Black Lung Benefit Act

[AI summary unavailable — showing source text] Black Lung Benefits Act - Changes from advisory to supervisory the function of the Committee on Coal Mine Health Research established by the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969. Requires that the chairman of the committee and a majority of the persons appointed by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare shall be miners, retired miners, disabled miners, widows or widows of miners, spouses of miners, and officers or employees of labor organizations which represent miners. Prohibits the Scretary from conducting any research on the occupational health of coal miners which has not been recommended by such committee. Expands the definition of "miner" as used in that Act to include individuals who worked around an underground coal mine in the extraction, processing, or transportation of coal. Redefines the term "total disability" as used in that Act to provide that a miner shall be considered totally disabled when pneumoconiosis prevents him from engaging in gainful employment requiring the skills and abilities comparable to those of any employment in a mine or mines in which he previously engaged with some regularity and over a substantial period of time. Provides tha…