West Virginians who spoke with Fox News backed Sen. Joe Manchin's opposition to President Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
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"I absolutely support him," one woman told Fox News. "Nothing in that bill was going to help West Virginia. In fact, it would cost us jobs, for which we, of course, would be paying as taxpayers."
One West Virginia resident told Fox News: "I support Joe Manchin 120%." She said she was glad Manchin was "not backing down to Biden because West Virginia is suffering for Biden's choices."
Another West Virginia local told Fox News: "I'm praising him."
"Among the parts of the Build Back Better Act that Roberts highlighted were benefits for miners suffering from black lung. There’s currently a federal fund that provides those benefits, paid for by a fee on coal companies. The disease is prevalent for thousands of miners across Appalachia, a side effect of inhaling coal dust on the job. An increasing number of miners are dying from it, pointing to the urgent need for benefits to help them deal with the respiratory issue before it becomes fatal.
Yet with Manchin’s “no” on the act, the fees coal companies have paid into the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund are set to end this year. The act would’ve extended them in 2025. Federal data shows the fund doled out nearly $41 million to black lung sufferers in West Virginia in 2020, nearly a quarter of all funds dispersed in the U.S.
Roberts also noted the bill had provisions to “provide tax incentives to encourage manufacturers to build facilities in the coalfields that would employ thousands of coal miners who have lost their jobs. We support that and are ready to help supply those plants with a trained, professional workforce.” And it also included language that would fine employers for union-busting, which UMWA also supported. (Given mining unions’ long, bloody history at the hands of owners and present fights, that makes a lot of sense.)
One of Manchin’s primary arguments against the act was that he didn’t know how to pitch it at home. But UMWA’s statement is tailormade to a state that has relied heavily on the coal industry for its economy and identity. (There are other benefits Manchin could’ve easily picked out, like giving people with kids money to, uh, buy food, but I digress.)
Instead, Manchin appears to have sided with the bosses for now; he’s a top campaign recipient of money from the coal, mining, oil and gas extraction,
and gas transmission and distribution industries and comes in third with utilities. The owners in those industries have opposed Build Back Better because it would curtail their profits. But the new UMWA statement shows that workers, at least, are ready to be at the table of the energy transition."
The United Mine Workers of America put out a statement asking the West Virginia senator to reconsider killing the Build Back Better Act.
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