Coal miners finally get a raise after 57 years of eroding benefits
H.R. 9556 — Support Our Miners Act · Filed by Summer Lee (D-PA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill increases monthly benefits for coal miners with black lung disease under the Black Lung Benefits Act. Starting in 2026, miners will receive approximately $1,252.50 per month (up from the current amount), with automatic annual adjustments tied to inflation (the Consumer Price Index) in subsequent years to ensure benefits keep pace with the cost of living.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to increase and index monthly cash benefits for coal miners with occupational lung disease, a straightforward social-insurance improvement with no hidden mechanisms or private carve-outs.
What the text implies
- Inflation indexing creates an open-ended federal obligation that will grow automatically each year without further legislative action, potentially affecting long-term budget planning.
- The bill does not address the underlying funding mechanism for black lung benefits (whether paid by coal operators, a federal trust fund, or general revenue), so the fiscal impact on the federal budget or industry is not transparent from this text alone.
- Benefit increases may incentivize more miners to file claims or appeal denials, potentially increasing administrative caseload and processing times if staffing is not expanded.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Disabled coal miners and their families receive substantially higher monthly income to cover healthcare and living costs, with inflation protection built in. This directly improves the material welfare of a vulnerable population that has been receiving eroded benefits for decades.
Who stands to gain
- coal miners with black lung disease
- families of deceased miners receiving survivor benefits
Named in the bill
Black Lung Benefits Act, Section 412, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, coal miners, 119th Congress
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jun 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 30, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $70,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 23 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Summer Lee, the sponsor, reported $231,154 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Appalachian Voices — $40,000 on 1 filing
- Blue Green Alliance — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,296 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Coal miners finally get a raise after 57 years of eroding benefits” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr9556 Report an error
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