In the News
Colorado residents and their representatives in Congress are bracing for another summer of raining ash and uncontrolled blazes as wildfires rage along the state’s Western Slope.
Smoke is billowing across the Centennial State, but it’s the duration and frequency of the fires that is causing the greatest alarm. What was once a seasonal occurrence is now extending beyond a few months each year.
Rep. Ken Buck never thought he’d be leading an antitrust charge.
The Windsor Republican, who represents much of the Eastern Plains, said if you had asked him about sponsoring antitrust bills 18 months ago, you would not have gotten a positive response.
“I was very much a market person. I looked at this and said, the market will take care of this. At some point, Amazon will start fading and, and other companies will rise and the marketplace can handle this,” he recalled.
The newly proposed federal MAPLand Act would provide resources to digitize map records as part of an effort to improve access to public lands.
Representatives Blake Moore (R-UT), Ross Fulcher (R-ID), Joe Neguse (D-CO) and Kim Schrier (D-WA) recently introduced the Modernizing Access to our Public Land Act to digitize federal land mapping records.
“There are people that desperately want to know where they can go and enjoy these public lands," Congressman Blake Moore said.
During a congressional hearing on Friday, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) emphasized the importance to communities in Colorado of taking action to address climate change.
“In 2020, we had a devastating and historic year for wildfires. Three of the five largest fires in state history occurred in the last year, and two of those were in my congressional district,” said Neguse during the hearing, referencing the Cameron Peak and East Troublesome fires.
A new senator, a new Congress, and a new administration all added up to a warmer reception for the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act in a key Senate subcommittee hearing.
The CORE Act had its first Senate hearing of 2021 on Wednesday in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The bill would protect 400,000 acres of public land in the Continental Divide, Thompson Divide, the San Juan Mountains and the Curecanti National Recreation Area.
Rep. Joe Neguse is introducing a bill that would ban the use of the sedative ketamine during arrests and detention.
Use of the drug in non-hospital settings has been under intense scrutiny after the death of Elijah McClain. Paramedics injected McClain with ketamine after Aurora police tried to arrest the young, black man. McClain went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
It was McClain’s death that drove Neguse to act.
Rep. Joe Neguse is pushing to improve access and funding for public lands in Colorado and around the country.
A bill introduced Monday by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from using the powerful sedative ketamine during the arrest or detention of suspects.
The legislation comes on the heels of a Colorado bill to restrict use of the drug in law enforcement encounters. That bill, which awaits Gov. Jared Polis' signature, was in response to outrage over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who was injected with the drug while under arrest in Aurora.
A few years ago, the U.S. Forest Service sat down with Eagle County officials and delivered some bad news: The federal agency was short-staffed and would be closing campgrounds in the mountainous county that includes Vail, where outdoor recreation is king.
Eagle County responded by spending its own tax dollars to pay USFS employees, an unusual arrangement that has become commonplace in Colorado’s high country, where waves of tourists have poured into some of the most-visited forests in the nation.
The SHRED Act appears to be aptly named. It made a rapid run through a U.S. House subcommittee hearing Tuesday and is primed for a full send in Congress.
And Rep. Joe Neguse says if the conditions are right, he’ll have the act at apres by the end of summer.
Short for Ski Hill Resources for Economic Development, Neguse said the SHRED Act is a response to the permitting needs and backlog that exists for improvement projects in the White River National Forest.