url,title,date,year,month,party,chamber,state,member_name,bioguide_id,domain,scraper,source,date_source,text,has_text,collected_at,updated_at
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=7CCA8323-82E9-8B25-DEA4-65FDB9F22913,Bennet Statement on National Monument Proclamation for Bears Ears,2016-12-30,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO - Today Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement after the administration proclaims Bears Ears a national monument:  ""This monument designation reflects the wishes of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, the Southern Ute tribe, and other Coloradans that we protect and preserve the beauty and culture of Bears Ears for future generations. This action is an important step forward in restoring our nation's commitment to our tribes by protecting land they regard as sacred and giving them more of a voice in its future management.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=AA284152-64A5-40C7-4161-9496854CAB89,"Bennet calls on Future Presidential Nominees, President-Elect Trump to Release Tax Returns",2016-12-30,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Today Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet co-sponsored a bill requiring current presidents and future presidential nominees to release their tax returns in an effort to increase transparency and give the American public insight into any foreign deals.
""The American people deserve to know about the financial dealings, both foreign and domestic, of the person who serves as our commander-in-chief,"" Bennet said. ""Our democracy depends on the foundation of transparency that makes America unique and great.""
The Presidential Tax Transparency Act requires all sitting presidents to release their most recent three years of tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). It also requires that, within 15 days of becoming the nominee at the party convention, presidential nominees must release their most recent 3 years of tax returns to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Should the sitting president or future candidates refuse to comply, the Treasury Secretary will be required to provide the tax returns directly to the OGE or FEC respectively for public release.
For nearly 40 year, since Watergate, candidates from major political parties have voluntarily released tax returns during the campaign.
Original cosponsors of the Presidential Tax Transparency Act include: Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) Chris Murphy (D-CT), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
A one-page summary of the legislative proposal can be found here. The bill text can be found here.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=F15F8F18-6214-32BF-DADB-9E42BBBFA078,Bennet Statement on Draft UN Security Council Resolution,2016-12-22,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement on the UN Security Council Resolution submitted Wednesday by Egypt:
""We must continue to push for policies that support direct negotiations in pursuit of a two-state solution,"" Bennet said. ""If what is offered is a one-sided Security Council resolution that would undermine the prospect of direct talks, the Administration should veto.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1542,Perlmutter Releases 2016 End of Year Report,2016-12-21,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Perlmutter Releases 2016 End of Year Report 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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        Lakewood, Colo.-,
        December 21, 2016
      
       
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
      
      
      Lakewood, Colo. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) released an overview of activity for 2016 including constituents services, events and legislation.
“One of my greatest responsibilities is helping the hardworking people of the 7th Congressional District,” said Perlmutter. “My staff and I are here to help constituents cut through red tape at federal agencies as well as to provide resources and information about a variety of issues. We look forward to continuing to serve the people of the 7th District in 2017.”  



    
        
            
        
    



In 2016, on behalf of the 7th Congressional District, Rep. Perlmutter and his staff:
 
    Hosted 30 events with more than 18,000 attendees
 
 
    Completed 595 constituent services cases
 
 
     Helped secure $550,350 in owed benefits and savings for constituents
 
 
    Advocated for $31.8 million in funds supporting organizations, research and jobs in the 7th Congressional District
 
 
    Answered 49,456 letters, emails and calls
 
 
    Nominated 22 students to U.S. Service Academies
 
 
    Drafted 5 pieces of legislation which became law in the 114th Congress
 
In addition, Perlmutter was awarded “2016 Legislator of the Year” by three organizations: Paralyzed Veterans of America – Mountain States Chapter; Jefferson County Economic Development Corp.; and United Veterans Committee of Colorado.
    
  
  
  
    
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http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-and-100-lawmakers-urging-trump-to-abandon-the-hyde-amendment,DeGette and 100+ Lawmakers Urging Trump to Abandon the Hyde Amendment,2016-12-20,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) and more than 100 other House Democrats joined forces to call on President-Elect Donald Trump to abandon the ban on women’s reproductive health choices known as the Hyde Amendment and to remove related funding constraints.
The ban, which anti-choice members of Congress have inserted into annual spending legislation for four decades, prohibits federal funds in Medicaid and other health programs from being used for abortion. This restriction on millions of women’s health care has predominantly hurt the under-privileged.
In a letter to the president-elect, the 108 legislators said, “Every person should be treated with dignity, compassion and respect – and that includes upholding a woman’s right to make her own decisions about whether to end a pregnancy.” 
During the campaign, Trump pledged in a letter to an anti-choice group that he would make the Hyde Amendment law.  The lawmakers asked him to forego that pledge and to “demonstrate your commitment to being a President for all people in the United States by eliminating the Hyde Amendment, as well as related abortion coverage and care restrictions, from your Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Budget request.” 
“We urge you to begin your presidency with a clear and bold statement that abortion coverage bans have no place in our public policy,” they wrote. “This will send a strong message to Congress and the country that everyone should be able to decide when and how to start a family—no matter their income, the type of insurance they have, or where they live.”
In an op-ed and other public statements earlier this year, DeGette reaffirmed her commitment to passing the EACH Woman (Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance) Act, which would prohibit re-introduction of the Hyde Amendment. She intends to co-sponsor it again when the new Congress meets next year.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1538,Perlmutter Works to Protect Employees and Work of NREL and Other National Laboratories,2016-12-19,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Lakewood, Colo. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) joined 26 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to send a letter to President-elect Trump expressing concerns over reports the Trump transition team has asked for personal information of employees at Department of Energy National Laboratories (DOE labs). The 27 members represent and/or sit on committees with jurisdiction over the 17 DOE National Laboratories.
“The 7th Congressional District is home to the National Renewable Energy Lab which is the world’s premier renewable energy and energy efficiency research lab and employs more than 1700 people,” said Perlmutter. “NREL and other DOE labs play a vital role in promoting technological innovation, research and development, energy independence and strengthening our national security.”
As stated in the letter, the Trump transition team asked for “a list of the top 20 salaried employees of the labs, the labs’ peer-reviewed publications over the past three years, a list of their professional society memberships, affiliations and the websites they maintain or contribute to ‘during work hours’, according to The Washington Post. This was part of a larger set of questions asking DOE about which employees worked on the issue of climate change.
“Staff at our DOE labs go where the science takes them, and for that they should be praised, not punished,” the letter states. The letter continues on to ask for specific questions that were asked of DOE about lab staff, the purpose behind them, and what the Trump transition team plans to do with any information obtained.
Click here for the full letter.
 ###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/potential-russian-influence-in-us-elections-calls-for-bipartisan-inquiry,"Potential Russian Influence in U.S. Elections Calls for Bipartisan Inquiry, DeGette Says",2016-12-15,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – In response to ongoing media reports that the U.S. intelligence community has found that the Russian Federation directed activities to influence the outcome of the U.S. elections in November, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), today called for a bipartisan inquiry that will present its conclusions to the public. 
“The prospect of a foreign power meddling in U.S. elections should concern all Americans, along with those who support democracy around the world,” DeGette said.  “Getting to the bottom of this alarming prospect is the job of an impartial inquiry with access to all the relevant facts, including highly classified information.  Sorting through that information and presenting a coherent and responsible account must be an urgent priority for the U.S. government.”
To meet these objectives, DeGette intends to cosponsor the recently-introduced Protecting Our Democracy Act (H.R. 6447).  It would create a bipartisan and independent commission to interview witnesses, obtain documents, receive public testimony and, where necessary, issue subpoenas. The commission would be required to issue a final report with recommendations to Congress and the President within 18 months of the bill’s enactment.
“It is irresponsible to downplay or dismiss the information that has been presented by major media about this threat,” DeGette said.  “We need to defend the legitimacy of U.S. elections at the local, state and national levels.  This is not a partisan issue.  Nothing less than the international credibility of our country as an example and leader in promoting democracy is at stake.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/the-21st-century-cures-act-a-view-from-the-nih,The 21st Century Cures Act  A View from the NIH,2016-12-14,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"The Cures Act, formally known as H.R. 34 or the 21st Century Cures Act,1 passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in the waning days of the 114th Congress and was signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 13, 2016. Weighing in at nearly 1000 pages, this bipartisan bill is the product of years of hard work by Republican and Democratic lawmakers, in collaboration with a broad array of diverse stakeholders. As with any landmark piece of legislation, the complex negotiations leading up to its passage were challenging and intense. But the final provisions are well worth heralding, including increased support for state efforts to combat opioid abuse, new steps aimed at improving mental health services, and important changes affecting the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Here, we focus on aspects of the Cures Act that are directly relevant to the NIH’s mission — measures that will provide the agency with critical tools and resources to advance biomedical research across the spectrum from basic, curiosity-driven studies to advanced clinical trials of promising new therapies. Affecting everyone from researchers to research participants to patients suffering from numerous conditions, these measures will cut bureaucratic red tape that slows the progress of science, enhance data sharing and privacy protections for research volunteers, improve support for the next generation of biomedical researchers, exhort the NIH to extend its efforts to ensure inclusion of diverse populations, and provide the NIH with a bolus of additional funding over 10 years for key biomedical research initiatives.
Some key measures reduce red tape. Policies generated with the best intentions sometimes have serious adverse consequences for research. Two needlessly obstructive policies have been undone by the Cures Act — one dealing with paperwork and the other with scientific meetings.
The first, the ironically titled Paperwork Reduction Act,2 was enacted when the Internet was nascent and paper still ruled. Its purpose was to limit government’s ability to ask Americans to fill out endless forms, especially when those forms were required to receive government services or benefits. Minimizing needless paperwork and bureaucracy is an admirable goal. However, as applied to biomedical research, the law requires multiple levels of government review and public comment on any set of questions that NIH researchers propose to ask of 10 or more persons in a scientific study supported by contracts, the Intramural Research Program, and many cooperative agreements. This process rarely results in substantive changes, but it delays the start of research for 9 months, on average — dissuading investigators, especially trainees, from undertaking important studies. Through the Cures Act, lawmakers have now liberated science from this red tape by eliminating Paperwork Reduction Act requirements for NIH research — a step that will help speed the initiation of research and the generation of new knowledge.
The Cures Act’s second major red-tape–cutting measure provides much-needed relief from restrictions on support for scientific meetings. Because of a few well-publicized extravagant meetings attended by members of other federal agencies, restrictions were placed on federal employees’ travel to meetings. Those restrictions applied to government scientists’ travel to scientific meetings, severely hampering their ability to present their research and exchange ideas with other scientists.3 Scientists could not be confident that their travel applications would be approved, and requests for meeting attendance were sometimes denied. These travel restrictions generated senseless paperwork and, owing to the resulting delays in processing requests from multiple agencies, actually increased costs to the government. The Cures Act has removed these restrictions.
Other measures in the bill relate to data sharing and privacy protection. Sharing data is essential for progress in biomedical research. Rapid data sharing was key to the success of the Human Genome Project, and that same commitment has been spreading across biomedicine in the past two decades, as advances in technology and “big data” have enabled an entirely new level of data sharing and inquiry.4 Despite the clear value of sharing data, the NIH has been constrained from requiring in a straightforward way that NIH-funded investigators share their data. The Cures Act solves this problem by allowing the NIH director to require that data from NIH-supported research be shared, giving all scientists the opportunity to use these data as quickly as possible to advance biomedical research.
This new era of rapid and facile exchange of data also requires redoubled efforts to protect the privacy and confidentiality of information about research participants. People who volunteer for research need to be confident that scientists will do everything in their power to protect their private information. The Cures Act contains what we believe are the most significant advances in research privacy protections in two decades. Certificates of confidentiality, previously available to researchers upon request, will now be provided to all NIH-funded scientists conducting research that involves the collection of identifiable, sensitive information. The certificates will provide stronger protections against the disclosure of the names of participants or any other identifiable data gathered during research. In addition, the Cures Act will allow the NIH to withhold biomedical information about individuals that could be used to reidentify them through requests for records filed under the Freedom of Information Act.5
Cures Act provisions also support early-stage researchers. Today, the average age of a researcher receiving his or her first independent research grant from the NIH is 42. The NIH has been working hard to create additional opportunities for younger researchers, including dedicated awards for new and early-stage investigators. Though such efforts have proven valuable for encouraging individual researchers, they have not resulted in a lowering of the average age of independent investigators within the full NIH research portfolio. Provisions in the Cures Act will establish an office at the NIH to promote policies aimed at improving coordination and analysis of opportunities for new and early-stage investigators, as well as at attracting, retaining, and developing emerging scientists in priority research areas. Such efforts will include strategies for developing early-stage researchers who are women or members of other groups that are traditionally underrepresented in biomedical research careers. To provide further support to early-stage researchers, the Cures Act authorizes the establishment of additional programs to assist in the repayment of student loans and raises the cap on the repayment assistance available to researchers.
It is essential that biomedical research reflect, and provide a benefit to, the entire U.S. population. The Cures Act encourages diversity by setting out a path for the NIH to continue and expand its efforts to allow Americans of all stripes to participate in and benefit from NIH-funded biomedical research. These efforts will be aided by the NIH’s collection and posting of more detailed information about the participants in NIH-funded research, specifically the inclusion of key demographic groups defined by characteristics including sex, age, and minority status. The NIH is also encouraged by the legislation to carry out focused efforts to improve research related to sexual and gender minority populations, as well as work aimed at understanding and reducing health disparities between different populations.
The Cures Act provides multiyear funding for three highly innovative scientific initiatives launched by the Obama administration: the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI), and the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot. It also includes a promising new research initiative focused on regenerative medicine

