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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Robert E. Belfanti, Jr. |
  
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House passes Belfanti's black lung benefit bill
HARRISBURG, Oct. 6 – The state House of Representatives has passed legislation introduced by state Rep. Robert E. Belfanti Jr. that would increase workers' compensation payments to former coal miners suffering from black lung and similar diseases.
"It's been almost 30 years since the state has adjusted the benefit amount that hundreds of miners are still receiving for the life-altering and life-threatening black lung diseases they developed while helping to mine anthracite in Pennsylvania," Belfanti said. "For those miners, we owe them this increase, especially in today's economic environment."
Belfanti said the legislation, which he introduced in a number of previous legislative sessions, would increase the monthly benefit for coal miners who are disabled with silicosis, anthracosilicosis, coal worker’s pneumoconiosis, or asbestosis by $50 -- from $125 to $175 a month. The benefit had not been adjusted since 1979.
The monthly benefit is paid by the state to miners with black lung-related diseases who have exhausted the $12,750 maximum in benefits available through workers' compensation from their employer.
The increased benefit would take effect in the next fiscal year, on July 1, 2009. According to the state Department of Labor and Industry, there are about 480 miners in Pennsylvania receiving the monthly benefit.
"As fewer miners continue to collect this benefit, the cost to the state will diminish, but in the end, this is not about the cost to the state," he said. "It's about what is fair compensation for what making a significant contribution to Pennsylvania's economy and the world's energy needs cost these miners in health and years."
The legislation (H.B. 2275) now moves to the Senate for consideration.
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