By Sarah Lieu

March 22, 2019 - West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said he is working as quickly as possible to make sure a fund that helps coal miners suffering from black lung disease does not run out of money.

His effort is the result of Congress letting an automatic tax rate cut on coal take effect, which is cutting funding for black lung benefits. Manchin said what happened on Capitol Hill was wrong.

"It's horrible what they did. And I was promised they wouldn't do that,” Manchin said. “I talked to Kevin Brady on the House side (a Republican congressman from Texas) and they said they weren't going to do that. I said Kevin, give us some time. I said, Kevin, if you're reducing the amount of fee from $1.10 to 55-cents and you're saying that we don't need it because we have cured black lung in America. Well, we haven't. It's worse now than it's ever been."

Manchin said it can be changed. He said he is trying to get Congress to retroactively put the tax back to the original amount. The shrinking of the fund comes amid a surge in black lung disease among Appalachian coal miners.