By Kristina Peterson and Kris Maher 

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats on Friday backed down from a threat to shut the U.S. government over health benefits for retired coal miners, clearing the way for a vote later in the night to keep the government funded through April.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) had set up the blockade to bring renewed attention to the plight of miners and indicate his intent to continue the fight into next year. The government funding bill would extend those benefits, set to expire this month, for four months, a timetable Democrats called insufficient.

"As somebody who's got one heck of a lot of federal employees, we are not going to shut down the government on this issue," said Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) "But we are going to make sure that this fight does not end tonight."

The battle captured the frustration of Democrats who are still smarting from the defection of the white working class in last month's election. Democrats feel that Republicans, who won both chambers of Congress and the presidency after making explicit appeals to coal miners, betrayed the workers when it came time to provide the long-term funding that would continue their health coverage.

"I rise for the working men and women we all use in our commercials," Mr. Manchin said on the Senate floor, in remarks aimed at colleagues who portrayed the workers in their re-election ads.

Mr. Manchin had sought to rustle up enough opposition to block the spending bill, which would keep the government running through April 28. Current funding is set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on Saturday. Although Mr. Manchin came up short, Senate Minority Leader-elect Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) promised to continue the fight next year.

The benefits are slated to run out for more than 16,000 miners at the end of December. Four more months, Mr. Manchin said, "is not only a nonstarter, that is inhumane."

The centrist Democrat is under consideration by President-elect Donald Trump's transition team as a possible secretary of state or energy. Mr. Manchin, who is up for re-election in 2018, was scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump on Monday.

The spending bill passed the House on Thursday in a 326-96 vote.

Pointing to the overwhelming House vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said on the Senate floor Friday that it was too late to make changes to the bill. But he said he was confident Congress wouldn't let the miners' health-care benefits expire in the spring, when the extension ends.

"It is my intention that miners' health benefits not expire in April. I'm going to work with my colleagues to prevent that," Mr. McConnell said. "This is a good time [for Democrats] to take yes for an answer."

Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Eric Schultz expressed support for the stand that Mr. Manchin and others were taking on the issue of coal-miner health benefits.

"These are coal miners who work for decades in treacherous conditions and who earn these benefits. Unfortunately, the proposal that Republicans are floating only takes care for them for a few months. We believe that's not right," Mr. Schultz said Friday.

The root of this week's fight goes back decades. The United Mine Workers of America won promises from the federal government for lifetime pension and retiree health benefits for its members, starting in 1946 under President Harry Truman.

Over the years, the funding of miners' pension and retiree health benefits has become problematic as coal companies have declared bankruptcy, leaving fewer companies to contribute to multiemployer plans, and retirees began to outnumber active miners amid greater automation.

Congress passed measures in the 1990s and 2000s to shore up the benefits, including allowing the interest from the Abandoned Mine Lands fund to be used to cover retiree health costs. The fund, originally created to pay for the cleanup of abandoned mine sites, is fed by taxes on coal companies.

In 2006, Congress allowed the use of general U.S. Treasury funds to cover any deficit in the UMWA retiree health plan for the first time, as well as to pay out money to states and tribes that had already cleaned up their abandoned mines.

Today, the union says about 16,300 retired miners and widows could lose their health coverage on Jan. 1 if Congress doesn't appropriate funding.

There is currently about $39 million in funding for retiree health care and roughly $100 million is paid out annually, according to Phil Smith, a UMWA spokesman.

Cecil Roberts, president of the UMWA, has called the proposal to provide four months of funding "a slap in the face" to coal miners.

"America's miners put their lives on the line to provide the fuel that built our nation," Mr. Roberts said. "Is their reward to become a perpetual political football, doomed to beg every four months for the benefits they earned and our nation promised them?"

At the same time, the union and members of Congress from coal states are seeking additional funding to keep the UMWA 1974 Pension Plan from becoming insolvent. The plan currently covers 89,000 retirees and widows and has been in critical status for the past two years.

The union says retirees in the pension plan live in all 50 states, though a majority reside in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Illinois and other major coal-producing states. The average pension benefit is $586 a month for a retired miner or a surviving spouse, according to the union.

Siobhan Hughes contributed to this article.

Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 09, 2016 20:07 ET (01:07 GMT)