The I-70 shutdown shows why our country needs real infrastructure investments—not a liberal slush-fund that pays for salmon habitat restoration, electric school buses, the ‘Civilian Climate Corps,’ and other wasteful programs that have nothing to do with infrastructure. Instead of supporting the Green New Deal-lite infrastructure spending spree, I introduced the American Infrastructure Modernization Act to repurpose the billions of unspent stimulus money to fund real infrastructure like roads, bridges, and airports. It’s a commonsense, reasonable solution that puts the American taxpayer first by not increasing government spending at all while also delivering results for much-needed infrastructure improvement projects. BIDEN’S FAILED LEADERSHIP IN AFGHANISTAN I am forever grateful for the brave men and women who served in Afghanistan. They are heroes who stepped up to lead and serve. Unfortunately, President Biden has not followed their example, and his pull-out of Afghanistan has lacked leadership and a clear plan for success. It is time to bring our troops home, but Biden needed to have a better plan that did not abandon and put Americans at risk. He should have also taken action to secure weapons, protect personnel, and look out for our Afghan allies who served as interpreters and partners in the war on terror. I stand with our Afghan allies, and I voted for the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3237 to allocate $500 million to evacuate Afghan allies, to allocate $600 million to Afghan refugee emergency transport, and to allow 8,000 additional visas to rescue our Afghan allies. WORKING ON SOLUTIONS FOR WESTERN DROUGHT You can’t solve Western drought from a desk in D.C., which is why the Bureau of Land Management headquarters needs to remain in Grand Junction. It’s also why I brought my D.C. team out to Colorado to meet with local stakeholders and work on solutions for water storage projects and other ways to mitigate Western drought by managing our resources effectively. My team and I talked with farmers, ranchers, Forest Service officials, water district leaders, firefighters, and other regional leaders about the need for more water storage projects and the need to actively manage our forests to prevent catastrophic wildfires. I’ve consistently called on the Bureau of Reclamation to support more water storage projects, and I will continue to make sure we build up dams rather than tear them down like the radical enviros want. Additionally, I will continue to advocate for policies that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires by responsibly managing our forests. My Active Forest Management, Wildfire Prevention, and Community Protection Act will do just that by removing bark beetle-killed trees, cutting bureaucratic red tape, and reinvesting 25% of the revenue from timber harvests back into rural communities. SUPPORTING COLORADO’S ENERGY JOBS This week, President Biden begged OPEC to pump more oil to import into the United States. Under President Trump, America was energy dominant, and we were exporting our oil and natural gas to our allies around the world while enjoying good-paying jobs and cheap energy prices at home. We are not even a year into the Biden administration, and we are already back to being dependent on the Middle East again for our energy needs. We are also in the midst of a disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. History is repeating itself from when Joe Biden was Vice President. In just a few months, Biden took us from being strong and energy-independent to being weak and dependent on countries that hate us. Enough is enough, and I introduced the Protecting American Energy Jobs Act to nullify and defund President Biden’s job-killing Green New Deal executive orders that locked up federal land to responsible energy development. Colorado lost 9,000 jobs in the oil and natural gas industry this past year, and economists project that over the next two decades, Biden's federal leasing ban will result in $639.6 billion in lost GDP, $286 billion in lost wages, $151 billion in lost state tax revenue, and job losses climbing to 343,088 annually in eight western states alone. Congress should stand up and put a halt to these disastrous policies by passing my Protecting American Energy Jobs Act. STANDING UP AGAINST THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS In a leaked tape, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas admitted that the Biden Border Crisis is “unsustainable” and that America is “going to lose” with the dramatic influx of illegal immigrants crossing the border. Mayorkas said, “we can’t continue like this,” and for once, he is right. I introduced a censure resolution to hold President Biden accountable for the border crisis he created, and it also calls on Secretary Mayorkas to be fired for his egregious lies to the American people—claiming the border is closed when his own words show he knows this not to be true. We need real solutions for the Biden Border Crisis, which I why I introduced the No Amnesty Act to nullify and defund President Biden’s executive orders that enable and incentivize illegal immigration and the Secure the Southern Border Act to restore President Trump’s effective border security policies like building the wall, ending catch and release, and restoring the remain in Mexico policy. | | If you are having issues with a federal agency, want to share your story, or want your voice to be heard, please come to my staff’s mobile office hours, and we will be happy to assist you. My office is honored to help veterans having trouble with the VA, travelers having difficulties applying for a passport, taxpayers being harassed by the IRS, senior citizens having issues with Social Security or Medicare, and people having other problems with federal agencies. Thursday, August 19, 2021 San Juan County Mobile Office Hours Grand Imperial Hotel 1219 Greene Street Silverton, CO 81433 10:00-11:00 am Ouray County Mobile Office Hours True Grit Café (upstairs) 123 North Lena Street Ridgway, CO 81432 1:15-2:15 pm San Miguel County Mobile Office Hours Wilkinson Public Library Meeting Room #1 100 West Pacific Avenue Telluride, CO 81435 3:30-4:30 pm Friday, August 20, 2021 Dolores County Mobile Office Hours Dolores County Administration Building County Commissioner Board Room 409 North Main Street Dove Creek, CO 81324 1:00-2:00 pm Montezuma County Mobile Office Hours Montezuma County Administration Building County Commissioner Board Room 109 West Main Street Cortez, CO 81321 3:30-4:30 pm Wednesday, August 25, 2021 Saguache County Mobile Office Hours Center Town Hall 294 Worth Street Center, CO 81125 1:00-3:00 pm |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|