An Eventful Week in the 2nd
Hello Friends,
It was so great to be back in Colorado last week. It was a breath of fresh air to be among fellow Coloradans, back in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains and home with Andrea and Natalie. I was able to visit with many of you throughout the district and I had the opportunity to sit down with our city and county leaders, local business owners, researchers at our federal labs and students at Colorado State University to have productive conversations about how I can be working for each of the communities in the 2nd district while in Washington.
On Thursday, we held our fourth town hall in Frisco, Summit County. It was incredibly encouraging ?to see so many of you turn out and share your feedback and questions. I am taking my lead from all of you here in the 2nd district, and it is incredibly important for me to hear directly from you about the issues you care about and the problems we can work to solve together for the 2nd and for Colorado.
TOURING OUR FEDERAL LABS
On Tuesday, I was able to visit with workers from our federal labs in Boulder to hear about exciting research coming out of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).
I will be doing all I can in Washington to ensure that our federal workers here in the 2nd—from workers and researchers at our federal labs, our national park employees, U.S. Forest firefighters and TSA agents—to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country are offered the economic certainty and the respect they deserve as civil servants for our nation. We cannot allow anything like the senseless 35 day government shutdown we witnessed at the start of this year to ever happen again. As lawmakers our duty is to legislate for the people, protecting our workers and families must be our first priority.
MEETING WITH OUR CITY AND COUNTY OFFICIALS
It was great to sit down with municipal leaders up and down the 2nd district to have productive conversations about problem solving and legislating for the specific needs of each of our communities. In Fort Collins, I heard about the climate action initiative the city is undertaking to ensure sustainability in our community and we discussed the issues with protecting our quiet zones downtown. In Boulder, city officials discussed the need to combat climate change, protect our federal lands and secure our federal workers.
In Loveland and Berthoud, we spoke about how we can best serve our veterans and elderly population, and the importance of investing in our schools and affordable housing with the massive growth in these areas.
When I sat down with city and county officials from Gilpin County, Clear Creek County, Eagle County and Summit County, we spoke about the outrageously high cost of healthcare, the importance of caring for our national forests and public lands in our mountain region and the desperate need for infrastructure investment. I look forward to bringing all of these concerns to Washington and partnering with our local leaders in the 2nd to find solutions for all of these concerns.
In Colorado, we try our best to work together, to build consensus and find common ground on important policy issues. It was encouraging to sit down with leaders from across our district who are putting this attitude into action.
SERVING WITH KIDSPAK LOVELAND
One of my favorite visits of the week was a quick trip to KidsPak in Loveland. This group of volunteers is incredibly dedicated and thoughtful, and is working hard to ensure that children in our schools have enough to eat. It was an honor to serve alongside them.
SPEAKING WITH STUDENTS AT COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
A special thanks to the Straayer Center for Public Service Leadership and the Colorado State University Political Science Department for hosting a special discussion for the Colorado State University community. It was incredibly inspiring to see so many young people engaging on important issues and committed to making our community, our state, and our country a better place for the next generation.
OPENING OUR BOULDER OFFICE
We have officially opened our second district office in Boulder at 2503 Walnut Street. We hope you come by to visit either our Boulder or Fort Collins office in the coming weeks and utilize our staff there as a resource.
All the best,
Congressman Joe Neguse