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Slamming Trump’s Threats to NCAR and Colorado
What’s happening: Since mid-December, when Senator Hickenlooper and I first announced our hold on the Senate Appropriations Package, President Trump has continued his baseless and vengeful political attacks on our state. His decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) will have disastrous implications. Americans across the country benefit - often unknowingly - from NCAR’s research, which includes disaster forecasting, aviation fog warnings, drought predictions that guide crop planning, wildfire prediction and response, weather intelligence for military operations, and early detection for solar storms that threaten our electric grid and communications systems.
What I believe: President Trump's continued attacks on NCAR threatens the health and safety of communities across the country. Trump has declared war on Colorado because we refuse to bend to his corrupt administration. His reckless decision to dismantle these essential research and weather services will have lasting, devastating effects.
What I’m doing: On Thursday, I spoke on the Senate floor to offer an amendment with Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and Democratic Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) on the need to protect NCAR. I shared letters from constituents around Colorado and elected officials across multiple states and party lines who are worried about the effects that dismantling NCAR will have on their communities. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans blocked our amendment, and the appropriations package passed without funding protections for NCAR. I will continue to pursue all available options to secure funding for this vital institution.
2. Fighting Against Attacks on Colorado Child Care
Senator Bennet speaks with Colorado child care experts, providers, and recipients
What’s happening: Last week, the Trump Administration announced a decision to withhold over $300 million in funding for child care and family support services in Colorado.This is just the latest in a troubling pattern of federal cuts directly affecting children and families. The administration has already impounded K-12 funds, withheld food assistance, issued dangerous vaccine recommendations, driven up health insurance premiums, and pushed for cuts to SNAP and Medicaid that passed as part of Congressional Republicans’ signature legislation. A federal judge issued a temporary 14-day pause on the freezes to the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funding, but this is not a permanent solution.
What I believe: As a former Superintendent of Denver Public Schools, I saw every day how growing up in poverty shapes a child’s future in ways that are deeply unfair. That is why support systems like the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program that help low-income families access care are so important for success down the road.
What I’m doing: On Wednesday, I sat down with child care experts and providers from across the state for a virtual roundtable to hear directly from Coloradans on the effects of President Trump’s cuts to child care funding and family support. We discussed what this will mean for children and families, and how these cuts will affect the economies of communities across our state. I also led a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with a bipartisan group of my colleagues from the Colorado delegation, to demand that the administration work with Colorado to reinstate this funding. I will continue fighting with every tool at my disposal to restore this funding that so many families depend on.
3. Working to Block Berlaimont Private Access Road
What’s happening: The developers of Berlaimont Estates have long sought to build a year-round paved road through winter wildlife habitat in the White River National Forest to facilitate the construction of 19 luxury estates. The project has faced strong local community opposition because of the harmful consequences the road’s construction, use, and maintenance could have on wildlife, recreation, wildfire risks, and water quality.
What I believe: The Trump Administration has fired scores of experienced Forest Service employees and let essential work to keep our communities safe and local economies running fall behind. With such limited capacity, the Forest Service should be laser-focused on the public good. Instead, this administration is diverting scarce staff time to the pet projects of the very wealthy.
What I’m doing: I introduced an amendment to the Senate Interior Appropriations bill to prohibit the use of federal funds to open, improve, authorize, permit, or construct a year-round road on public land located north of Edwards, Colorado. This amendment would ensure that the Forest Service’s limited resources are spent on Coloradans’ top priorities – like critical wildfire mitigation, forest health, and recreation management projects.
4. IN THE NEWS THIS WEEK
- Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency rejected Colorado’s latest proposal to improve air quality in national parks and wilderness areas – not because the plan failed to meet federal requirements, but because the Trump Administration wants to keep coal power plants online, no matter the consequences. President Trump continues to try to take decision-making out of Coloradans’ hands. This is not cooperative federalism; it’s a federal attack on the state of Colorado. I will continue to support Colorado’s efforts to cut pollution and clean up our air, regardless of the federal government’s efforts to stand in our way.
- This week, Senate Republicans blocked a three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that passed the House with bipartisan support. Health care is a right, and should be universal. Yet with President Trump in the White House and Republicans running Congress, meaningful action to lower health care costs is nearly impossible. I will never stop fighting to make health care truly affordable, reliably accessible, and a right that every Coloradan can count on.
- This week, the Senate tried to advance a War Powers Resolution I co-sponsored to prevent President Trump from plunging us into an unauthorized war with Venezuela. Five Republicans joined us to advance the resolution last week. But enough of them ultimately caved to President Trump’s will on Wednesday, allowing Senate Republicans to shoot down the resolution by 51-50 vote – forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast the deciding vote. I will continue doing all I can to rein in President Trump’s reckless actions and threats, including against Greenland, Colombia, and Mexico.
- On Wednesday, I sent a letter to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) with Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse, urging the STB to conduct a comprehensive review of the Uinta Basin Railway project, including robust public comment. For years, we have consistently raised concerns about this project and its risks to Colorado’s communities, water, land, air, and climate. I will continue fighting to protect the Colorado River Basin and the communities this project would affect.
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