1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Appalachian Communities Health Equity Act or the ACHE Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Communities surrounding mountaintop removal coal mining projects, which involve surface coal mining including blasting with explosives in the steep slope regions of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia, have raised concerns that pollution of the water, air, and soil that results from mountaintop removal coal mining may be causing health crises in their communities. (2) Peer-reviewed scientific research and reports have raised serious concerns about mountaintop removal mining with respect to elevated risks in categories of birth defects studied, including circulatory, respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, and gastrointestinal. (3) Mountaintop removal coal mining has also been associated with elevated levels of adult hospitalizations for chronic pulmonary disorders and hypertension that are elevated as a function of county-level coal production, as are rates of mortality, lung cancer, and chronic heart, lung, and kidney disease. These health problems strike both women and men in mountaintop removal coal mining communities and these elevated levels of disease, defects, and mortality persist even after controlling for other variables. (4) Scientific evidence, and the level of public concern, warrant immediate action to stop new mountaintop removal coal mining permits and increase environmental and human health monitoring at existing mountaintop removal coal mining projects while the reported links between health effects and mountaintop removal coal mining are investigated by Federal health agencies. (5) The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences is uniquely qualified to manage a working group of Federal health agencies with expertise that is relevant to study of the reported links. 3. Health study (a) Study The Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, in consultation with the Administrator of the