Coal operators disputed 40% of approved claims, GAO finds
The federal black-lung benefits program, established in 1969 to compensate coal miners disabled by coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, is leaving many affected miners in appeals limbo that can stretch more than a decade, even as cases of the disease surge to their highest level in nearly 50 years.
A May Government Accountability Office report found that 40 percent of approved black-lung claims by the Department of Labor between 2013 and 2024 were disputed, generally by coal operators. The median length of an appealed claim was three years or more, the report said. Among 53,000 closed claims between January 2013 and August 2024, 11 took longer than 10 years to close. The report did not state how many open cases have surpassed 10 years.
The GAO found that 390 beneficiaries whose claims were initially approved had those claims denied after appeal between January 2013 and mid-August 2024, leaving them responsible for paying back the benefits. “Miners in all six groups expressed their belief that mine operators were either ‘waiting for them to die’ or ‘waiting for them to give up’ so they could avoid paying benefit,” the report said.
The May report was requested in 2023 by Democratic senators Mark Warner, John Hickenlooper, Tim Kaine, and John Fetterman, who have also introduced legislation to reform the system. In fiscal year 2025, approximately 22,500 beneficiaries — including dependents, survivors, and miners — were receiving black-lung benefits. The GAO said 7,709 miner beneficiaries were receiving benefits in 2024.
The appeals process has consumed the life of Josh Armes, 74, of Grundy, Virginia, who worked as a coal miner in West Virginia and Virginia for 38 years. After retirement, Armes was diagnosed with coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, the medical term for black lung, caused by breathing coal dust over long periods. He has required an oxygen tank for roughly four years, along with regular doctor visits and an albuterol inhaler.
In 2014, Armes received notice that his federal black-lung benefits — which he had been receiving for more than three years — were being appealed by a coal operator. For the last 12 years, he and his family have been in appeals limbo.
“I can’t figure out one thing,” Armes said. “They sent me a paper that said I got first- and second-stage black lung. That ought to be enough, or do you have to be dead?”
His daughter, Crystal Armes, said the benefits application process requires miners to pay out of pocket for medical tests and find a lawyer to take their cases. She argued that coal companies should not be able to appeal benefits after they are awarded.
“The burden of proof lies on the coalminer to prove that he has black lung,” Crystal Armes said. “We have appealed it and appealed it and appealed it. Still appealing it. He [Josh] does have black lung. Hopefully, soon we will be awarded the black-lung benefits again. But I’m not holding my breath on that one.”
She added: “When you’re awarded it, they can appeal it, get a different judge, and it’s stripped away from you, which I find absolutely insane. They fight you at every single step of the way. They’ll send you from one doctor to another doctor to go do another test and another test.”
The black-lung disease burden has intensified in recent years. Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that 32.5 percent of veteran underground coalminers in central Appalachia suffer from black lung, according to data published last month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine — a rate unseen since 1978. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 1,700 coal miners in the US died from black lung disease. Researchers have attributed the increase to silica dust that is more common in the coal seams being mined today.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration, part of the Department of Labor, has moved to delay federal silica-dust protections. In April, E&E Greenwire reported that the agency would “indefinitely delay” a federal silica-dust rule “pending judicial review,” though the agency had requested an abeyance on any court action. The rule was passed in April 2024, would mandate engineering and ventilation controls to protect miners on the job, and had its funding blocked by Republicans in Congress in June 2024.
The United Mine Workers of America has pushed to unfreeze the federal silica-dust rule. MSHA under the Trump administration indicated to the union that it has no plans to enforce the rule.
Rebecca Shelton, director of policy for the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, said in a statement on the agency’s freeze: “If the Trump administration actually cared about protecting coal miners from black lung, we’d have a strong silica rule in place right now. Instead, they are hiding behind a ridiculous legal process to delay action while miners get sick and die.”
Brian Sanson, president of UMWA International, said in a statement: “Every day [that] federal regulators drag their feet and sit on this rule, another working father, mother, husband, wife, sister or brother contracts an incurable, fatal disease. Someone’s life is forever changed. A company’s profit margin cannot take precedence over a miner’s right to draw a breath.”
The White House declined to comment, deferring to the Department of Labor. NIOSH did not respond to multiple requests for comment. An MSHA spokesperson said by email: “Until pending litigation and limited rulemaking on respirable crystalline silica are resolved, MSHA continues to vigorously enforce the permissible exposure limit of 100 micrograms per cubic meter.”