1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to strongly oppose the provision to reallocate funds from the Abandoned Mine Land fund (30 USC 1231: Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund). On January 5th, the House Appropriations Committee released an updated “minibus” appropriations bill with bipartisan support that includes a proposal to withdraw $500 million from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s Abandoned Mine Land funds allocated as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These funds are currently committed to cleaning up dangerous coal mine sites that were developed before federal law required coal mining companies to clean up their own mines. States use abandoned mine land funds to remediate the sites that pose the greatest threat to human life and safety or property, such as flooding, dangerous piles, dangerous highwalls, hazardous equipment, underground or surface mine fires, subsidence, and polluted drinking and agricultural water. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law extended the AML fee on coal mined and also added $11.2 billion to the fund to address a significant backlog of abandoned mine lands in need of reclamation, estimated at between $11.5 and $21 billion. (https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/cleaning-up-aml-damage/)The proposed raid of AML funds would only come from the funding passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as opposed to the per-ton fee.  These mine cleanup dollars are funding work (https://appvoices.org/2024/09/13/reclamation-funding/) in coal communities across the country to restore hillsides above neighborhoods and parks, relocate water lines affected by past mining damage and more. Appalachian states are among the top beneficiaries (https://www.osmre.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/IIJA_Distrib2025_Final_508.pdf) of the fund because of the enormous backlog of mine cleanup needs that predate the 1977 surface mining law, but the benefits are used across 23 states and in the Navajo Nation. In 2025, Alabama received more than $20 million for AML cleanup from the bipartisan infrastructure law, Kentucky received more than $74 million, Ohio received more than $46 million, Pennsylvania received nearly $245 million, Tennessee received more than $8 million, Virginia received nearly $23 million and West Virginia received more than $140 million. In other regions, Illinois received $75.7 million, Indiana received $24.7 million, Navajo Nation received $1.7 million, and Wyoming received $9.7 million.  The proposed funding raid would result in a loss of funds for these states as follows:  Alabama: $14.13 million Illinois: $52.34 million Kentucky: $51.3 million Navajo: $1.15 million Pennsylvania: $169.19 million Tennessee: $5.93 million Virginia $15.75 million West Virginia: $97.24 million With these facts in mind, I urge you to strongly oppose the provision to reallocate funds from the Abandoned Mine Land fund (30 USC 1231: Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund) for the health and wellbeing of Appalachian communities and all others who live with the damage of coal mining in their communities. Thank you.