	Each of these initiatives has its own set of audacious goals, but their basic aims are as follows. BRAIN is a sweeping effort to build technology and knowledge across an array of disciplines to elucidate how circuits in the brain function in real time and what goes wrong in disease. PMI is a transformative research infrastructure that will enable and simplify research across all diseases. Its centerpiece, dubbed All of Us, is a longitudinal cohort study involving 1 million or more Americans. The Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot is an ambitious plan to double the rate of progress in the fight against cancer, making more therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to detect and prevent cancer. The Cures Act regenerative medicine program is focused on clinical research using adult stem cells, including autologous stem cells. It features an innovative funding mechanism that requires a match from the grant or contract awardee.
	Congress has made it clear that these focused investments are not intended as a substitute or offset for supporting NIH research through the regular appropriations process. Although the decision about the overall fiscal year 2017 funding level for the federal government to support all NIH research across disciplines and disease areas has been postponed until April 2017, the Cures Act funding is available now and will be used right away to support groundbreaking research. We remain optimistic that strong support for the NIH budget will be reflected in the ultimate decisions about the fiscal year 2017 budget and beyond.
	In the meantime, Congress has provided an enormous gift to science in the form of the Cures Act, a gift that reflects a deep confidence in the promise of biomedical research to make discoveries and develop cures in the 21st century. All those who made this gift possible — the President and Vice President, lawmakers, stakeholders, and most of all, patients — deserve our heartfelt thanks.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-slaughter-pallone-hail-final-rule-protecting-women-s-health,"DeGette, Slaughter, Pallone Hail Final Rule Protecting Womens Health Services Under Title X",2016-12-14,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON, DC — Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) today hailed the Obama Administration’s final rule barring states from withholding federal family planning funds in a discriminatory manner from clinics that provide women’s reproductive health services. They noted that the rule issued today will shore up efforts across the country to safeguard women’s access to services protected under Title X, which have been in place for more than 25 years. Title X is the only federal program focused solely on providing family planning and related preventive services.
“Title X-supported programs provide vital care for uninsured, low-income and young people nationwide,” said DeGette, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus. “This updated regulation protects millions of people seeking access to these essential services. Given the intensifying attacks on women’s access to them at both the state and federal level in recent months, such protection is more important than ever.”
“Women’s health care services will be under unprecedented assault from a Trump Administration, Republican leaders in Congress, and conservative state legislatures across the country. But men in blue suits and red ties shouldn’t determine what women can and should do when it comes to their own health or bodies. The Obama Administration’s actions today will protect state health care providers from political attacks that could cripple their ability to provide life-saving and preventative health care services to millions of Americans,” said Slaughter, co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus.     
“Millions of Americans rely on Title X-supported health clinics to access critical health services like cancer screenings, HIV tests, and reproductive health services,” Pallone said. “Unfortunately, Republicans have placed politics before health care by attempting to limit which providers women can access to meet these needs. Today’s action will protect women’s access to quality health care services by ensuring that quality of care and not politics govern which health providers can receive Title X federal funding.”
The new regulation clarifies and reinforces that health care providers may not be excluded from federal funding for reasons unrelated to their qualifications to perform Title X-funded services, which include contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, fertility, pregnancy care, and breast and cervical cancer screening. 
In early October, DeGette, Slaughter, and Pallone wrote to HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell supporting the proposed update to the Title X family planning program. In their letter, they noted that at least 14 states have taken official action to target and exclude otherwise eligible providers from the Title X program. Last year, Title X’s network of health care providers served more than 4 million women, men, and young people with family planning and other preventive health care services including Pap tests, breast exams, HIV testing, and contraception.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398253,Polis statement on crisis in Aleppo,2016-12-14,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Polis statement on crisis in Aleppo  
   
    
       
      
  
    
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        Washington,
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      WASHINGTON  – Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) released the following statement regarding the ongoing crisis in Aleppo, Syria.   

""In light of these atrocities, I believe that we cannot continue to sit idly by,"" Polis said. ""Over the last five years, we have seen the devastating cost of inaction, and as Americans, we have a responsibility to lead. I call on President Obama to use all channels at his disposal to negotiate a cessation of hostilities in East Aleppo with the Russian, Iranian, and Syrian governments and consider emergency airlifts and the creation of safe zones. Deescalating the conflict will provide immediate relief for the civilians who are trapped, and allow for their evacuation to North Aleppo – an important step towards fragile safety. It is incumbent upon the international community to demonstrate our capacity for decency and dignity. With history as our guide, we must act to prevent atrocities. We must stand with Aleppo and do everything in our power to protect and secure the fundamental human rights of the Syrian people.""
The escalating threat to civilian lives in Aleppo, Syria is an immense and imminent human rights disaster. At least 50,000 civilians are still trapped in their homes, besieged by heavy bombardments. Eastern Aleppo is being specifically targeted for violence by government forces. Reports of murder, violence, and retaliation against insurgents and innocent civilians are widespread.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/21st-century-cures-act-s-passage-also-suggests-a-cure-for-gridlock,21st Century Cures Acts Passage Also Suggests a Cure for Gridlock,2016-12-13,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Congratulations are due to Congresswoman Diana DeGette and a bipartisan team of lawmakers who managed what seems increasingly difficult in these days of hyper-partisanship and Washington gridlock: passage of a major bill full of promise for the American people.
President Barack Obama is expected to sign the 21st Century Cures Act, which received massive support in both the House and Senate in recent days, after years of work on the part of DeGette, the Denver Democrat, and Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan.
As other wise souls have noted, getting a major bill that deals with health care passed with bipartisan support after the animosity left by the Democrats-only passage of the Affordable Care Act is no small accomplishment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the bill’s passage “the most significant legislation passed by this Congress.”
We’ve cheered for the legislation, arguing, as DeGette and Upton have observed, that the status quo for getting new drugs and medical devices to the marketplace in this country takes far too long, despite past congressional efforts. Researchers at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, for example, found that in 2014 the cost of bringing a new prescription drug to market topped $2.6 billion and more than 10 years.
The long, costly slog contrasts with major advances in biotechnology and biomedicine.
The 21st Century Cures measure intends to streamline the approval process within the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration’s review of new treatments. It also provides means to combat opioid addiction and bolster mental health care.
The measure also helps fund the so-called “cancer moon-shot” effort that Vice President Joe Biden has launched and helps fund research into brain diseases like Alzheimer’s.
DeGette worked with Upton to hold numerous public discussions in Colorado and other states, as well as policy discussions with medical and policy experts, to better understand the challenges and build support for solutions.
“Fred and I worked with everyone we could think of,” DeGette told us recently.
No effort is without its critics, and the 21st Century Cures Act has them. Progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren argue the legislation gives too many concessions to the pharmaceutical companies. Lawmakers will need to keep a watch on this worry going forward.
Despite its critics, the bill achieved the amazing in gaining overwhelming support from both sides of the political divide.
Because of that support, this legislation is likely to serve as a model for future lawmakers intent on seeing their work not only make it to the president’s desk, but remain successful. As Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander told The New York Times, “The next administration or the next Congress will not be repealing the Cures Act, because we have taken the time to work out our differences, and create a consensus of support.”
We look forward to the results and offer our thanks to DeGette for her leadership on this issue.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/new-21st-century-cures-law-is-proof-that-bipartisanship-can-work-wonders,"New 21st Century Cures Law is Proof That Bipartisanship Can Work Wonders, But Partisan Plans for Health Care Reform Could Undermine Important Progress",2016-12-13,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"President Obama has just signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law. This landmark legislation makes significant investments in biomedical research. It will lead to new treatments for some of the most vexing medical challenges, including diseases that touch many Americans, such as Alzheimer’s and cancer.
But without health insurance coverage, millions of people might not be able to access the new treatments that we worked so hard on a bipartisan basis to enable under Cures. No amount of ground-breaking discoveries will save people who can’t afford to pay for treatment.
The promise of Cures is threatened by partisan plans for health insurance coverage in this country ranging from repealing the Affordable Care Act to block-granting Medicaid and converting Medicare into a privatized voucher program.
Republicans in Congress are racing to repeal the ACA without any plan to preserve people’s care. Experts at the Urban Institute estimate that nearly 30 million people could lose coverage under the Republican plan, including 588,000 in Colorado.
The ACA is not perfect. Congress can and should work together to improve it and work toward solutions that make premiums less expensive while still ensuring quality coverage.
But we must not deny health insurance to millions of people who need coverage most, especially families and patients suffering from disease. Taking this reckless step would return us to the days when people across this country had to choose between life-saving treatments and paying for groceries or the rent.
Throughout the entire Cures process, members of Congress were unified behind one goal: to modernize the way we discover, develop and deliver groundbreaking treatments to patients. Our objective was to improve patient health, restore hope and ease suffering.
We worked hard to resolve our often significant differences over this bill. Republicans and Democrats alike sacrificed and compromised in order to achieve a greater good for the American people. This strong bipartisan commitment to biomedical innovation truly represents Congress at its best.
Congress must acknowledge, however, that without access to health insurance coverage, millions of Americans will not benefit from new and life-changing innovations. In fact, they may not be able to access the medicines and care they already rely on today.
We cannot let this happen. I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to preserve the gains we’ve just made in modernizing medicine in this country. In the same spirit of bipartisanship that brought 21st Century Cures to the president’s desk, let’s work together to improve health coverage in the United States.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=C7297A93-0232-E5E5-021B-2A7C3696B884,Bennet-Authored Measure to Expedite Gold King Mine Reimbursements Passes Senate,2016-12-10,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Yesterday the Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) with a measure sponsored by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet to expedite the reimbursement of emergency response costs assumed by States, Indian tribes, and local governments following the Gold King Mine spill.
""For the last sixteen months, we've been pushing the EPA to reimburse the State, Indian tribes, and local governments that responded quickly to the Gold King Mine spill,"" Bennet said. ""We were disappointed last week when the agency announced that it did not plan to pay back more of the money that local communities spent responding to the spill. The bipartisan amendment that we included in the Water Resources Development Act will require the EPA to pay communities back for more of their costs. It also ensures the EPA continues to work with local communities to develop a long-term water monitoring program for the Animas River and authorizes funding for the program. We look forward to the President signing this bill into law and will work with southwest Colorado to make sure they receive the reimbursements they are due.""
In September 2016, the Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) with a measure sponsored by Senator Bennet to expedite the reimbursement of emergency response costs assumed by States, Indian tribes, and local governments following the spill. A similar provision was included in a bill that the House passed on Thursday and that the Senate passed on Friday.
Senator Gardner (R-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John McCain (R-AZ) joined Bennet to introduce the bipartisan amendment. The measure requires the EPA to make decisions on claims within 90 days and allows for claims that include costs incurred beyond October 31, 2015. It also establishes a long-term water quality monitoring program and authorizes funding to pay for the program.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/cures-act-gains-bipartisan-support-that-eluded-obama-health-law,Cures Act Gains Bipartisan Support That Eluded Obama Health Law,2016-12-09,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON — With self-congratulatory zeal and smiles all around, huge bipartisan majorities in Congress have just passed legislation to speed the discovery of cures for killer diseases. At the same time, Republican leaders have been devising a strategy to undo the Affordable Care Act, which has done more than any law in a generation to treat people with those diseases.
“It is a real contradiction,” said Dr. Otis W. Brawley, the chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society.
In recent years, few major bills have commanded as much support as the 21st Century Cures Act, which sailed to passage by votes of 392 to 26 in the House on Nov. 30, and 94 to 5 in the Senate a week later. Once it is signed by President Obama on Tuesday, as the White House has said it will be, the law will allow for money to be pumped into biomedical research and speed the approval of new drugs and medical devices. It also includes provisions to improve mental health care and combat opioid abuse.
“This is the most significant legislation passed by this Congress,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on Thursday. By contrast, he once referred to the 2010 health law as “the single worst piece of legislation that has been passed in the last half-century.”
Ellen V. Sigal, the chairwoman of Friends of Cancer Research, an advocacy group, said “there’s a disconnect” between efforts to pass the Cures Act and to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Most people voting and lobbying on Capitol Hill have health insurance,” Ms. Sigal said. “Intellectually, they may know that some people are suffering without insurance. But do they have empathy? Those who are insured may not emotionally understand what it is like for those who are not insured. We live in our own bubble.”
Lawmakers have their own explanations.
For one thing, the two health care efforts vastly differ in size. At a cost of $6.3 billion, the Cures Act is not small, but the Affordable Care Act cost hundreds of billions of dollars and affected every facet of medicine — from insurance coverage to delivery of care. It was bound to be more difficult to enact.
The Republican authors of the Cures Act — Representative Fred Upton of Michigan and Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee — went to great lengths to work closely with Democrats, led by Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado and Senator Patty Murray of Washington. The cooperation paid off.
“We had bipartisan buy-in from Day 1,” Ms. DeGette said.
By contrast, the Affordable Care Act was adopted in 2010 without a single Republican vote — either because, as Democrats have said, Republicans refused to cooperate; or, as Republicans have said, because it was jammed down their throats.
“We have been like the Hatfields and McCoys ever since, shooting each other,” Mr. Alexander said.
Mr. Alexander, deeply frustrated by his dealings with the Obama White House in 2010, learned from that experience. “The next administration or the next Congress will not be repealing the Cures Act,” he said, “because we have taken the time to work out our differences, and create a consensus of support.”
The American Cancer Society supported both the Affordable Care Act and the current biomedical research bill, and sees the two efforts as intertwined.
“The Cures bill includes incredibly important reforms to get treatments to people faster,” said Dr. Brawley, the top medical officer at the society. But he added, “We need to get those treatments to all people faster,” and he emphasized the word “all.”
The surge in spending on medical research will almost surely lead to new treatments, which could include some extraordinarily expensive drug therapies. To get such treatments, patients would need to have not just insurance, but good insurance coverage. (Some drug companies offer prescription assistance programs to help defray the costs.) A repeal of the Affordable Care Act could leave millions without access to the benefits of the biomedical research bill, Democrats have said.
Another factor in passage of the Cures Act was the relentless advocacy of Dr. Francis S. Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, who helped lawmakers appreciate the possibility of a golden age of medicine — with an artificial pancreas for diabetics, a vaccine for AIDS and the use of stem cells to repair damaged heart tissue.
Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, said: “My secretary of defense is Francis Collins, because the true enemy of each and every one of us isn’t somebody in South Korea or somebody in Iran or ISIS. It’s cancer, it’s Alzheimer’s, it’s AIDS, it’s diabetes, it’s heart disease — all those dreadful, awful diseases that N.I.H. is looking for cures for.”
Even as Congress wrapped up approval of the Cures Act this week, Republicans were having serious discussions about how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act without interrupting coverage for the newly insured. Republicans say they feel an obligation to move fast, because the law is crushing many families and small businesses with high costs.
Democrats say some Republicans want to repeal the president’s signature legislative achievement just because it is called Obamacare. It would be “a poke in his eye politically,” said Senator Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, who warned that a repeal could be “catastrophic to tens of millions of Americans.”
The Cures Act would also increase access to mental health care, which has been a bipartisan goal since the fatal shootings in 2012 of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
But Representative Frank Pallone Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said the benefits of the mental health provisions “will be far outweighed by the catastrophic harm caused by individuals with mental illness if the Republicans move forward with their radical plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.”
Sponsors of the Cures Act toured the country, visited clinics, held hearings and listened to patients who recounted their struggles with cancer, Alzheimer’s and dozens of other diseases. Patients and their well-organized advocacy groups proved to be more effective than the uninsured in lobbying Congress.
In debates on the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers have continually fought over the proper role of the federal government.
Republicans see the need for a federal role in conducting research and regulating drugs, but not in regulating the details of health insurance. Under the 2010 law, they have said, the Obama administration has issued so many regulations, bulletins, official policy statements and informal “guidance documents” that not even federal officials can keep track of them all.
Democrats have said the federal standards are needed to guarantee universal access to “essential health benefits,” and to prevent insurers from discriminating against those who are sick.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=1718E141-E968-6FC3-5BC9-BEFBBD81EA3A,Bennet Statement Regarding Gold King Mine Spill Decision,2016-12-09,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement regarding the final decisions from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on outstanding costs related to the Gold King Mine spill. ""Since last August, we've been pushing the EPA to fulfill their long overdue commitment to the State, Indian tribes, and local governments who responded quickly to the spill,"" Bennet said. ""The communities in southwest Colorado paid money out of their own pockets to maintain drinking water, provide for extra staffing costs, keep the public updated, provide water for irrigation, and monitor water quality. Although we're relieved the EPA has finally ended its long drawn-out reimbursement process, it's disappointing that the agency has not reimbursed the communities for more of their costs. We will continue to fight for our measure to enable further reimbursements and establish a long-term water monitoring program.""
On August 5, 2015, the Gold King Mine spill emptied three million gallons of contaminated wastewater into the Animas River, turning it bright orange and damaging communities downstream. Since the spill, Senator Bennet has worked to ensure that the EPA addresses all local communities' concerns and prioritizes funding for cleanup of the spill.
In September 2016, the Senate passed a bill to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) with a measure sponsored by Senator Bennet to expedite the reimbursement of emergency response costs assumed by States, Indian tribes, and local governments following the spill. A similar provision was included in the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act that the House passed on Thursday. Senator Gardner (R-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John McCain (R-AZ) joined Bennet to introduce the bipartisan amendment. The measure requires the EPA to make decisions on claims within 90 days, which the agency did on Thursday. The measure also allows for claims that include costs incurred beyond October 31, 2015 and establishes a water quality monitoring program.  The WIIN Act, which aims to improve the country's ports, dams, and other infrastructure, will now move to the Senate.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=3DDA894A-90DE-9508-26BF-4A41C30E6341,Senator Bennet Announces New Colorado State Director,2016-12-09,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced today that he has hired Julie Levy Duvall to head his Colorado operations, based in Denver.
""As a Colorado native with a wide-ranging background, Julie brings diverse experience and enthusiasm to our team,"" Bennet said. ""Her leadership and deep connection to Colorado will be invaluable as we continue to tackle the major challenges facing our nation and our state.""
Previously, Levy served on the Durango 9R School Board, worked on community and economic development issues, was Director of Government and Public Affairs for BP America, and was Partner and COO at a financial services firm.
""I've always respected and admired the Senator's ability to bring people together and find common ground on the most important issues facing our state,"" Levy said. ""I look forward to supporting Michael and our office as we work on behalf of the people of Colorado.""
Senator Bennet won re-election this fall and will continue to focus on fighting the dysfunction in Washington D.C., while working to create more opportunities for all Coloradans.
As State Director, Levy will oversee statewide constituent services and community engagement, as well as the day-to-day operations of Senator Bennet's seven regional Senate offices, located in Denver, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction, Durango, Pueblo, and Alamosa.
Rosemary Rodriguez will continue to serve the office as Senior Advisor to the Senator.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-helps-secure-30-million-affordable-housing-grant,DeGette Helps Secure $30 Million Affordable Housing Grant,2016-12-08,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) today hailed the decision by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide a $30 million grant that she helped secure for affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization in Denver. 
The HUD Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) Grant will help the Denver Housing Authority speed up the completion of the Sun Valley Homes redevelopment project. Last month, DeGette wrote a strong letter of support for the project to HUD Secretary Julian Castro. 
“The Denver Housing Authority has a record of efficiently using federal funds to complete successful revitalization efforts that increase access to affordable housing,” DeGette said. The Sun Valley project will both improve the livability of the area and more than double its housing capacity.”
The Denver Housing Authority plans to replace 333 distressed units in the Sun Valley neighborhood and redevelop them into a mixed-income, mixed-model community of 750 new rental units. The project is expected to aid greatly in the city’s efforts to expand affordable housing.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1529,"Perlmutter, Gardner, Bennet Measure Paves Way for Commerce City Development",2016-12-08,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC The United States Senate today approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2017, which included a provision introduced byRep. Ed Perlmutter(CO-07) and Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO)- the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Amendment. The NDAA will now head to President Obama's desk for signature. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal Amendment allows for an environmental assessment to evaluate the removal of deed restrictions, which currently prohibit thedevelopment of things like transportation infrastructure or retail and housing properties, on land that Commerce City purchased in 2004.Commerce City has been working with federal and state regulators to prove the property's safety, butCongressional action was necessary to remove the deed restrictions and fully allow for residential or industrial use of the property.
Theland was formerly a U.S. Army chemical weapons manufacturing facility, but was cleanedup and much of the property was used to establish the Rocky Mountain Arsenal NationalWildlife Refuge.Gardner, along with Bennet,introducedthe Rocky Mountain Arsenal Amendment to change current law to allow restrictions on the deed to be removed or modified if a risk assessment conducted under federal environmental law proves that the property is safefor these new uses. Perlmutterauthored similar languagein the House of Representatives.In July, Perlmutter, Gardner, and Bennet sent aletterto Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jack Reed (D-RI), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee respectively, and Congressmen Mac Thornberry (TX-13) and Adam Smith (WA-9), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee respectively, urging them to include the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Amendment in the final conference report of the NDAA.
The National Defense Authorization Act's inclusion of the Rocky MountainArsenalis central to Commerce City's potential development of the land it purchased nearly a decade ago,said Gardner.If the land is deemed safe for development, Commerce City has the opportunity to attract new businesses and jobs, boosting its local economy. This is the result of a strong bipartisan effort, and I look forward to President Obama signing the NDAA into law.
Following an environmental review, this amendment allows Commerce City greater flexibility to move forward and continue growing its local economy,said Perlmutter.I appreciate the bipartisan effort with Senators Bennet and Gardner to secure passage of this important amendment for the future of Commerce City.
""This language will finally allow Commerce City to move forward with its development plans following an environmental review,Bennet said.These reforms will help boost economic development and create jobs in the community.""
Allowing residential development on the Victory Crossing property aligns with the city's vision to create a one-of-a-kind space for the community to gather as well as make a home,said Mayor Sean Ford.The world-class soccer stadium, the new Central Park rail station and the new RTD bus line are just a few examples of how this area continues to grow and we want Commerce City residents to enjoy those amenities too. For the past few years, the city has been working with federal agencies and partners to remove these land restrictions and we look forward to our continued partnerships to develop this area. Multi-family housing with further strengthen Victory Crossing, providing a sense of place and contributing to a vibrant community.  
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=396D5728-BDDC-D7B9-461B-F6FB96572087,Bennet Statement on 75th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor Attack,2016-12-07,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today released the following statement on the 75th anniversary of the attacks on Pearl Harbor:
""Today, we honor those who sacrificed their lives 75 years ago in one of the most horrific attacks on U.S. soil,"" Bennet said. ""We owe a debt gratitude to those who perished on that day and to the monumental sacrifice of the Greatest Generation, whose service helped preserve freedom for Americans here at home and for millions around the globe. Their bravery inspires us to this day and it is in their honor that we commit to caring for all generations of servicemembers and veterans. We are grateful for the courageous Coloradoans who have served to keep us safe.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=A8ED495C-769D-E68C-4159-ED41763FE5F5,"Bennet, Senate Pass 21st Century Cures Act",2016-12-07,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Senate today passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes several measures written by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate's health and education committee. The bill received bipartisan support from 94 senators.
The bill, now on its way to the President's desk to become law, is a step forward in advancing medical research and innovating drug approval so that patients have access to life-saving treatments. Bennet worked with several of his Republican colleagues on the committee to draft a number of provisions that would build on his past work to reform and modernize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They include strengthening research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and addressing the mental health crisis.
The bill includes more than $4.8 billion for the NIH and $500 million for the FDA. Bennet fought to ensure that the final bill included the funding necessary to implement key provisions. It also included $1 billion for states to combat the opioid abuse epidemic through prevention and treatment efforts.
""Researchers and life science companies in Colorado and around the country are developing new cures and treatments that can save and lengthen lives."" Bennet said. ""The 21st Century Cures Act, developed by both the House and the Senate, will support the research that makes those breakthroughs possible and help us save even more lives.""
The 21st Century Cures Act includes the following Bennet provisions: 
 
