FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov. Paul Patton is again pushing a bill to make it easier for coal miners who suffer from black-lung disease to win compensation, reversing a stand he took six years ago.
The bill sailed through a House committee on Tuesday and now goes to the full House. A similar Patton-backed bill passed the House last year but died in a Senate committee.
Only a handful of miners have won black-lung claims since Patton successfully tightened eligibility rules in 1996. Miners not only had to show the presence of black lung but also had to prove disability.
Patton, a former coal operator, now says the changes went too far.
"One more time — I don't know how to say it any more plain — I was wrong. I have wronged the coal miners in Kentucky," Patton said at a news conference last week. "I want the opportunity to correct that wrong."