West Virginia lawmakers back miner pension bill

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Four West Virginia lawmakers are backing new legislation in Congress to fund pensions for about 87,000 retired and 20,000 vested coal miners, saying it fulfills a promise made by President Harry Truman in 1946.
U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito, Reps. David McKinley and Evan Jenkins say about 26,000 live in West Virginia.
It would shore up the 1974 United Mine Workers of America Pension Plan hurt by coal company bankruptcies and th