Black Lung Benefits Improvement Act of 2025

This bill changes the federal Black Lung Benefits Act, which pays benefits to coal miners disabled by black lung disease and to their families. It sets a miner's benefit at $10,769 per year for 2026 and then ties yearly increases to a consumer price index instead of federal employee pay. It requires the Labor Department to offer claimants a full lung evaluation by a doctor from a public list, paid by the federal trust fund, and creates a program to pay some attorneys' fees and medical costs when claims stay unresolved for 2 years. It lets miners whose claims were denied based on certain discredited X-ray readings file new claims, adds criminal penalties and attorney disqualification for false statements, and requires new rules for coal companies that self-insure, with higher fines for failing to secure benefit payments.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Morgan McGarvey Democrat sponsor
• 5 cosponsors