The Promise for Antibiotics and Therapeutics for Health (PATH) Act, introduced with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), would permit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve an antibacterial drug for a limited patient population upon determining that the drug treats a serious or life-threatening condition and addresses an unmet need. In addition, the bill includes several provisions to guide appropriate use of antibiotics approved under this pathway, such as labeling and promotional material requirements. ""Superbugs""-or bacteria that are substantially resistant or unresponsive to existing and available antibiotics-are an increasingly urgent public health threat, both at home and abroad. While antibiotic-resistant bacteria kills thousands of Americans each year, less than ten new antibiotics have made it to market since 2000. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are also a significant concern to our troops, affecting more than a third of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, according to the Department of Defense.
 
 
The Medical Electronic Data Technology Enhancement for Consumers' Health (MEDTECH) Act, introduced with Senator Hatch, takes a risk-based approach and builds upon a Food and Drug Administration Safety Innovation Act Workgroup report released earlier this year. The report was commissioned by Bennet and Hatch through an amendment to the 2012 FDA reform law. Specifically, it would clarify the FDA's role regarding regulation of administrative and financial software, wellness and lifestyle products, certain aspects of electronic health records, and software that aids health care providers in developing treatment recommendations for their patients. As the rate of innovation rapidly increases in the medical technology industry, this bill provides greater clarity to ensure that businesses understand the rules of the road so that safe and effective products reach consumers as soon as possible.
 
 
The Advancing Breakthrough Devices for Patients Act builds on the successful ""Breakthrough Therapies"" pathway the Senate passed in 2012 from Senators Bennet, Hatch, and Burr. Both the 2012 legislation and the newly introduced bill share similar principles, such as an ""all hands-on-deck"" approach to devices targeted at serious or life-threatening conditions. It also complements and enhances the existing tools, such as priority review, currently in place for devices, with the goal of expediting the development and review of breakthrough products.
 
 
The Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act, championed by Senator Bennet, reauthorizes a grant program for campuses and allows funding to be used for outreach and treatment of students with mental health needs. It also directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a public health awareness campaign around mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness for students. It would also establish an interagency working group on college mental health to discuss mental and behavioral health concerns and promote federal agency collaboration, which would support innovations in mental health services for students on college and university campuses.
 
