benefits for miners.
“Absolutely it’s not disingenous. The government is there to work for the people. Taxes are paid; benefits are earned,” he said. “Let’s not forget that that foot on the throat of our industry…it’s an idealogically driven segment of this administration that wants to use laws put in place decades ago far beyond what they were ever intended.”
Jenkins referred to the COAL Miners Act as not a cure-all for miners, but a “bridge of opportunity.”
Jenkins was with Copley in Logan County Wednesday to push the bill.