On Thursday, August 23, 2018, more than 100 coal miners and their family members, health care and legal professionals, and political representatives met for a town hall discussion in Whitesburg to voice their concerns about the unprecedented number of miners with black lung disease. Researched shows the disease is currently at epidemic levels among coal miners and is afflicting more younger workers. The Black Lung Trust Fund, financed by an excise tax on coal, currently supports approximately 19,000 miners and their families. At the current tax rate, revenues will be insufficient to cover beneficiary payments and administrative costs starting in 2020. This local effort is part of a larger regional movement to ask Congress to assure the coal industry does not evade its responsibility to support miners.