 
The Mental Health First Aid Act was led by Senator Bennet and Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). This provision would require the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to award grants to initiate and sustain mental health first aid training programs. These programs provide training on assisting individuals in mental health crisis to connect with appropriate behavioral health services and resources. Those who can be trained under the program include first responders, law enforcement personnel, teachers, school administrators, human resources professionals, nurses and other primary care personnel, students enrolled in school, parents of students, and veterans and veteran stakeholders.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/opening-statement-of-rep-diana-degette-ranking-member-of-subcommittee-on,"Opening Statement of Rep. Diana DeGette, Ranking Member of Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations",2016-12-06,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 
This is the last EPA hearing this Committee will hold with the Obama Administration.
The EPA has not always received the support it deserves from Congress. Even as the Agency has worked to fulfill its mission of protecting human health and the environment, it has faced criticism and attack.
Despite sometimes unfair opposition, EPA has commendably responded to unprecedented environmental challenges facing the country and the planet. I would like to highlight some of the agency’s accomplishments. Under the Obama Administration:
 The EPA has helped bring more than 190 countries together to adopt the Paris Agreement, now considered the most ambitious climate change agreement in history;
	The EPA has set new standards to reduce mercury and other pollutants from industrial air pollution, including boilers, cement plants, and large waste incinerators;
	The EPA has enacted the first-ever fuel economy standards for medium and heavy-duty trucks and put in place new fuel standards for passenger vehicles by the year 2025;
	And, the EPA has developed the Clean Power Plan, which will play a major role in reducing carbon pollution and enhancing air quality.
 I would like to thank both of our witnesses for your agency’s work.
I would also like to commend both of you for your work on the Volkswagen settlement agreement, which we are here to discuss today. I am supportive of efforts to scrutinize this agreement and ensure that VW is held accountable, and I want to ensure that is the purpose of today’s hearing. 
We are here because of VW’s decision to cheat. For years, VW put tens of thousands of cars on the road that emitted nearly 40 times the NOx levels allowed by law. VW’s decision hurt not only its own customers, who thought they were buying clean cars, but all Americans now faced with dirtier air. 
The California Air Resources Board, the EPA, and the Department of Justice quickly brought action against VW. Their aim was to both make VW’s customers whole and to mitigate the effect that these cars are having on the environment.
The Obama Administration recently reached a partial settlement with VW to accomplish a mitigation strategy. The settlement, which addresses only 2.0-liter diesel vehicles, requires that VW spend nearly $15 billion to settle allegations of cheating emission tests and deceiving customers. It also orders VW to remove from commerce in the United States or perform an approved emissions modification on the vast majority of the affected vehicles. Finally, it requires VW to designate a $2.7 billion mitigation trust fund to pay for NOx reduction projects and invest $2 billion in charging infrastructure for zero emission vehicles.
I applaud EPA for its work. They have taken meaningful steps to make consumers whole and reverse the harm that was caused to the environment.
As I said, I support efforts to investigate this settlement. But I believe we cannot fully understand the issues if VW is not represented here. They were the perpetrators of the fraud that necessitated this action in the first place. We need to hear how they will be following through on their new commitments to do right by their customers and the American people. I would encourage the Committee to hold a future hearing with VW at the table, possibly joined by some other companies and individuals affected by this settlement. 
I want to conclude with a message about the next Congress. As we are all aware, the President-elect has not been supportive of the EPA’s mission.  He has promised to abolish the agency and to back out of global treaties to reduce greenhouse gases.  He has declared climate change a hoax. 
These statements should give us pause. There is undeniable proof of climate change. Our planet is getting hotter. Natural disasters are more frequent and more severe. Sea ice is at record lows. We need a strong EPA to address these challenges and to work with our international partners to ensure the whole world takes these problems seriously. 
So as this year winds down and we look toward the 115th Congress, it is incredibly important that this Committee support the EPA in its critical role. This Committee has the tradition of working in a bipartisan way to work in the public interest.  This should include addressing environmental challenges before it’s too late. I hope we can work together to accomplish this mission.
I thank our witnesses for being here today and for your agency’s work.  I applaud your work on this settlement to ensure consumers and the environment are protected. And more broadly, I thank the Obama Administration as a whole for its work in prioritize environmental issues and make the world safer and healthier for future generations.
Thank you.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1528,"Perlmutter, 105 Members of Congress Urge Obama to Protect Immigrants Private Data",2016-12-05,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC  Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) joined 105 of his colleagues to send a letter to President Obama requesting that he take action to protect the names and private information of those who enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) programs. The letter specifically suggests an Executive Order that would prohibit the use of DACA enrollees' information for purposes other than originally intended, including for purposes of deportation.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, there are 33,000 DACA-eligible individuals in Colorado in 2016, with more than 19,000 application accepted by USCIS as of June 2016.
The letter reads, Since the implementation of DACA, we have been able to see firsthand the profound effect that the program has had on the lives of the children and young adults it protects.
As a condition of receiving the guarantees of DACA, these children and young adults submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) numerous sources of information to verify identity, including fingerprints and other biometric data. They also underwent background checks and provided their home addresses, where family members may also reside, the letter continued. In asking these undocumented youth for extensive personally identifying information, the Administration effectively asked them to place their trust in the government. Now many of those same Dreamers are wondering whether their trust was misplaced, fearing for their future in the United States, and questioning whether they can or should seek protection under DACA.
The letter was endorsed by National Immigration Law Center (NILC), the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC).
The full letter can be found here and is pasted below: 
Dear President Obama:
We write to express our concerns about the potential misuse of the personal information of enrollees in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. We urge you to consider taking executive action to prevent DACA enrollees' personal information from being used for purposes other than originally intended, including for the purposes of removal.
When your Administration first introduced the DACA program in 2012, it gave hope to many children of immigrantscommonly referred to as Dreamerswho were brought to this country at very young ages. Since the implementation of DACA, we have been able to see firsthand the profound effect that the program has had on the lives of the children and young adults it protects. Over 740,000 young Dreamers have been issued Social Security numbers and work permits, and many have used the benefits provided under DACA to seek job opportunities openly for the very first time. The DACA program allowed these individuals to enjoy many of the essential benefits, privileges, and responsibilities of American society that they had been denied for so long. Dreamers granted deferred action under DACA were freed from the constant fear of deportation to countries that many of them do not even know and do not call home; they responded by enriching their communities and becoming civically engaged in American life.
As a condition of receiving the guarantees of DACA, these children and young adults submitted to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) numerous sources of information to verify identity, including fingerprints and other biometric data. They also underwent background checks and provided their home addresses, where family members may also reside. Other sensitive information, such as documentation of an arrest or charge of a misdemeanor in the United States or any other country, was also requested of applicants for DACA. In asking these undocumented youth for extensive personally identifying information, the Administration effectively asked them to place their trust in the government. Now many of those same Dreamers are wondering whether their trust was misplaced, fearing for their future in the United States, and questioning whether they can or should seek protection under DACA.
Countless community advocates, organizers, and public servants have promoted the DACA program to Dreamers on the premise that the information they supply to DHS would not be used to deport them in the future. We cannot stand by and allow the Trump Administration to exploit the trust these young Americans placed in us and the government.
We believe that when government makes promises it should keep them. We urge you to do everything within your power to safeguard the personal identifying information of DACA enrollees, including issuing an Executive Order prohibiting the use of DACA enrollee information for purposes other than originally intended. While this program is a significant part of the Administration's legacy, it is more importantly a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of young Dreamers looking to lead productive and peaceful lives as members of American society.
Sincerely,
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/21st-century-cures-a-bipartisan-battle-on-disease,21st Century Cures a Bipartisan Battle on Disease,2016-12-03,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"With passage in the House of Representatives of the 21st Century Cures Act that I co-authored with Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton, we’re just two steps away from a major victory for U.S. research into causes and treatments for disease. The next few days will decide its fate as the U.S. Senate prepares to vote.
More than 700 groups representing patients, health care providers, researchers and others have voiced support for the bill – as has the White House, which provided its enthusiastic endorsement before and just after the House approved it by a vote of 392 to 26.
And this very newspaper weighed in, too, noting that the measure is intended to make federal review of research more efficient.
This is a watershed moment in this country for biomedical research. With this bill, we bring hope to millions of patients who suffer from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and a host of other ailments.
Upton and I started working on this measure three years ago. We traveled the country together to gather information about much-needed reforms, and we had tremendous participation in the process from patients groups, medical professionals, academia, and federal and state health care authorities. The consensus view was especially important as we strove to strike a balance between clearing away the hurdles to progress and ensuring safety and efficacy of drugs and devices remain our paramount standard.
All of this led to our original bill, which passed the House in July 2015 by 344 to 77.  We have worked tirelessly in a bipartisan, bicameral way since then to improve and expand the bill and to smooth the way toward passage through the Senate and on to the president’s desk.
The result will help overcome obstacles to medical progress — from discovery to development to delivery — through investing in innovation, incorporating the patient perspective and modernizing clinical trials.
Among the key provisions, this consensus version of the bill will:
 Provide $4.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health, including money for Vice President Biden’s cancer moonshot initiative, and including money for precision medicine and the brain initiative.
	Allocate almost $1 billion in grants to the states, including Colorado, to address the urgent opioid crisis in this country.
	Remove the silos at the Food and Drug Administration by transitioning it to a disease-centric approach, and it gives $500 million so the FDA can implement these reforms.
	Include all important mental health legislation that we’ve worked to shape and to pass into law for a long time.
	Catalyze cutting-edge research by supporting potentially transformative efforts.
 21st Century Cures will help scientists in our region and throughout the United States work together on research projects. At the moment, each school has to follow its own set of protocols for clinical and field studies, even when the schools collaborate. This cumbersome process can be streamlined so that schools such as the University of Colorado School of Medicine and other research institutions can collaborate without following separate approval tracks for their research models.
All of this, done in close consultation with the agencies that are responsible for the safety of medical research in this country, will bring hope to millions of Americans.
At a time of heightened acrimony in Washington, and in the wake of one of the most rancorous elections we’ve ever had, it’s wonderful that we can come together to find cures that affect so many patients and their loved ones.
Disease doesn’t discriminate according to political party. It knows nothing of claims and counter-claims. It responds only to carefully developed treatments and cures.
Diana DeGette represents Colorado’s First Congressional District to Washington D.C., where she is a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/congress-nears-a-breakthrough-on-medical-research-funding,Congress Nears a Breakthrough on Medical Research Funding,2016-12-02,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"In the coming days, the Republican-controlled Congress is likely to approve legislation that will invest more than $6 billion in public health and medical research over the next decade. It will expedite basic research into new medical devices and disease-curing drugs. It will reform mental health treatment and fund research into brain injuries and Alzheimer’s. The bill authorizes $1 billion to combat the opioid epidemic and $1.8 billion for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” project to cure cancer.
Those highlights are cited with equal enthusiasm by the coalition of Republicans and Democrats who wrote the 21st Century Cures Act and by administration officials hoping it will be perhaps the final significant piece of legislation that President Obama signs.
But to Senator Elizabeth Warren, the bill is an enormous giveaway to pharmaceutical companies, a danger to the public, and a legislative license for corporate “fraud,” “bribery,” and “extortion.”
“I know the difference between compromise and extortion,” the Massachusetts Democrat declared in a fiery speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “Compromise is putting together common-sense health proposals supported by Democrats, by Republicans, and by most of the American people, and passing them into law. Extortion is holding those exact same proposals hostage unless everyone agrees to special favors for campaign donors and giveaways to the richest drug companies in the world.”
Warren delivered her broadside in a last-minute bid to stop legislation that had been barreling toward passage in the waning days of the 114th Congress. The House initially approved the bill last year, and after negotiations produced a compromise with the Senate, the lower chamber overwhelmingly passed a new version late Wednesday afternoon, 392-26. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to send the measure to Obama before Congress recesses next week—if Warren and her allies don’t block it first. A day after her floor speech, Warren sent an urgent fundraising plea headlined “Hijacked” to her sizable donor base. Senator Bernie Sanders quickly joined her effort, issuing a statement of opposition to the bill on the same grounds.
In many respects, the Cures Act represents precisely the kind of diligent, bipartisan legislating to which members of both parties have longed to return. Aimed at a clear public need—improving medical research—it is the product of three years of work by Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Representative Diana DeGette of Colorado, a liberal Democrat on the committee.
With the encouragement of the research community and the pharmaceutical industry, both sought legislation that would make it easier to find life-saving cures by cutting barriers that hold up clinical trials and the approval of new drugs and devices those studies can lead to. Republicans prioritized an overhaul of regulations that, they argued, stifled biomedical innovation, while Democrats wanted both a boost in funding and structural reforms for basic research at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration.
“Those changes will last for decades after the money is spent,” DeGette said in an interview. “It’s really not just bringing devices and drugs to market more quickly, but it’s also being able to expedite the basic research behind the way we’re developing these devices.”
The bill passed by a wide margin in July 2015, drawing even more support from Democrats than Republicans. Just seven Democrats voted against it, while 70 Republicans—mostly conservatives—were opposed. In negotiations with the Senate, the legislation arguably became even more favorable to Democrats. A few provisions sought by drug companies were cut out, including one that would extend the period of exclusivity for new medications by six months and delay the introduction of cheaper generics. Biden won money for his cancer moonshot, and a coalition of lawmakers secured funding to send as grants to states fighting opioid addiction. Republicans won the inclusion of long-sought reforms written by Representative Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania to expand mental health services and prioritize treatment of serious illnesses.
The White House gave the final compromise its strong support, saying the legislation “offers advances in health that far outweigh” its concerns about the funding of the bill, which came partly from selling off oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Yet the changes were not enough to satisfy either the far right or consumer advocacy organizations like Public Citizen, which said the bill still went too far in relaxing approval standards for drugs and devices. The conservative group Heritage Action noted that the legislation had ballooned from 300 pages last year into “an almost 1,000-page omnibus health care spending bill.” Although its specific objections focused on spending, its core critique was nearly the same as Warren’s: “In Washington terms, back-room negotiators have turned the Cures bill into a Christmas Tree, loaded with handouts for special interests, all at the expense of the taxpayer,” Heritage wrote.
On the left, Public Citizen argued that even before the bill’s relaxed regulations, Congress had already made it too easy to get drugs and particularly new medical devices to market without sufficient study. “We’ve already reached a point, we believe, where we’ve gone too far,” said Michael Carome, director of the organization’s health research group. “The existing regulations already provide a pathway for quick review for bringing drugs to market. And any further weakening would undermine where we are.”
In particular, Carome cited a provision in the Cures Act that would allow a company to win approval for a second use of an FDA-approved drug without conducting a randomized clinical trial and instead using what’s known as “real world evidence.”
He explained: “Suppose a drug is approved for rheumatoid arthritis and you have to do the randomized clinical trials to prove it was safe and effective, and now you want to have marketed for multiple sclerosis, you can rely upon real world evidence, which is a much lower standard of evidence. It’s more subject to bias and manipulation and can be very misleading. If you’re a patient, such a double standard should be very disconcerting.”
Warren seized on that same provision, arguing that it amounted to “legalized fraud.”
“Pushing treatments without scientific evidence that they work is fraud—fraud that can hurt people,” she said in her floor speech. “It also undercuts the development of real cures.”
In an unusual alliance with Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, Warren also criticized a provision that would exempted companies from having to disclose certain payments to hospitals and doctors encouraging them to prescribe their drugs. With opposition mounting, the legislation’s sponsors removed that language at the last minute, but Warren said its removal was not enough to win her support.
Her attack on the bill this week blindsided supporters like DeGette, who insisted the measure’s benefits clearly outweighed its flaws and said Warren either misunderstood or was misrepresenting the Cures Act. “There’s absolutely no weakening of any kinds of review,” DeGette told me. “We have the gold standard for safety and efficacy in the world, and we preserve those.”
She noted that the bill had strong support from many in the research community and at the NIH, and she pointed out that many provisions sought by Big Pharma that had been included in earlier versions were now gone. “To categorize this bill as a giveaway to Big Pharma is just simply not accurate,” DeGette said.Democrats are anxious to pass the bill while Obama is in office for many reasons, none more so than the fact that they will surely lose leverage with Donald Trump in the White House. The cancer money is obviously a priority for Biden, and lawmakers in both parties say the funding for the opioid epidemic is already long overdue.
There is urgency for Republicans, too. The legislation is a legacy project for Upton, who will remain in Congress but because of GOP term limits is ending his tenure as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And once Trump takes office, this bill likely would fall further down on an agenda packed with bigger-ticket items like tax reform and repeal of Obamacare. “Not only will it get worse for Democrats next year, I think it’ll be very difficult to find that sweet spot where we agree on legislation in a bipartisan way,” DeGette said.
Warren, however, seems unconcerned with the question of timing or leverage. To the dismay of fellow liberals like DeGette, she has chosen to make the 21stCentury Cures Act the first Democratic policy fight of the Trump era.
“The American people didn't give Democrats majority support so we could come back to Washington and play dead,” she said. “They didn't send us here to whimper, whine, or grovel. They sent us here to say no to efforts to sell Congress to the highest bidder. They sent us here to stand up for what's right. Now, they are watching, waiting, and hoping—hoping we show some spine and start fighting back when Congress completely ignores the message of the American people and returns to all its same old ways.
“Republicans will control this government,” Warren continued, “but they cannot hand over that control to big corporations unless Democrats roll over and allow them to do so.”
It’s a debate Democrats know they need to have—whether and when to work with Trump and the Republicans, or whether simply to fight him at every turn. But the president-elect is still weeks away from becoming president. And to the many lawmakers—172 of them in the House on Wednesday—who share concerns about corporate influence but who believe the Cures Act is a fair compromise that will on balance improve public health, Warren chose the wrong bill, and the wrong moment, to make her stand.
