Rep. Joe Neguse talks partisanship and his plans for the 117th Congress

This is the second part of a two-part series on Rep. Joe Neguse’s plans for the 117th Congress. The first part, which focused on recovery efforts from the pandemic and the previous wildfire season, can be found on the Reporter-Herald’s website. 

After being reelected in November, Rep. Joe Neguse will continue to serve as the representative for Colorado’s second district, which includes Larimer County.

As he continues his time in the House of Representatives, Neguse has a packed agenda for what he wants to see done. With a wide array of bills, from legislation that would require private insurance companies to cover osseointegrated hearing devices to early age voter registration, Neguse said he is aiming to use his time during this Congress to make  changes for his constituents.

Neguse spoke with the Reporter-Herald Thursday about his hopes and plans for the 117th United States Congress.

RH: It has been three weeks since the events in D.C. where supporters of Donald Trump broke into the Capitol. How does the Hill feel now? What has changed? 

Neguse: The Congress and the country are still processing the events of Jan. 6. Obviously Jan. 6 itself was a harrowing day for Congress and for the country. I was on the floor of the House when the mob stormed the capitol; the first breach … since the war of 1812. Clearly it is still top of mind for many Americans and there is much work to be done at the congressional level with respect to oversight and investigative steps to make sure this never happens again.

But we all still are very focused on addressing the immediate needs of the American people and the challenges we face as a country. We are hard at work already drafting legislation. Our office introduced a series of bills this week on a number of different topics. I believe we are going to be able to accomplish a lot on a bipartisan basis in this Congress.

My hope is we can turn down the temperatures of our politics and get to work on the issues that I know matter a great deal to the people of Colorado, whether it is wildfire mitigation and resiliency, addressing climate change or addressing economic aid of the American people, all of which we are hard at work addressing.

RH: What is it like being an impeachment manager? What are your thoughts on the current state of the move to impeach former President Trump?

Neguse: I was honored and humbled that the Speaker asked me … to serve my country and to serve Congress in that capacity and prosecute that case on behalf of the Congress and the American people. It is a role that I take very seriously and I am working very hard preparing that case with my fellow managers and I am confident we will present a very compelling case to the American people when that trial commences.

RH: Do you think the GOP and the Democratic party will ever be able to recover along partisan lines? What would that take?

Neguse: I have always believed that no one political party has a monopoly on good ideas. I think it is critical for both parties to work together for the good of our country and that certainly the approach I have taken in Congress and that my staff has taken. Our office, during the 116th Congress, was identified by the Lugar Institute as the most bipartisan office of any of Colorado’s congressional delegations. That, in my view, is because we work very hard to listen to the views of all of our constituents across the political spectrum and work to partner with members from both political parties where we can on issues of significance to our constituents.

That is evident in the work we did last year. We had nine bills signed into law by President Trump; the most bills of any number of Colorado’s congressional delegation. We held frequent town halls across Larimer County, Loveland, Berthoud, Estes Park, Fort Collins and everywhere in between because it was critically important for us to hear from everyone, every constituent, irrespective of their political affiliation. That is going to continue to be the way that I approach this position, this public trust that I have the privilege and the honor of serving in.

We have a number of bipartisan initiatives we are going to be rolling out in the coming weeks. One that I am particularly excited about, we just had a call yesterday with the chief of the Forest Service, myself and representative (John) Curtis who is a Republican from the state of Utah. Both of us have created a bipartisan wildfire caucus, the first of its kind, and we are really looking forward to digging in and building that caucus out; attracting both Republican and Democratic members to join us so we can really come together and partner on some of the important initiatives that would help address the pervasive wildfires that continue to become all too common in the Rocky Mountain West.

I am very hopeful about our ability to get a lot done in this 117th Congress and that is where my focus will remain.

RH: What are you hoping will be the first focus by the larger Congress of legislation passed this year?

Neguse: My hope is the first focus, the principal focus in the coming weeks and months, is COVID relief, addressing the economic disruption that is taking place (and) crushing this virus. That, to me, has to be a central focus of this Congress. I am hopeful that will be the case, and I am certainly working toward that end.

