{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/2025-in-review-hickenlooper-defends-colorado-against-trump-chaos/", "2025 in Review: Hickenlooper Defends Colorado Against Trump Chaos", "2025-12-23", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "CO", "John W. Hickenlooper", "H000273", "www.hickenlooper.senate.gov", "hickenlooper", "https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press/page/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 It\u2019s been a hell of a year, Colorado. Here are just a few of the ways Senator Hickenlooper fought this administration\u2019s chaos and stood up for Coloradans in 2025.\n\nDEFENDING SCIENCE\n\nLast week, Senator Hickenlooper blocked a federal appropriations package in the Senate after President Trump announced his plan to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder and cancel millions intransportation grants designated for Colorado. Hickenlooper demanded Republicans add an amendment to the package guaranteeing that all funding for NCAR be fully spent.\n\nAfter blocking the bill on the Senate floor, Hickenlooper joined protesters outside of NCAR in Boulder on Saturday to raise public pressure against cuts to critical environmental research.\n\nPROTECTING PUBLIC LANDS\n\nHickenlooper also led the fight against Senator Mike Lee\u2019s proposal to force the BLM to sell up to 1.2 million acres of public lands in Colorado and 10 other Western states. Hickenlooper first sounded the alarm in April, when he voted against the Republican budget resolution and introduced an amendment to protect public lands from being sold to pay for Republicans\u2019 tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.\n\nIn May, Hickenlooper held a press conference in Estes Park with Congressman Neguse, public lands advocates, and local elected officials to call out the Trump administration\u2019s threats to Colorado\u2019s national parks and public lands, including Rocky Mountain National Park.\n\nThe public pressure campaign worked. Following mounting opposition from Western senators and their constituents, Senator Lee stripped the public lands sale provision from the bill in June.\n\nPROTECTING HEALTH CARE\n\nSince the beginning of the year, Hickenlooper has railed against Republicans\u2019 manufactured health care crisis and worked closely with state leaders to protect Coloradans\u2019 care.\n\nIn July, congressional Republicans passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, cutting more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act to pay for huge tax cuts for the richest Americans and largest corporations. 15 million Americans \u2013 including 241,000 Coloradans \u2013 are expected to lose their health care because of Republicans\u2019 cuts.\n\nHickenlooper helped mount a political pressure campaign to fight for Americans\u2019 health care. He was one of the first senators to announce he\u2019d oppose the Republican government funding bill unless Republicans worked with Democrats to lower health care costs. Hickenlooper voted against Republicans\u2019 funding bill every time it came to the Senate floor.\n\nDuring the 43-day government shutdown, Hickenlooper organized a press conference with Coloradans facing steep premium increases and cuts to their Medicaid in 2026 to pressure Colorado Republicans and the administration to fix skyrocketing health care costs.\n\nRecently, in a last-ditch effort to save Americans\u2019 health care, Hickenlooper and Senate Democrats proposed a simple extension of the Affordable Care Act\u2019s enhanced premium tax credits for three years, without any changes, to save more than 24 million Americans from paying double for their health costs or losing their insurance entirely. Republicans rejected the proposal.\n\nFIGHTING ICE OBSTRUCTION\n\nThroughout the year, Senator Hickenlooper and his office have worked to help families desperately searching for loved ones arrested by ICE, and to advocate for those in detention.\n\nIn August, Hickenlooper visited the ICE detention center in Aurora after ICE repeatedly stonewalled his office\u2019s calls and emails. During the visit, he raised concerns with ICE officials regarding delayed communication with congressional offices, irregular process changes, reports of ICE pressuring detainees to voluntarily depart instead of proceeding through a judicial process, and facility conditions. ICE failed to give satisfactory answers.\n\nIn August, Senator Hickenlooper\u2019s office led the effort to get a mother and her 7-year-old son from Chaffee County released from the family detention center in Dilley, Texas. The mother had no criminal record and an active asylum claim \u2013 she and her son were held for two months before their release.\n\nIn November, Hickenlooper called for the immediate release of a Durango father and his two young children after ICE arrested them while they were on their way to school. Following ICE\u2019s failure to release the family, Senator Hickenlooper spoke directly with DHS Secretary Noem, demanding ICE release them from custody after they reported being physically abused while in ICE detention. Despite having active asylum claims and no criminal record, DHS refused.\n\nIn response, Hickenlooper and Senator Jon Ossoff opened an inquiry into ICE\u2019s unlawful obstruction of congressional oversight. Just last week, a federal judge blocked a Trump administration policy requiring members of Congress to give prior notice before visiting ICE facilities. On Saturday, Hickenlooper performed a congressional oversight visit to ensure ICE was following the law and to push for two young detainees to be released.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hickenlooper.senate.gov/press_releases/2025-in-review-hickenlooper-defends-colorado-against-trump-chaos/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.146339975297451, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}