Two days after the Massachusetts senator called the Cures Act an example of legalized fraud and extortion, all but six House Democrats voted for it anyway.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/house-overwhelmingly-approves-sweeping-health-measure,House Overwhelmingly Approves Sweeping Health Measure,2016-12-02,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly passed a far-reaching measure on Wednesday to increase funding for research into cancer and other diseases, address weaknesses in the nation’s mental health systems and help combat the prescription drug addictions that have bedeviled nearly every state.
The bill, known as the 21st Century Cures Act, also makes regulatory changes for drugs and medical devices, which critics argue lower standards to potentially perilous levels.
Passage of the bill in the Senate next week appears likely, even though Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, has taken to the floor twice to criticize the bill as a windfall for drug companies, with too few safety provisions. “The American people are not clamoring for the Cures bill,” Ms. Warren said on Wednesday, calling it the sort of measure that explains “why people hate Washington.”
The bill, which passed 392 to 26, was the product of three years of work, largely in the House, with former and current officials from the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health — two of the biggest beneficiaries of new funding in the bill — as well as scientists, health care advocates and others. It aims to streamline the federal drug regulatory structure to keep up with advances in biotechnology and other forms of medical research.
“We have listened to every group out there,” said Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which shepherded the bill. “I think we have a pretty good bipartisan bill that’s going to meet everyone’s test of how legislation should be done.”
The bill authorizes billions of dollars in new funding for N.I.H. research, much of it directed for Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, including money for the cancer “moonshot” sought by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose son died from complications of a brain tumor last year. The F.D.A. is expected to receive a half-billion dollars, in part to help expand its staff to speed up processes at that agency. States could tap into roughly $1 billion over two years to fight the opioid epidemic.
It also folds in another large piece of legislation designed to improve the nation’s mental health services.
Language that would have exempted some speaker fees from a requirement compelling doctors to report payments received from the pharmaceutical industry was excised at the last minute.
Democrats are unhappy with the way the bill is funded. It authorizes $6.3 billion in money taken from a preventive health care fund and other sources, but funding must be appropriated annually. Democrats wanted the funding to be automatic each year.
“We have assurances from Republicans that they want to spend this money,” said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, who traveled around the country with Mr. Upton to build support for the bill. “I actually feel confident that the money will be spent on that because this is a goal that is shared by both parties.”
Critics of the bill say it lowers standards for drug and device approvals at the Food and Drug Administration, in exchange for a badly needed funding increase for the National Institutes of Health.
“I think this takes us backward,” said Susan Wood, an associate professor of health policy at George Washington University and a former assistant commissioner for women’s health at the F.D.A. “It was a trade-off that was never worth doing.”
Others argue that the bill falls short because it elevates measures of a drug’s success called surrogate end points that can be misleading — for example, if a drug shrinks a tumor but does not ultimately prolong life. “This legislation pressures the F.D.A. to rely more on surrogate end points instead of results that matter to patients, living longer or feeling better,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Center for Health Research in Washington.
Ms. DeGette said that although the bill contained provisions she did not like, “there is nothing in this bill that the F.D.A. says would undermine safety or efficacy of drugs.” She and other Democrats said they would get no better a deal next year under President Donald J. Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress.
In talks among House Republicans, Mr. Upton said, “someone said, ‘Why don’t we let Trump have this victory?’
“But we can’t delay it for political reasons,” he continued. “Who knows what would have happened if we had to start from scratch next year?”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/us-house-passes-medical-cures-bill-championed-by-diana-degette,U.S. House Passes Medical Cures Bill Championed by Diana DeGette,2016-12-02,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON — A bill that would make sweeping changes to the medical research field passed the U.S. House on Wednesday, getting U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver that much closer to securing a win for her top legislative priority.
The 392-26 vote was a larger margin than the 344-77 vote that backed a 2015 version of the bill, but came as some Senate Democrats and progressive groups raised concerns over whether the measure does too much to help drug and medical-device companies.
Every member of Colorado’s U.S. House delegation, except for Rep. Ken Buck, R-Windsor, supported the 21st Century Cures Act.
Backers of the bill said they were hopeful they would send the measure to President Barack Obama — who wants to see it passed — before Congress ends its current term.
“This is a watershed moment in this country for bio-medical research,” said DeGette, who championed the bill with U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. “With this bill, we bring hope to millions of patents who suffer from cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and a host of other ailments.”
The next step is the Senate, where liberal lawmakers such as Bernie Sanders, Dick Durbin and Elizabeth Warren have raised concerns about whether the bill would overly weaken standards for the approval of drugs and other therapies in an effort to more quickly get them in the hands of patients.
“This bill isn’t about doing what the American people want,” Warren said. “This bill is about doing what drug companies and (political) donors want.”
Buck said Wednesday he opposed the bill due to its cost. “It spends too much money. It’s that simple,” he said.
Kaiser Health News this week reported that the $6.3 billion measure was one of the most heavily lobbied pieces of legislation this Congress, with more than 1,400 lobbyists involved in trying to influence the bill’s language, which runs roughly 1,000 pages.
In this 2016 election cycle, health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry were the two biggest contributors to DeGette’s campaign – giving a combined $275,180, according to the Center of Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog.
Michael Carome, of the consumer-rights group Public Citizen, said the current version would require that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration develop a program that would make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to get approval to repurpose old drugs to treat new afflictions — such as using a drug for lung cancer to treat breast cancer, he said.
“That’s a troubling provision,” he said. “It further erodes the standards of approving drugs.”
Still, Carome said legislators had removed two troubling items.
No longer will the bill help drug companies extend the exclusivity of some medications to treat rare afflictions — and in the process delay the rollout of cheaper, generic drugs.
Also cut was a section that would have weakened the reporting requirements of gifts that medical companies give to doctors. Lawmakers such as U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had threatened to block the bill if that clause wasn’t removed.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet did not say Wednesday whether he planned to support the bill, although the Colorado Democrat had been involved in earlier efforts on the Senate side to fast-track new drugs to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“Michael is reviewing the bill and encouraged by the efforts to address antibiotic-resistant superbugs, safely speed up the FDA approval process to save lives, and provide clarity for health care mobile app developers,” said Laurie Cipriano, a Bennet spokeswoman, in a statement.
Whatever Democratic effort exists to stop the bill in the Senate could be stymied by the White House, which strongly backed its passage this week.
In addition to the bill’s push to make it easier for medical researchers to collaborate, it also takes steps to address the opioid drug epidemic and to jumpstart a “moonshot” effort to cure cancer — a major priority for Vice President Joe Biden.
The $1.8 billion moonshot plan “aims to accelerate research efforts and make new therapies available to more patients, while also improving our ability to prevent cancer and detect it at an early stage,” administration officials said in their analysis of the bill.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=1C426006-B36E-BA0D-284C-7312A0B65376,Bennet Votes to Extend Iran Sanctions Act,2016-12-02,2016,2016-12,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement after Thursday's passage of a bill to reauthorize the Iran Sanctions Act by a vote of 99 to 0.
""The overwhelmingly bipartisan vote shows the world that Congress remains steadfast in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,"" Bennet said. ""Extension of the Iran Sanctions Act ensures the United States can effectively re-impose sanctions, consistent with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, should Iran violate the agreement.""
The Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 is set to expire on December 31, 2016.
In 2015, Bennet joined Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, along with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chris Coons (D-DE), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Mark Warner (D-VA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) to introduce the Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, a bill that builds upon the bipartisan commitment to oversight outlined in the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 that passed the U.S. Senate 98 to 1. The bill included a regional security strategy for the Middle East and authorized additional security assistance for Israel.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-overwhelmingly-approves-21st-century-cures-act,House Overwhelmingly Approves 21st Century Cures Act,2016-11-30,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"To watch Congresswoman DeGette's floor speech on 21st Century Cures, click on the image above.
""Today the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed 21st Century Cures, the bipartisan bill that I led with Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), that will dramatically improve biomedical research in America. On the House floor, I urged my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to seize on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to tackle our present and future public health challenges – and they did, by a vote of 392 to 26. I’m humbled and extremely pleased that we are one big step closer to saving millions of lives. The bill now goes to the Senate for a vote.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1522,Local Documentary Film Submitted to Library of Congress,2016-11-30,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C.  Today MEDIC! was formally submitted to the Library of Congress by the office of U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) and teachers from Westminster High School in Colorado. The MEDIC! documentary film highlights the stories of five brave veterans who served their country and their fellow veterans as combat medics. The film was produced by the faculty and students of Westminster High School and premiered in May 2016.
""We are honored to have been able to contribute the film MEDIC! to the Veterans History Project. Hearing our veterans tell their stories in their own words was an once-in-a-lifetime experience, said Chris Williams, video cinema arts teacher at Westminster High School. We are grateful to Congressman Perlmutter's office and his incredible staff for selecting Westminster High School for this important project. We hope that many more people will have the chance to view our film now that it is officially part of the Library of Congress collection.  
The MEDIC! oral history project and student film showcases the community veterans, students, and Congressional outreach that sustains the Library of Congress Veterans History Project,"" said Karen Lloyd, VHP Director and a veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps.
MEDIC! is truly a unique and significant piece of history that includes in-depth research, in-house graphics and animation, and its very own original musical score, said Rep. Perlmutter. A big thanks to the faculty and students of Westminster High School and to the Veterans History Project for helping to preserve and share our local veterans' stories.
The Veterans History Project (VHP) is a congressionally chartered project and is part of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.Congress created the Veterans History Project in 2000 as a way to collect, preserve, and make accessible personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.
MEDIC! is the fourth VHP film that Perlmutter's office has helped produce, the first with high school students. Rep. Perlmutter's office has collaborated with local community colleges to produce three other Veterans History Project films:The Wars We Fought(2007),The Greatest Generation: Operation Detachment (2011),and Women Warriors: A Vision of Valor(2014).
Click here for more information or to watch these documentaries. To learn about the Veterans History Project, visit https://www.loc.gov/vets/.
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/congress-races-to-pass-medical-research-bill-in-lame-duck-session,Congress Races to Pass Medical Research Bill in Lame-Duck Session,2016-11-29,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"""Until now, we haven't talked at all about compromise on the Affordable Care Act,"" said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado. ""From the moment it passed, Republicans started their mantra of 'repeal and replace.' Now that repeal seems to be off the table, I think it's in everybody's interest to make the law work better for our constituents.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/life-saving-legislation-21st-century-cures-act-advances-in-house,"Life-Saving Legislation, 21st Century Cures Act, Advances in House",2016-11-29,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON, DC – Vital innovations in biomedical research are within reach, potentially saving countless lives, with the House about to debate its final version of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) said.
“This is a watershed moment for patients, their loved ones and health care professionals across the United States,” DeGette said.  “We’re bringing hope to millions of people suffering from cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and a host of other ailments.” 
DeGette is co-author, together with Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), of the original 21st Century Cures Act (H.R. 6), which the House passed 344-77 in 2015. Negotiations with members of the Senate and with the White House produced a bill that melds House and Senate policies.  It includes funding to address the nation’s opioid crisis and to implement Vice President Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to facilitate more robust research.
The legislation will help overcome obstacles to medical progress – from discovery to development to delivery – through investing in innovation, incorporating the patient perspective and modernizing clinical trials.  Among its key provisions, the consensus version of the bill before the House will:
 Provide $4.8 billion to National Institutes of Health, including: $1.4 billion for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative to drive research into the genetic, lifestyle and environmental variations of disease; $1.8 billion for the “Cancer Moonshot;” and $1.6 billion for the BRAIN initiative to improve our understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's and to speed diagnosis and treatment.
	Provide $1 billion in grants to states to address the opioid crisis.
	Remove the silos at the Food and Drug Administration by transitioning it toward a disease-centric approach, and provide $500 million additional support to the FDA.
	Catalyze cutting-edge research by supporting potentially transformative efforts and providing opportunities for new researchers.
	Modernize clinical trials by harmonizing regulations protecting patients.
	Address the country’s mental health crisis and help the one out of five adult Americans suffering from mental illness and substance abuse disorders receive the care they need.
 More than 700 groups have voiced support for the House legislation.  Many have participated in a variety of forums to offer feedback on the bill, and they have worked with members of both the House and Senate to convey the urgency of seeing it become law.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pro-choice-caucus-chairs-the-american-people-shouldn-t-be-forced-to,Pro-Choice Caucus Chairs: The American People Shouldnt Be Forced to Spend Another Dime on Panel Designed to Attack Womens Health,2016-11-29,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette (CO-01) and Louise Slaughter (NY-25), co-chairs of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, called on congressional leaders to disband the Select Panel ahead of a vote expected Thursday on a privileged resolution that would provide an additional $800,000 in taxpayer dollars for the panel, which has aggressively targeted women’s health providers and the scientific community. House Republicans are now on course to spend more than $1.5 million funding this partisan attack on women’s health. The congresswomen are again calling on GOP leaders to stop wasting tax dollars on it.
“The Select Investigative Panel is nothing but a partisan witch hunt that has wasted taxpayer dollars while stirring up baseless, irresponsible allegations that have intimidated women, health care providers, and scientific researchers. The House majority is now on track to spend more than $1.5 million of Americans’ tax dollars chasing down bogus allegations. Enough is enough. The American people shouldn’t be forced to spend another dime on a panel designed to attack women’s health and intimidate health care providers and researchers. These attacks are likely just a preview of what's to come under a Trump Administration with Republican majorities in Washington. It’s time for Speaker Ryan and the majority in the House to end this political theater and disband the Select Investigative Panel once and for all,” said DeGette and Slaughter.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-seeks-to-prevent-auto-fatalities-with-update-to-50-year-old,DeGette Seeks to Prevent Auto Fatalities With Update to 50-Year-Old Seatback Safety Standard,2016-11-23,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO – With families in Colorado and across the country about to hit the roads for the holiday season, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) has renewed her push for authorities to overhaul an outdated federal standard governing car seatback safety and require that the government be notified whenever death or injuries from seatback collapses occur.
DeGette and Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CN) today sent a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) urging an update to the 50-year-old seat safety standard that can harm or kill backseat passengers when front seatbacks collapse during a rear-end crash. The Center for Auto Safety estimates the seat safety defect leads to the death of at least 50 children per year.
The letter also asks NHTSA to investigate automakers’ apparent failure, as discovered by the lawmakers’ investigation, to comply with the agency’s Early Warning Reporting (EWR) System requirements to submit information on incidents involving death or injury. Finally, the lawmakers call on NHTSA to strengthen EWR and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) so that the public can know if seatbacks are involved in injuries and fatalities.
An ongoing investigation by CBS News found 107 cases of seatback collapse across 35 states that resulted in an injury or death over the last 30 years. Several of those cases that should have been reported to EWR weren’t found in the database, which is required by law. Additionally, the Center for Auto Safety found 3,455 injuries and 326 deaths listed in the EWR in which ‘seat’ was a contributing component, but it was impossible to determine whether a seatback collapse occurred because NHTSA does not require and automakers do not provide information sufficient to do so. In the letter, the lawmakers ask NHTSA to, provide copies of all death and injury reports requested by the agency for those injuries and deaths, and to share any police report information.
“NHTSA previously indicated that there was not sufficient data on seatback collapse to permit an informed decision on rulemaking action in this area,” wrote the lawmakers. “Information on injuries and fatalities due to seatback collapse would be readily available from police reports, but without a dedicated field in EWR or FARS to methodically collect and organize such information, it is likely that NHTSA will continue to claim the problem of seatback collapse does not exist or is not pervasive enough to change.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-objects-to-sessions-as-attorney-general-due-to-his-regressive,DeGette Objects to Sessions as Attorney General Due to His Regressive Views,2016-11-18,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Denver – Senator Jeff Sessions should not be nominated to serve as the nation’s next attorney general due to his regressive views, said Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO).
“As the president’s top advisor on matters of law and justice, the man or woman in this position must possess a firm commitment to civil rights,” DeGette said. “However, Senator Sessions’ regressive record on immigration, LGBT equality and civil liberties, along with his shocking comments on the NAACP and the KKK, make him unequivocally unfit to serve in this role. I urge President-elect Trump not to make this nomination, and instead to make good on his promise to unify our divided nation. And if he does not, members of the Senate must reject Senator Sessions for this critical role.”
Sessions is the U.S. Senate’s leading anti-immigration voice, urging severe restrictions on visas and drastically expanded immigration enforcement while blocking practical reforms to our country’s outdated immigration system. While in the Senate, he has vigorously opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and voted for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Earlier in his career, when nominated by President Ronald Reagan to be a federal judge, he was turned down by the Senate amid repeated allegations of racist language, criticism of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP, and a purported joke about the Ku Klux Klan. While advising the campaign earlier this year, Senator Sessions supported Trump’s suggestion to institute a ban on Muslims entering the United States and his opposition to the 14th Amendment, which confers citizenship on people born in this country.
“This proposed nomination is another disturbing sign of where the Trump administration is headed,” DeGette noted. “If Senator Sessions was not fit to be a federal judge, he's not fit to be Attorney General. His actions and attitudes on civil liberties make him completely wrong for the job.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1536,Perlmutter Holds Second Congressional App Challenge,2016-11-18,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Northglenn, Colo.  Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) held the second Congressional App Challenge, a nationwide event that allows students to compete by creating and exhibiting their software application, or app, for mobile, tablet, or computer devices on a platform of their choice.

