Tell Congress that the RECLAIM Act is needed to support communities struggling with the decline of the coal industry.

The RECLAIM Act would bring $1 billion back to coal communities to reclaim abandoned mine sites while creating jobs and economic development.

SIGN ON: I support passage of the RECLAIM Act and encourage my representatives in Congress to seek its passage through the federal legislative process.

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My name is Katie Dollarhide and I was born and raised here in the Appalachian mountains of east Kentucky. Like many of my neighbors, I live on land that’s been in my family for generations. I care deeply about this place and the loved ones that make it home. 

We wake up every day and do what we have to do to keep our families fed and our community going. We want to feel a hard day’s work and the pride of “I’ve done something today.” But right now folks in the region can’t pull ahead no matter how hard we try, and many of us feel like our communities have been abandoned. We refuse to give up on these mountains, but we need some tools in order to construct our dreams for this place.

And that’s why I’m askingCongress to bring the RECLAIM Act home. The RECLAIM Act could help laid off coal miners get their hands back in the dirt, putting them to work reclaiming old, polluting mines. There are billions of dollars worth of abandoned mines across the country, many of them here in Kentucky.

The Act would use $1 billion that’s sitting idle in a fund in Washington, DC, and would deliver it to states over five years  to put people across the country—including folks like my neighbors here in Kentucky—to work reclaiming abandoned mines and creating economic opportunities on the sites once they’ve been reclaimed. Opportunities like solar farms on reclaimed strip mines and new jobs that would help young people stay in the region.

Existing money. Economic opportunity in places that need it. It’s a win-win proposal.

The RECLAIM Act isn’t just a five year project, it could be the beginning of our new future. It represents a seed that, with a little nurturing, will help my community blossom and bloom, I truly believe that. It would help us grow hope in a place where it’s been extracted.

The time is now for Congress to get behind coal communities and pass the RECLAIM Act.