WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry sharply weighed in last week on an issue that Wyoming lawmakers, their colleagues from Appalachian states and the Bush administration have been trying to work out for months.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts sent a letter to President Bush criticizing the president's decision to reduce taxes on coal companies and cut funds for the cleanup of abandoned mine land.

The president also extended a program that provides health care for miners whose companies have gone out of business. The abandoned mine program and health-care program were yoked together in a 1992 law.

The administration acted because the law authorizing the abandoned mine program is set to expire at the end of the month and prospects for Congress reauthorizing it are bleak.

"While I support your decision to extend this authority, your plan to cut the abandoned mine fee by 75 percent jeopardizes the future success of this important program," Kerry wrote in a Tuesday letter. "The (abandoned mine) program should not be toyed with at the whim of corporate interests; it was designed to protect the people. But your plan threatens to eliminate those protections. Your plan also fails to fulfill your promise to address the long-term financial problems of the United Mine Workers' health care plan, which benefits approximately 45,000 retired miners and their families."

Although Wyoming lawmakers have called for a reauthorization and overhaul of the abandoned mine program that would provide the state with more than $400 million it is owed in back payments, they supported President Bush's extension.

"John Kerry doesn't know his head from an abandoned mine in the ground on this issue, and it shows the kind of threat he represents to Wyoming's interests if he's elected president," Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., said. "He's never been involved in this debate, but now he's trying to make political hay on the backs of the people of Wyoming."

Bush's extension benefits Wyoming coal companies by reducing the taxes that they have to pay. It has also earned praise from Republican lawmakers from Eastern coal-producing states for shoring up the health-care plan.

"Your sudden interest in the AML program smacks of political opportunism given your total lack of participation in the current reauthorization effort, and your historic lack of involvement on this issue over the course of your 20-year Senate career," 12 House members wrote in a letter to Kerry. "Furthermore, this type of political gamesmanship is not helpful to our efforts to strengthen this vital program, and does a disservice to coal state residents who are currently living with the health, safety and environmental problems caused by abandoned coal mines."

During the past year, Cubin and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., have criticized President Bush's plan for reauthorizing and overhauling the abandoned mine program. At times they have said it is part of an effort to pick up votes in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. West Virginia narrowly supported Bush in the 2000 presidential election, while Pennsylvania narrowly supported Democratic candidate Al Gore. Thomas was particularly angry that Interior Secretary Gale Norton rolled out the Bush proposal in Harrisburg, Pa., with Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell.

On Friday, Cubin noted that President Bush's actions were based on the 1992 reauthorization of the law which John Kerry voted for.

"John Kerry voted in 1992 to give the president the authority to take exactly the steps that President Bush took last week," Cubin said. "Now he says President Bush was wrong to do what he did. John Kerry just can't keep himself from flip-flopping, no matter what the issue is."

Washington bureau reporter Ted Monoson can be reached at (202) 408-2726 or at Ted.Monoson@casperstartribune.net.