The 7th Congressional District had a total of seven teams participate  two from Northglenn High School and five from Arvada High School. One team from Northglenn created a virtual reality app designed to give the history of Northglenn, while the other team built an app that provided various filters to help showcase clothing. The teams from Arvada designed the same app to help students locate lockers at the school. Northglenn High School's team with the virtual reality app won this year's competition with one of the Arvada teams winning the Rookie of the Year award.
Thank you to all the teams that participated in the 2016 Congressional App Challenge. This competition is challenging but rewarding and helps provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate their creativity while further engaging in STEM education, said Perlmutter. Congratulations to all the teams - you represent some of the best and brightest students in our community.
The Congressional App Challenge was established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 to help encourage STEM education and learning in high schools across the country. Participation in this year's event grew by 30% from 2015 with 33 states, 123 Congressional Districts and more than 2100 students participating. About 650 original apps were designed as part of the 2016 Challenge.
Check out all of the winning apps on the Congressional App Challenge website.
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=4DE8B973-33E3-A91B-6D51-CE6A59C6257C,Bennet Statement on Final BLM Record of Decision for Thompson Divide,2016-11-17,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement today regarding the release of the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) final Record of Decision for Thompson Divide:
""We introduced the Thompson Divide Withdrawal and Protection Act in 2013 in response to bipartisan requests from Colorado communities and local governments. The ranchers, sportsmen, outdoor enthusiasts, and elected officials who live in those communities feel that speculative leases in the Divide jeopardize their local economies. Today's announcement is a significant step towards addressing those concerns,"" Bennet said. ""In the upcoming weeks and months, we will continue to work with community members and industry to determine whether a legislative compromise can permanently protect the Thompson Divide and provide market-based compensation for those who have just had their leases canceled.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=5657C956-9558-B3EB-5623-8347687D5B46,Bennet Bill to Improve Trail Maintenance and Preservation Passes Congress,2016-11-17,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined Congress this week to send a bill to President Obama that would improve access to America's National Forests through better trail maintenance and preservation.
The National Forest System Trails Stewardship Act would make better use of existing resources within the Forest Service to significantly increase the role of volunteers and partners in maintaining the usability and sustainability of the National Forest's trail system.
Senators Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. and Michael Bennet, D-Colo. were the prime sponsors in the Senate and Representatives Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Tim Walz, D-Minn., in the House. Legislators in both houses passed the bipartisan bill unanimously.
""Millions of people every year come to Colorado for some of the best hiking, scenery, and wildlife viewing that the country has to offer,"" Bennet said. ""Our tourism and outdoor recreation industries depend on a well-maintained trail system throughout our national forests. This bill will help the Forest Service do more with less by increasing the use of volunteers to ensure our trails are accessible and safe for all of us to use.""
""We are thrilled that Senators Bennet and Enzi joined in a bipartisan fashion to move this important bill through Congress,"" said Tif Rodriguez, chairman of the Back Country Horsemen of Colorado. ""At a time of shrinking federal budgets, volunteers and partners will be able to contribute more toward improving access and the public's enjoyment of trails on our national forests.""
""It's through trails that our members experience our national forests, but it's also how they give back, by volunteering to maintain trails,"" said Aaron Clark, conservation manager for the International Mountain Bicycling Association based in Boulder. ""At times, due to bureaucratic red tape, volunteers get turned away which adds to the trail maintenance backlog and leads to resource damage. IMBA supports this bi-partisan bill because it streamlines the volunteer process, prioritizes maintenance hotspots, and alleviates barriers to volunteer stewardship. Ultimately this bill will improve the experience of all visitors to our national forests.""
""Wyoming is home to some stunning forests and they should be easily accessible,"" Enzi said. ""With our country in tough fiscal times, it is important that we maintain access to our public land in a fiscally sound manner. This bill would make the most of our resources, maximize the use of volunteers and improve access to our National Forests for generations to come.""
The Forest Service currently maintains only one-quarter of the 158,000 miles of National Forest trails that offer hiking, horseback riding, hunting, mountain bicycling, motorized vehicles, and other outdoor activities. The act would expand the number of trails that could be maintained by requiring a national strategy to maximize the use of volunteers and partners while addressing liability concerns that restrict outside groups and individuals working on the trails.
The bill also directs a study on utilizing fire crews for maintenance work during off-seasons and a study on permits for outfitters and guides to offset some fees through work on trail maintenance.
""This is really a motherhood and apple pie kind of bill,"" Lummis said. ""This legislation empowers volunteers in their desire and effort to restore our national trails system. It also explores utilizing fire crews during the off season and letting outfitters work off some of their fees in trail maintenance. By refocusing on volunteers and stretching existing resources, we will make real progress on the trail maintenance backlog, despite these tight fiscal times. It is very exciting to see this legislation, which will restore public access to beautiful trails, head to the White House for the President's signature.""
""From hikers to bikers, outdoor enthusiasts across the country utilize 157,000 miles of National Forest System trails every day for exercise, relaxation, and exploration. Though public use remains high, close to two-thirds of these trails don't receive any maintenance whatsoever because our Forest Service simply lacks the resources to keep up,"" Walz said. ""I am proud the legislation Representative Lummis, Senator Enzi, Senator Bennet and I have worked on passed the Senate today and I look forward to it being signed into law. Protecting our public lands for future generations while increasing access to the great outdoors is our responsibility, and this bill is a step in the right direction.""
Click here for a copy of the bill.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=828D5F31-BDD8-3C62-89C3-B7193180818C,"Bennet Joins Senate Democrats to Urge President-Elect Trump to Keep Promise to ""Drain the Swamp"" of Corporate Special Interests",2016-11-17,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Today Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined 18 U.S. Senators to send a letter urging President-elect Donald Trump to increase transparency during his transition and keep his promises to reduce the influence of lobbyists and corporate special interests during his transition and in his administration. The letter was signed by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Casey (D-PA), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Al Franken (D-MN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Edward Markey (D-MA).
""Given your initial decision to allow lobbyists to dominate your transition team, we call on you to be completely transparent about who is working on your transition team, either officially or as unofficial advisors, and making key decisions about how to staff over 4,000 political appointments,"" the senators write. ""Further, we call on you to follow President Obama's example and implement strong, transparent and enforceable ethics rules governing your transition and Administration. For instance, President Obama's transition team did not accept gifts or donations from lobbyists, and your transition should do the same. Additionally, while a limitation on lobbying activities after serving in your Administration is important, you should also include stronger measures, like those adopted by President Obama, that prevent lobbyists who join your Administration from working on policy areas in which they recently lobbied. This will help ensure that officials in the Trump Administration are looking out for the best interests of the American people, not their recently former corporate clients.""
Full text of the letter is below:
November 17, 2016
President-elect Donald J. Trump  Trump-Pence Transition Team   1717 Pennsylvania Ave, NW   Washington, DC 20006
Dear President-elect Trump:
We write to urge you to follow through on your promise that you would work to reduce the influence of corporate special interests and lobbyists in our government. As Democrats, we, too, are committed to freeing the political process from the stranglehold of special interests.
On the campaign trail, you told voters that you are ""fighting for every citizen that believes that government should serve the people, not the donors and not the special interests."" One of your major campaign slogans was ""drain the swamp,"" referring to your promise to cleanse Washington of the toxic influence of corporate special interests.
Your initial decision to fill your transition team with corporate lobbyists and insiders and solicit donations from them to finance its operation was deeply troubling. While we have been encouraged by subsequent reports that indicate you are requiring lobbyists to deregister in order to stay on the transition team, and are instituting a five-year lobbying ban for officials leaving your transition team and your Administration, we believe clearer actions should be taken to truly insulate your Administration from corporate special interests.
Given your initial decision to allow lobbyists to dominate your transition team, we call on you to be completely transparent about who is working on your transition team, either officially or as unofficial advisors, and making key decisions about how to staff over 4,000 political appointments.
Further, we call on you to follow President Obama's example and implement strong, transparent and enforceable ethics rules governing your transition and Administration. For instance, President Obama's transition team did not accept gifts or donations from lobbyists, and your transition should do the same. Additionally, while a limitation on lobbying activities after serving in your Administration is important, you should also include stronger measures, like those adopted by President Obama, that prevent lobbyists who join your Administration from working on policy areas in which they recently lobbied. This will help ensure that officials in the Trump Administration are looking out for the best interests of the American people, not their recently former corporate clients.
Setting up your transition team and staffing your Administration is the first opportunity you have to prove that ""drain the swamp"" was more than just an expedient campaign slogan. We sincerely hope that you will implement strong and transparent ethics guidelines to prevent special interests from taking over your Administration before it has even begun.
Sincerely,",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/letter-to-president-elect-trump-protests-bannon-appointment-to-key-white,Letter to President-elect Trump Protests Bannon Appointment to Key White House Role,2016-11-16,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) joined fellow House Democrats in calling for President-elect Trump to reverse the appointment of Steve Bannon as his chief strategist.
In a letter sent to Trump today, 169 House members said Bannon’s work at Breitbart, an online news and opinion source that publishes bigoted content, makes him the wrong choice to help steer an administration that will unite a divided nation.
“As the Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, Mr. Bannon repeatedly and aggressively pushed stories that promote anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and racism,” the House members wrote. “During an interview last summer, Mr. Bannon bragged that Breitbart was ’the platform for the alt-right,’ a movement that upholds White Nationalism while strongly rejecting diversity in any form. Under Mr. Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart has referred to a leading Republican who opposed your election as a ’Renegade Jew,’ suggested ’Young Muslims in the West are a ticking time bomb,’ declared that  ’the Confederate flag proclaims a glorious heritage’ and praised the alt-right as a ’smarter’ version of ’old-school racist skinheads.’”
The letter made the case that from a new role in the White House, Bannon will further split Americans along the fault lines of race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.
“We strongly believe that Mr. Bannon’s appointment will not allow the country to heal and come together as one,” it said. “As one of your top advisors, the White House chief strategist will help set the tone for your administration. The person in this role must be prepared to serve the interests of all Americans, not those of a select few.”
House Republicans were invited to sign the letter, but none did.
A variety of civil rights groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have opposed Bannon’s appointment, and U.S. citizens have protested it via social media and demonstrations across the country. Coloradans have been contacting Congresswoman DeGette’s office to applaud her stance against divisiveness, hate speech and violence and in favor of civil liberties.
Yesterday, Rep. DeGette issued a statement expressing concern over Trump’s appointment of Bannon and news about potential cabinet nominees who have proven divisive or destructive to progress on civil rights, the environment or health care in previous roles. She urged the president-elect to build an administration that promotes unity and firmly repudiates hate.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/trump-personnel-choices-other-actions-should-promote-unity-degette-says,"Trump Personnel Choices, Other Actions Should Promote Unity, DeGette Says",2016-11-15,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC -- Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), who serves as Chief Deputy Whip, today issued the following statement about personnel choices made and actions taken as the Trump presidency takes shape:
""If we remain a divided country, we won’t rise to our full promise. With the rancorous election past, it is now everyone’s duty – from the grass roots to the top leaders of this great nation – to look beyond party lines, ethnic and religious backgrounds, special interests and other divisions and to make a better future for us all.
“We can’t let the gaps grow wider by the day; rather, we must come together as one.
“Hateful rhetoric, vandalism and violence are unacceptable. All Americans – including immigrants, people of color, women and girls, and the LGBT community – deserve far better. Each of us can speak out about these matters, express solidarity especially with the most vulnerable and ensure that the rights of all are respected. President-elect Trump is better positioned than most to have his voice heard.
“Further, as President Obama noted yesterday when asked about Mr. Trump’s selections for senior appointees in the White House and potential cabinet nominees, ‘Gestures matter.’ Immediate advisors such as Steve Bannon and proposed agency heads work with the president to set the direction for an administration; his selection of them sets its tone.
“So far, the news and rumors have been disquieting – especially for people across the country who have been engaged in promoting civil rights, a cleaner environment, sustainable energy and better health care. I hope Republicans, Democrats, Independents and others will work together to build on recent gains in these areas and reassure Americans that, both before and after his inauguration, Mr. Trump intends to represent us all.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398245,Polis statement on finalization of Methane and Waste Prevention Rule,2016-11-15,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) released the following statement regarding U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell’s finalization of the Methane and Waste Prevention Rule. The final rule will update a 30-year old regulation that for decades has permitted the wasteful release of natural gas into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations on public and Indian lands. The guidance updates regulations for natural gas venting, flaring, and leaks. Additionally, the rule ensures operators are accountable to the taxpayers for royalties on flared gas. 
“Scientists and climate experts have known for decades that methane emissions have a negative and devastating impact on our climate,” Polis said. “For years I’ve found it troubling that we regulate these leaking and harmful pollutants with a 30-year old regulation. The Methane and Waste Prevention Rule is a commonsense step to prevent the release of these harmful emissions on public lands at an accelerated rate. I commend U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and the Administration for their commitment to update this rule and for making the necessary changes to protect our planet.”
Rep. Polis serves on the Committee of Natural Resources and has advocated for restricting the amount of methane released in the environment. In March, Polis joined 75 Democratic Members of Congress in writing to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, encouraging the agency to finalize proposed rules for new and modified sources of methane emission and to develop proposals to regulate existing sources of methane in the oil and gas industry.
Polis has also continued his efforts to protect communities and increase transparency in oil and gas drilling by offering the BREATHE amendment - which he has introduced every Congress since 2011 - the BREATHE amendment would change  the aggregation provision  under the Clean Air Act and add hydrogen sulfide to the Clean Air Act’s federal list of hazardous air pollutants.
  
