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Hello Coloradans,
Every day I spend in Colorado, I’m reminded of the gulf between the strong leadership in our state and the vacuum of leadership in Washington.
Just this morning, I spoke at the launch of a new partnership in Denver between an early childhood education center and the private sector that will provide free testing to help kids and teachers return to school safely. Even as Congress has failed to provide resources to keep our kids safe, Coloradans are stepping up to do the work. This is the type of innovative leadership our country needs.
On a range of issues, Coloradans continue to engage, collaborate, and put forward common-sense solutions. In Washington this week, I advocated for legislation on broadband and public lands that reflects the conversations and hard work of communities across our state.
Our nation’s capital has so much to learn from Colorado, and I’ll continue to fight for our state’s priorities in the Senate.
As always, I encourage you to reach out to our office with any questions or concerns.
Stay safe,
Michael
EXPANDING BROADBAND ACCESS FOR EVERY AMERICAN
The pandemic has underscored the critical importance of broadband to work, learn, and connect remotely. Yet in Colorado, 65,000 students don’t have access to the internet at home. That’s why I’ve traveled across our state to learn from communities like Delta and La Junta, who are leading the way to connect their communities to the internet.
This week, we announced growing support for our broadband proposal to help bridge the digital divide, the BRIDGE Act, which is based on the lessons learned in Colorado. This new support includes Senator Angus King of Maine and several national and Colorado organizations. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel even wrote an editorial praising the BRIDGE Act and urging other Members of Congress to support it.
On Monday, I wrote an op-ed underscoring the need to expand broadband access to millions of students who are unable to connect to online learning at home. And on Thursday, I joined discussions with the Rebuild Rural Coalition and Rocky Mountain Farmers Union to further discuss the importance of broadband access and rural infrastructure.
PROTECTING OUR PUBLIC LANDS
Earlier this year, President Trump nominated William Perry Pendley to lead the Bureau of Land Management. Pendley doesn’t even believe in public lands—and his fringe ideology is far outside the mainstream of the consensus we have worked so hard to build in Colorado. In our state, we know that public lands are central to our economy and way of life.
That’s why I took to the floor of the Senate this week to demand Pendley leave the BLM and call out the Trump Administration’s extremist, anti-public lands agenda. For me, this is simple: Someone who has spent his entire career opposed to the idea of public lands is unfit to lead a land management agency. He should step down immediately.
Watch the full speech HERE.
The following day, I urged the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to include the CORE Act—our legislation with Congressman Joe Neguse to protect 400,000 acres of public land in Colorado—in its hearing on public lands bills. The CORE Act has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives twice, and Wednesday’s hearing came almost a year to the day since I urged the committee to hold a hearing. It’s far past time we listen to the bipartisan consensus among Coloradans across our state and pass the CORE Act.
LIFTING UP COLORADO’S LEADERSHIP ON COVID TESTING
Earlier today, I had a chance to visit Clayton Early Learning in Denver, which has partnered with Gary Community Investments to offer free COVID-19 testing to students, families, teachers, and staff. It’s impressive to see the work Clayton has achieved as the first early childhood education center in the state to offer free testing to the early childhood learning community.
While I’m deeply appreciative of the collaboration between Gary Community Investments and learning institutions, including Clayton, the Denver Public Schools, University of Colorado Denver, and others, I’m also appalled by the lack of leadership in Washington. The Trump Administration has failed to invest in a national strategy for testing and contact tracing, leaving communities on their own to come up with solutions. Washington should learn from the innovative example Colorado is setting.
In the days ahead, I’ll keep fighting to create a national Health Force, my proposal to train hundreds of thousands of people out of work as contact tracers and case managers to boost our public health infrastructure and support efforts like the ones I saw today at Clayton. This is the level of ambition we need from our national leadership to keep our kids and communities safe.
FALL 2020 TELEPHONE LISTENING SESSIONS
Our team is committed to answering your questions, listening to your concerns, and helping you navigate federal agencies––including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and more. As part of that effort, we will hold telephone office hours from now through the end of the fall.
To schedule an appointment, send an email to the contact for your region with your name, address, phone number, and a brief description of the issue you want to address. If you are already working with someone in our office, please include that information in your email, as well.
If you don’t have access to email, you can call the phone numbers for the contact in your region. Please call any of our offices at any time for assistance, you do not need to wait for scheduled listening sessions.
To learn more about our fall 2020 telephone listening sessions click HERE.
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