Beyond that there are any number of priorities that we are hoping to make significant progress on. My view of this position has always been to do everything I can to help solve problems and leverage the expertise, the talent, the vision of our wonderful constituency in Larimer County. From our very talented local officials to our very successful and very thriving business community, really engaging with them so the ideas and the proposals we are pursuing at the federal level are responsive to their needs and the problems we are seeking to solve here locally.

What does that mean as a practical matter? As I said, last Congress we had nine bills signed into law to fix any variety of different issues around rural school funding, public land protection, consumer protection. We intend to double down.

We are very excited about pushing forward this year with a series of public land bills, for example the CORE Act, which would preserve 400,000 acres of wilderness across Colorado including in our district; making progress on issues like climate change (and) leveraging the real scientific expertise that we have in our district … to make progress on that issue in a bipartisan way, which I believe is possible; and, again, addressing some of the core challenges that people face in our community. For example, health care; trying to make health care more accessible and more affordable for people in Loveland, decreasing the cost of prescription drugs so folks in Larimer County can get the life-saving medicine they need.

Those are the issues I intend to spend my time on and am looking forward to working with the community as we did in the prior Congress to make progress on those issues.

RH: What are your own priorities for this newly reshaped Congress?

Neguse: We have a very long list. Yesterday we introduced a bill called Ally’s Act, which is named after an 11-year-old who wrote me a letter two years ago regarding the need for better coverage for bone anchored hearing devices. She was born with a hearing impairment that can only be addressed with the use of a certain device that is not covered by insurance companies in most states. So we decided to do something about it; we have introduced (the bill) that would mandate coverage under the ACA for that device and other related hearing devices. We think that is an important step forward and I am excited we had bipartisan sponsors.

We are introducing the Biodiversity Resolution to protect 30% of our country’s public lands by 2030. Again, we think that is a very important step forward. We have any number of bills that we have introduced or will be introducing.

The common thread to them all is they are practical, they are common sense and almost all find their origins, in one form or another, from our community. They are bills that were driven by folks in Loveland and Larimer County, and we are so grateful we have the privilege of representing such an engaged congressional district, and we hope folks will continue to engage us in the coming months and years.”

RH: Looks like you have already made some congressional moves by introducing, as you mentioned, the Ally’s Act as well as the Next Generation Votes Act. Why start there? 

Neguse: There are strategic reasons why we pursue certain bills at certain times. (For the) Next Generation Votes Act, there is an Omnibus Bill called HR1 which would reform government; (it) would clean out corruption and clean out dark money from our political system. That bill is likely to come to the floor, we hope, soon. As a result we wanted to introduce our Next Generation Votes Act bill early because we believe we can add that bill as an amendment to HR1.

We decided that Ally’s Act would be our very first bill because I felt number one that this is something we could potentially get done given the bipartisan support we have … and two I thought it was important symbolically; that Ally, her family and the community at large know they were heard, that we listened, that in our office the views of our constituents are central and we take them very seriously.

If someone contacts our office with a problem we are going to do our best to solve it.

RH: Now that the White House, House of Representatives and Senate all have a Democratic majority, what are you thinking will be some of the long-term legislation passed over the next few years?

Neguse: I think there is certainly an opportunity now to be able to accomplish real reforms with respect to reforming government, addressing the existential threat of climate change (and) protecting public lands through a variety of different measures we introduced in the last Congress that unfortunately did not pass the Senate that are nonetheless are concepts and proposals that are supported by wide swaths of Coloradans. We feel much more optimistic about our chances of success with respect to those measures. There are many other items I could mention.

All that being said, I would just say again our focus is always to do the most good for the most people and to work with folks across party lines to do so. Two of the three bills we will have introduced this week will have been bipartisan bills. Irrespective of what party is in control of which chamber, our focus is always going to try to deliver results for the people of our community. That is reflected in the bills we introduce to the legislation that we champion.

RH: Is there anything else you would like to say to your constituents across Loveland?

Neguse: I hope everyone is continuing to follow the relevant safety protocols, to continue to stay healthy, to continue to stay safe and to continue to stay hopeful. There is light at the end of this tunnel and I am so looking forward to all of us being able to continue to work together in the months ahead.