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=1E63D99D-14E7-241F-DEEC-3104DCA17469,Alamosa Receives Waiver to Continue Regional Air Service to Denver Airport,2016-11-10,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Alamosa, CO - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has granted the San Luis Valley Regional Airport's waiver to be exempted from Essential Air Service (EAS) program requirements, allowing the airport to continue to receive a subsidy that allows for regional air service. The San Luis Valley Reginal Airport lost eligibility for the EAS program in September due to a low passenger numbers caused by inconsistent performance by the airport's main carrier. Bennet led along with Senator Cory Gardner and Congressman Scott Tipton to support the airport's petition for a waiver from EAS requirements.
""This is great news for Alamosa County and residents of the San Luis Valley who have been fighting to ensure that their airport continues to be in service,"" Bennet said. ""The San Luis Valley is the gateway to national treasures like the Great Sand Dunes, and this airport is critical for regional economic growth and for community access to areas up and down the Front Range. Today's Department of Transportation order will allow the airport to continue offering regional airline service and supporting the local economy.""
Bennet has worked to ensure continued service into Alamosa since DOT notified the community that its EAS program status was in jeopardy.
The San Luis Valley Regional Airport serves six counties in southern Colorado, spanning an area larger than Connecticut. In October, Great Lakes' contract with the airport expired, and was replaced by Boutique Air.
EAS is a U.S. Department of Transportation program that subsidizes airline service for small rural airports. EAS helps to ensure that small communities have access to commercial flights by reimbursing airlines for empty seats on flights to major hub airport.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-brooks-seek-details-from-fda-on-cybersecurity-for-medical,"DeGette, Brooks Seek Details from FDA on Cybersecurity for Medical Devices",2016-11-03,2016,2016-11,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"House Energy and Commerce Committee members Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Susan Brooks (R-IN) today asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for information about how the agency is working to address potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities in medical devices. 
In a letter to FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf and Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, DeGette and Brooks seek details regarding the agency’s plans to further reduce risks of hacking, unauthorized access, or use of malware in medical devices.
The need for effective cybersecurity of medical devices has become more important with the increasing use of wireless, internet- and network-connected devices. Up to 15 million medical devices in circulation, ranging from monitors and infusion pumps to ventilators and radiological technologies, are integrated into the nation’s digitized healthcare network, creating possible avenues for cyber-attacks.  As cyber threats continue to evolve at a rapid pace, FDA must work to prevent emerging threats, mitigate existing vulnerabilities, and assess the strength of a device’s cyber resilience in both pre-market and post-market contexts.
“We applaud FDA and other stakeholders for the steps that have already been taken to protect patients against potential emerging threats,” the letter said. “Nevertheless, we have also seen recent headlines about the potential for unauthorized access in insulin pumps and implantable cardiac devices, among others. As technology will undoubtedly continue to evolve at a rapid pace, we must ensure that FDA is equipped with the appropriate cybersecurity expertise and resources to evaluate not only the current risks to new medical devices, but also how new threats affect the medical devices already in use.”
In the letter, DeGette and Brooks pose specific questions to the FDA related to its level of collaboration with medical device manufactures and other stakeholders, efforts to enhance cybersecurity throughout a device’s entire life cycle, personnel expertise on cybersecurity and interagency coordination.
A response from the agency is requested by December 16, 2016.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/ending-the-hyde-amendment,Ending the Hyde Amendment,2016-10-26,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"The Colorado Statesman
By Congresswoman Diana DeGette
Recently there’s been a groundswell of support for legislation to right a four-decade wrong: a restriction using federal funds for women’s health care that has predominantly hurt the under-privileged. 
This ban, known as the Hyde Amendment, prohibits federal funds in Medicaid and other health programs from being used for abortions. 
Now the restriction stops this coverage for all federal employees, military personnel, Peace Corps volunteers, Native Americans on federal insurance and inmates in federal prisons.
Politicians have inserted this provision into law year after year. They did it again in the stopgap spending bill that keeps the lights on in Washington until mid-December. And when Congress returns to Washington the week after the elections, they’re planning once again to renew the prohibition for another year.
The impact of this annual assault on women’s constitutionally-protected rights is clear: A woman who seeks an abortion but can’t have one because she can’t afford it is more likely to fall on even harder times, deepening the cycle of poverty.
Just think about what that does to individuals and families across this country. Put yourself in the shoes of a poor and frightened young woman who’s forced to carry to term an unintended pregnancy because of the prohibitive cost of an abortion.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, one in four women on Medicaid who seek abortions are placed in that position. 
Now just imagine what impact that unfair burden has on families, on communities – on our society as a whole.
Medicaid provides care to millions of women of reproductive age and serves as their lifeline. Women of color – Latina and African American – are more likely to use public insurance programs such as Medicaid to get care.
We can’t know these women’s circumstances. We don’t know their finances.  What we do know is that every woman should be able to access every option available to her when making a personal decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy. This is her right – a right affirmed by the United States Supreme Court as guaranteed under the Constitution.
As Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has said, “The decision of whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, her well-being and her dignity.” Looking at laws that keep disadvantaged people from having access to abortion, Justice Ginsberg has noted: “That we have one law for women of means and another for poor women is not a satisfactory solution.”
This is why I’m an original co-sponsor of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act, also known as the EACH Woman Act. This bill, which 125 House members support, would overturn the Hyde Amendment once and for all. 
The legislation has the support of dozens of organizations, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU, the Alliance for Justice and many more. 
Ending the Hyde Amendment has become a topic of interest in the presidential campaign, so perhaps that will give it more momentum. With enough support, it may be an idea whose time has finally come.
Diana DeGette represents Colorado’s First District to the U.S. Congress and is co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398240,Tomorrow: Polis to host Third-Annual Hemp Symposium and Legislative Workshop,2016-10-25,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Loveland, Colo.:  Rep. Jared Polis, D-Boulder, will welcome over 150 guests to his Third-Annual Hemp Symposium and Legislative Workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 26. 
The free symposium will bring together experts from the many segments of the industrial hemp industry, connecting and developing this growing network.  In addition, it will serve to continue the conversation about the expansion of the hemp industry, and its economic impact on both Colorado and our nation as a whole.
Hemp is a growing industry in Colorado.  Colorado State University and the University of Colorado are researching ways to develop the new crop after Polis authored an amendment allowing research universities to study hemp.  In addition, Colorado is on the verge of having certified industrial hemp seed, which would provide continuity for the industry. 
The schedule is as follows:
1:00 p.m., Polis gives welcome address about federal hemp legislation. 
1:10 p.m., Panel conversation about the past, present, and future outlook of hemp in America.  
Polis will be moderating. Panelists, include: Michael Bowman, National Hemp Association; Barbara Filippone, EnviroTextiles; Sean Murphy, Miracle Ventures; Morris Beegle, Colorado Hemp Company; Samantha Walsh, National Hemp Association; Rick Trojan, Industrial Hemp Research Foundation. 
2:00 p.m., Small group breakout Session I: 
The sessions include: (1) Industrial Hemp and the Farm Bill, (2) USDA and Industrial Hemp, (3) Grants and Funding for Industrial Hemp, (4) Grassroots Revival, (5) State and Federal Intersection Regarding Industrial Hemp.
2:40 p.m., Small Group breakout Session II. 
The sessions include: (1) Industrial Hemp and the Farm Bill, (2) USDA and Industrial Hemp, (3) Grants and Funding for Industrial Hemp, (4) Grassroots Revival, (5) State and Federal Intersection Regarding Industrial Hemp.
3:15 p.m., Small groups reconvene into large group and discuss next steps.
4:00 p.m., Adjourn
Polis is the lead Democratic sponsor of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015, a bill to eliminate the federal ban on hemp production and bring the crop back to American agriculture.
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=FA96A2C6-F097-CDBC-85A3-31EC3DA591EC,"Bennet, Gardner, Tipton Urge FCC to Approve La Plata County Petition for Denver TV",2016-10-25,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"La Plata County, CO - Today, Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner and Congressman Scott Tipton sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler urging quick approval of La Plata County's petition for inclusion into the Denver television market for satellite television. The letter was included in the county's market modification petition, which was approved today by the La Plata County Commission.  The petition asks the FCC to permanently modify the Denver local television market to include La Plata County. This would allow La Plata County satellite subscribers to access Denver broadcast television. Currently, La Plata and Montezuma counties receive television broadcasts from New Mexico rather than Colorado, and thus do not receive local news, sports, and emergency information.
""It's commonsense that people living in Colorado should have access to Colorado news, sports, and programming,"" Bennet said. ""We have been working with Montezuma and La Plata counties, satellite providers, and Denver broadcasters for years on this problem and these communities have waited far too long. The approval and submission of this market modification petition is a critical step forward that will bring us closer to resolving this issue. We appreciate the leadership of the La Plata County Commission and their staff to assemble and submit this petition.""
""For too long, many Coloradans in the Four Corners region have been unable to receive Colorado news, weather, and sports,"" said Gardner. ""Since my time in the House of Representatives, I have worked with members of both parties to bring Colorado TV to the southwest and met with local officials in Colorado to discuss how to resolve the issue. If approved, this bipartisan and locally-driven effort will benefit southwest Coloradans and I'm proud of the work we have done thus far. I strongly support La Plata County's petition to the FCC, and I look forward to continuing to work with interested stakeholders to ensure no part of Colorado is forgotten.""
""In 2014, FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler gave me his word that he would work with our office to bring Colorado TV broadcasts to the residents of Southwest Colorado,"" Tipton said. ""This is an issue that has taken too long to resolve, but I am glad to see that the county's petition was approved by the county commission and we are a step closer to bringing relevant TV broadcasts to families in La Plata County.""  Following up on the passage of the STELAR Act, Bennet, Gardner, and Tipton wrote a letter to the FCC requesting this rule change so that county commissions in the Four Corners region could petition the FCC directly to change broadcasting markets to better serve their communities.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-and-colleagues-to-hhs-improve-patient-counseling-on,DeGette and Colleagues to HHS: Improve Patient Counseling on Contraceptive Options,2016-10-24,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – More than 20 members of Congress who are engaged in women’s health care issues today called on the Obama administration to enhance health providers’ training on women’s contraception options.
In a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell led by Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), the House members said, “we must make certain that providers have the training and resources they need to provide quality patient counseling and effectively educate patients about the safety and effectiveness of all forms of contraception so that each woman can select the family planning method that best meets her medical needs and personal preference.”
The letter noted that according to the latest available information, nearly 45 percent of pregnancies in the United States were unintentional, a much higher rate than in other developed countries, and the risk of unintended pregnancy among underprivileged women is even higher than the national average.
“Unintended pregnancies can lead to negative outcomes for both women and newborns, including poorer preconception maternal health, delayed prenatal care, increased risk of prematurity, and low birth weight,” the letter said.  “More can and should be done to reduce these risks and empower women by increasing awareness of and access to a full range of contraceptive options.”
The members of Congress asked the Department of Health and Human Services to focus provider resources on patient-centered counseling, gaps in education about safety and effectiveness of different forms of contraception, and confusion about billing, reimbursement and provision of contraceptive services.
DeGette, who co-chairs the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, has long been engaged in issues involving women’s health care.  In circulating the letter to colleagues, she shared the success of Colorado’s Family Planning Initiative, which has made the full range of contraception available to women at no cost and has received significant national attention for cutting unintended teen pregnancy rates by nearly half.  Providers who participated in the initiative were trained on patient-centered counseling, the safety and effectiveness of different forms of contraception, and state Medicaid rules.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=E09F2DAC-4DFF-EAA1-7FC6-3E92FECD1183,Bennet: FEMA Authorizes Federal Funds to Fight Junkins Fire,2016-10-18,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced that last night the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) authorized the use of federal funds to communities to fight the Junkins Fire in Custer and Pueblo Counties. This authorization makes FEMA funding available to pay 75 percent of the state's eligible firefighting costs under the federal Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) program. FEMA received the request for federal FMAG funding Monday evening.
""Today, our thoughts are with all of the firefighters and first responders working to protect people and property and with the families that have tragically lost their homes,"" Bennet said. ""More than 150 families have now been evacuated as the Junkins Fire continues to burn. These additional federal funds will help ensure that crews have the resources they need to combat this fire effectively and safely. We will continue to communicate with officials on the ground and to support the local affected communities in any way possible.""
The Junkins Fire started early Monday morning and warm, dry, and windy conditions caused the fire to grow quickly. It has expanded from Custer County into Pueblo County burning more than 15,000 acres and forcing 156 families to evacuate. An additional 147 families are on pre-evacuation notice.
The FMAG Program provides federal funding to states, local governments, and tribes for firefighting and emergency protective measures for significant wildfires.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398236,Polis to participate in Facebook Live discussion on International Entrepreneur Rule,2016-10-12,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) will participate in a Facebook Live discussion on the new International Entrepreneur Rule, announced by the Obama Administration in August.
The proposed Rule would allow qualified international entrepreneurs to temporarily reside in the U.S. to start or grow a business.  The public may comment on the rule through Oct. 17. 
The Facebook Live discussion is hosted by FWD.us, and it will include entrepreneurs and experts on immigration.  The public is invited to ask questions about the rule through Facebook.  The panel will address the economic impact of international entrepreneurship and obstacles to foreign entrepreneurship. 
International entrepreneurship is vast in the U.S.  Immigrant-owned business employ one in 10 American workers, and immigrants have founded roughly 25 percent of small businesses in America.  
WHO:                  Rep. Jared Polis
                             Nigel Sharp, CEO, Stateless; Co-Founder, Lionsharp
                             Andrea Guendelman, Co-Founder and CEO, BeVisible
                             Lang Mei, Co-Founder and CEO, iNFormu
