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Black Lung
17.307
To provide benefits to coal miners who have become totally disabled due to coal workers' pneumoconiosis, and to the surviving spouse and other surviving dependents of miners who have died of this disease.
This chart shows obligations for the program by fiscal year. All data for this chart was provided by the
administering agency and sourced from SAM.gov, USASpending.gov, and Treasury.gov.
For more information on each of these data sources, please see the
About the data page.
The Black Lung program successfully reduced the percentage of claims pending for more than 365 days from 20% to 12% over the prior two years.
In FY 2021, the Black Lung program provided payment of nearly $200M in total compensation and medical benefits, while servicing more than 30,000 beneficiaries.
The Federal Black Lung program provided $183.6 million in disability compensation and medical benefits while servicing 28,628 coal miners with black lung diseases and their families. The Black Lung program also took many strides forward to strengthen customer experience and service delivery for miners with black lung, including beginning the process of simplifying the forms miners use to file for benefits and completing the program’s first ever customer experience feedback survey. Critically, in fiscal year 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which permanently extended the excise tax on underground and surface-mined coal, which is the primary source of revenue for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. The Black Lung program also worked diligently to complete a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address issues involving self-insured coal miner operators. The NPRM was ultimately published in January 2023.
The Black Lung program provided $175.2 million in disability compensation and medical benefits to 27,572 coal miners and their families in fiscal year 2023.
Single Audit Applies (2 CFR Part 200 Subpart F):
For additional information on single audit requirements for this program, review the current Compliance Supplement.
OMB is working with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and agency offices of inspectors general to include links to relevant oversight reports. This section will be updated once this information is made available.
