Sponsors (3)
The bill increases and stabilizes benefits and diagnostic/legal support for miners and survivors and strengthens program oversight, but does so at the likely expense of higher federal and industry costs, tighter procedural controls, and some privacy/choice trade‑offs for claimants.
Totally disabled coal miners and their survivors would receive higher, more predictable benefits (a set 2026 rate and CPI‑W indexing) and protections against benefit erosion tied to federal pay freezes.
Claimants with clear evidence of complicated pneumoconiosis (imaging/biopsy) and other eligible miners would gain easier access to benefits and paid diagnostic/legal support (irrebuttable qualification in qualifying cases, paid pulmonary evaluations/CTs, and programs to cover reasonable attorneys' fees and medical expenses).
Taxpayers and the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund would be better protected because reforms strengthen enforcement and reduce reliance on the Fund by shifting more cost responsibility to liable companies and improving collection mechanisms.
Taxpayers would likely face higher federal costs because expanded benefits, paid diagnostics, legal-fee programs, and new administrative setup increase federal spending.
Coal companies, especially smaller operators, could face materially higher liabilities and stricter self‑insurance oversight (plus irrebuttable presumptions), which could lead to higher prices, reduced employment, bankruptcies, or cost shifts to other parts of the economy.
Some sick miners could still be denied or delayed benefits because strict diagnostic thresholds (e.g., 1 cm large‑opacity requirement) may exclude miners who have clinically significant disease but lack qualifying imaging/biopsy findings.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Creates an irrebuttable presumption for complicated pneumoconiosis, guarantees pulmonary evaluations, reconstitutes the workers' compensation office, and modernizes beneficiary and administrative rules.
Creates stronger, clearer benefits and administrative rules for coal miners with black lung disease. It establishes an irrebuttable presumption of total disability or death from complicated pneumoconiosis when specific medical tests show qualifying large opacities, narrows certain HHS grant language to focus on coal miners, requires claimant access to complete pulmonary evaluations, modernizes terminology and beneficiary rules, and creates a reconstituted Office of Workers' Compensation Programs with a Senate‑confirmed Director to carry out claims functions. Also updates cross-references, replaces gendered language with neutral terms, clarifies survivor and filing-date rules, and makes technical conforming edits across the Black Lung Benefits Act to modernize and strengthen program administration and claimant protections.
Official title: Ensure that claims for benefits under the Black Lung Benefits Act are processed in a fair and timely manner, to better protect miners from pneumoconiosis (commonly known as "black lung disease"), and for other purposes.
Introduced December 16, 2025 by Timothy Michael Kaine · Last progress December 16, 2025