Portside

A provision nestled in the year-end federal government's spending deal guaranteed pension and health care benefits to more than 100,000 coal miners and their families.

Democrats and coal-country Republicans say miners are uniquely deserving because of an agreement in 1946, when the government seized mines and ended a strike by agreeing to provide health and pension benefits. Legislative leaders have agreed to the provisions as part of a $1 trillion government funding bill, and rank-and-file members are expected to approve it later this week.