WHAT:                Facebook Live discussion about the new International Entrepreneur Rule  
WHEN:               Thursday, Oct. 13 from 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (Mountain Time)
WHERE:             www.Facebook.com/FWDus
Prior to serving in Congress, Polis founded several startup and tech companies, including ProFlowers.com and Techstars.  In Congress, he uses his business expertise to serve on the Committee on the Education and the Workforce.  Through the Congressional Caucus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Polis began Startup Day Across America, a nationwide day to raise awareness of entrepreneurial activity and discuss how federal policy can help entrepreneurs thrive.
In addition, Polis has been a leader on fixing our broken immigration system.  In October 2013, he introduced the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have improved national security, streamlined our country’s guest worker system, and created a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented individuals.  The Senate companion of this landmark bill passed the Senate in June 2013 and was widely heralded as one of the most significant attempts to fix our broken immigration system in decades.
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/members-of-congress-ask-nhl-for-more-concussion-information,Members of Congress Ask N.H.L. for More Concussion Information,2016-10-10,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Four members of Congress want more answers from Gary Bettman, the commissioner of the N.H.L., about what the league is doing, or not doing, about concussions in hockey.
In July, Bettman denied the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease, in response to pointed questions from Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. Last week, another letter was sent to Bettman saying, in part, that “the N.H.L. must do its part to reduce the risk of head injuries and to make hockey, at all levels, a safer game.”
In comparing N.H.L. concussion protocols unfavorably with those of the N.F.L., Major League Baseball and U.S. Soccer, representatives from the House’s Committee on Energy and Commerce asked a series of seven questions about concussion protocol, concussion statistics, the rationale for rules changes over the years and the league’s plans to make the game safer for players ranging from the youth to professional levels.
They also questioned the role of fighting in the N.H.L. and noted that emails among Bettman and other league officials had indicated that, privately, they acknowledged that fighting could lead to concussions and long-term health problems.
“Despite this candid discussion in email of the dangers of fighting and the related incidence of head injuries, the N.H.L. continues to publicly deny a connection between head injuries and long-term complications such as C.T.E.,” the letter read.
The same congressional committee has long taken aim at the N.F.L. In May, it accused the N.F.L. of steering money for concussion research away from critics, something the league denied.
The letter to Bettman was signed by four Democrats on the committee: Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, Gene Green of Texas, Diana DeGette of Colorado and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.
It was Schakowsky who at a hearing this year asked Jeff Miller, the N.F.L.’s senior vice president for health and safety policy, if there was a link between football and degenerative brain diseases like C.T.E.
“The answer to that is certainly yes,” Miller responded.
That first public acknowledgment from the N.F.L. was seen as a seminal moment in the fight against brain damage in sports. The N.H.L., currently facing a class-action lawsuit from former players who argue that the league did little to warn them of the risks of head injuries, has made no such public admission.
The representatives asked Bettman to respond by Oct. 24.
Brain injuries sustained on the ice have affected top N.H.L. players. The Pittsburgh Penguins, for instance, announced on Monday that Sidney Crosby would miss the season opener after sustaining another concussion.
Crosby, who earned the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable players of the playoffs last season in the Penguins’ run to the Stanley Cup, has missed considerable time in recent years because of concussions.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-helps-denver-and-rtd-win-major-grant-to-improve-service,DeGette Helps Denver and RTD Win Major Grant to Improve Service,2016-10-05,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO – Congresswoman Diana DeGette helped secure a $1.35 million grant, announced today, enabling Denver and the Regional Transportation District to improve service to riders by studying transit oriented development (TOD).
In a letter in June to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, DeGette made a strong case for the project. It was selected competitively under the TOD Planning Pilot Program.
“This is exciting news for Denver and the entire region,” DeGette said. “We’ve experienced incredible growth while also making worthwhile investments in transit through the RTD. With this grant, RTD and the city of Denver can do even more to help businesses, residents and stakeholders identify next steps to improve economic development and promote increased transit ridership.”
The grant comes as Denver works to create its first-ever citywide urban transit master plan, which will be used to identity and prioritize high-capacity transit opportunities. Funds will be used to study the Colfax Connected Corridor, running roughly from downtown Denver to Aurora, which could serve as a template for all non-rail TOD corridors throughout Denver.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/congress-needs-to-get-it-right-this-time-on-911-victim-bill,Congress Needs to Get it Right This Time on 9/11 Victim Bill,2016-10-03,2016,2016-10,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"If the bipartisan “buyer’s remorse” Congress feels for passing a popular bill for victims of Sept. 11 over the president’s veto came from a lack of information, then three members of Colorado’s congregation who opposed it should be applauded for at least doing their homework.
Voting against the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, was a hard vote in an election year — but it was the right one.
Yes, it’s easy to imagine the negative campaign ads that could be developed. No one wants to be accused of not supporting the families who lost their loved ones in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Colorado Reps. Ken Buck, a Republican, and Democrats Diana DeGette and Ed Perlmutter were among only 78 members of Congress who opposed JASTA. We wish others had been as thoughtful.
JASTA, once you get past its nod to 9/11 victims, subjects American diplomats, military members, intelligence agents and officials to the danger of lawsuits. The new law flouts the longtime protections granted by the principle of sovereign immunity of nations, and also risks a drain of economic investment from countries like Saudi Arabia angry or nervous about it.
JASTA is broad. It allows lawsuits against foreign nations in federal court for involvement in acts of terrorism on U.S. soil. However, it was specifically aimed at allowing families of victims of 9/11 who believe that Saudi Arabia played a role in the attacks to file suit.
President Barack Obama vetoed the bill and it’s the first time Congress has been able to muster enough votes for an override during his tenure. In his veto message, Obama said the measure “undermines core U.S. interests.”
Almost immediately after the bill became law, Republican leaders in the House and Senate expressed concern that the bill might have unintended consequences and called for a fix when Congress returns in November. They chided Obama and his administration for failing to articulate concerns, despite the veto letter.
Whether or not a lame-duck Congress waiting for its term to end can make anything happen as the nation awaits new leadership in the White House remains to be seen. There will likely be more pressing issues than walking back this recent bill.
Buck said he’s optimistic a fix will be forthcoming, saying several of his colleagues who voted for it did so while expressing hope that it be narrowed in coming months.
But if Congress fails to act in this window when it must be easier for them to make this kind of unpopular vote, then does that mean a JASTA “fix” will have to wait two more years and risk the kind of damage that might occur in the courts for the next lame-duck Congress not worried about re-election?
We hope Congress will do its research this time and not have regrets after the fact.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=3DAD263B-4E2F-2424-AF86-FC1CBADF38F5,Bennet Introduces Bipartisan Resolution Supporting Inclusion & Engagement of Latinos in Conservation Efforts,2016-09-30,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bipartisan resolution, S.Res.602, with 16 senators that supports the commitment of the Latino community to engage in conservation efforts. The resolution also recognizes the contributions of the Latino community to conservation and wildlife protection, and urges increased access to public lands for all Americans. The resolution comes during Hispanic Heritage Month, which occurs every year from September 15 through October 15. ""Our country, and in particular Colorado, has some truly spectacular landscapes that everyone should have an opportunity to experience,"" Bennet said. ""The Latino community has strong ties to our public lands and we should support opportunities for their engagement and inclusion in conservation. This bipartisan resolution acknowledges the role of Latinos in ensuring these natural areas continue to be accessible to future generations."" In addition to Bennet, the resolution is cosponsored by: Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Harry Reid (D-NV), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Coons (D-DE), Ed Markey (D-MA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Al Franken (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Dean Heller (R-NV). An identical companion resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA-32) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL-26). The resolution has the support of the Latino Conservation Alliance, which includes the Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF), GreenLatinos, Latino Outdoors, Hispanic Federation, and Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors (HECHO), as well as Protgete-Conservation Colorado, City Wild, Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK), Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and the Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy, and Research Organization (CLLARO). ""Latinos are passionate about enjoying the outdoors and hold a strong belief that we have a moral obligation to protect it for future generations,"" said Maite Arce, president and CEO of the Hispanic Access Foundation. ""As the largest ethnic group in America - one that is expected to grow to nearly one-quarter of the population by 2050 - the Latino community's engagement is critical to ensuring the future success and preservation of our nation's public lands. We appreciate Senator Bennet's recognition of the importance of fostering conservation and stewardship within the Latino community."" ""People from all backgrounds have the right to clean air, safe drinking water, and access to public lands-- it's as simple as that,"" said Hilda Nucete the Director of Conservation Colorado's Protgete: Our Air, Our Health Program. ""One of the things that I love most about Colorado is our diversity and the fact that our state is comprised of communities and families from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. But, there are a number of barriers that keep minority populations from enjoying the beauty that Colorado's public lands and parks have to offer. I am thrilled that Senator Bennet has demonstrated that he believes our national parks, forests, and monuments need to reflect our country's diversity and are working towards making this a reality.""  For a copy of the resolution, clickhere.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=0929A7A7-CD99-0974-1D5C-3236AA49F9D4,Bennet Introduces Bipartisan Resolution Supporting Inclusion & Engagement of Latinos in Conservation Efforts,2016-09-29,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet introduced a bipartisan resolution, S.Res.602, with 16 senators that supports the commitment of the Latino community to engage in conservation efforts. The resolution also recognizes the contributions of the Latino community to conservation and wildlife protection, and urges increased access to public lands for all Americans. The resolution comes during Hispanic Heritage Month, which occurs every year from September 15 through October 15. ""Our country, and in particular Colorado, has some truly spectacular landscapes that everyone should have an opportunity to experience,"" Bennet said. ""The Latino community has strong ties to our public lands and we should support opportunities for their engagement and inclusion in conservation. This bipartisan resolution acknowledges the role of Latinos in ensuring these natural areas continue to be accessible to future generations."" In addition to Bennet, the resolution is cosponsored by: Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Harry Reid (D-NV), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Coons (D-DE), Ed Markey (D-MA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Al Franken (D-MN), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Patty Murray (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Dean Heller (R-NV).
An identical companion resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA-32) and Carlos Curbelo (R-FL-26). The resolution has the support of the Latino Conservation Alliance, which includes the Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF), GreenLatinos, Latino Outdoors, Hispanic Federation, and Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors (HECHO), as well as Protgete-Conservation Colorado, City Wild, Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK), Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and the Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy, and Research Organization (CLLARO). ""Latinos are passionate about enjoying the outdoors and hold a strong belief that we have a moral obligation to protect it for future generations,"" said Maite Arce, president and CEO of the Hispanic Access Foundation. ""As the largest ethnic group in America - one that is expected to grow to nearly one-quarter of the population by 2050 - the Latino community's engagement is critical to ensuring the future success and preservation of our nation's public lands. We appreciate Senator Bennet's recognition of the importance of fostering conservation and stewardship within the Latino community."" ""People from all backgrounds have the right to clean air, safe drinking water, and access to public lands-- it's as simple as that,"" said Hilda Nucete the Director of Conservation Colorado's Protgete: Our Air, Our Health Program. ""One of the things that I love most about Colorado is our diversity and the fact that our state is comprised of communities and families from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. But, there are a number of barriers that keep minority populations from enjoying the beauty that Colorado's public lands and parks have to offer. I am thrilled that Senator Bennet has demonstrated that he believes our national parks, forests, and monuments need to reflect our country's diversity and are working towards making this a reality.""  For a copy of the resolution, clickhere.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-colleagues-name-pueblo-veterans-clinic-after-local-hero,"DeGette, Colleagues Name Pueblo Veterans Clinic After Local Hero",2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congress today approved a bill co-sponsored by Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) to name a medical health clinic for veterans in Colorado after a war hero from Pueblo.
The legislation renames the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Pueblo as the ``PFC James Dunn VA Clinic” to honor the legacy of the late James Dunn, a decorated World War II Veteran and Pueblo native.
“I am incredibly proud to have helped secure this fitting tribute for a local hero,” said DeGette. “Mr. Dunn represents a generation of men and women who bravely accepted the task of protecting our nation, serving America on and off the battlefield. It is our duty to honor them, particularly those who went above and beyond the call of duty.”
James Dunn served with the Marines in the Pacific Theater of World War II. While stationed in Guadalcanal, he led his platoon to safety under heavy enemy fire. For his heroism, he was awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest military decoration a Marine can receive. The legislation to name Pueblo’s VA clinic in his honor was supported by a large contingent of veterans’ groups including the United Veterans Committee of Colorado and the American Legion, Department of Colorado.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-reed-say-fda-approval-of-artificial-pancreas-is-a-major,"DeGette, Reed Say FDA Approval of Artificial Pancreas is a Major Breakthrough",2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – On behalf of the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, co-chairs Diana DeGette (D-CO) and Tom Reed (R-NY) hailed as a major breakthrough today’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration of a first-ever commercial version of an artificial pancreas system to improve the treatment of type 1 diabetes.
“This is a huge step forward for medicine, and it will be transformative for countless people with type 1 diabetes, including my own daughter,” DeGette said. “Our work to urge the FDA forward in this process, and to fund the research through the National Institutes of Health, has paid off.  I look forward to providing similar support to the next-generation technologies that are also on the verge of improving outcomes for people with this disease, which is common but devilishly difficult to address.”
“We care about getting critical healthcare resources those living with this disease. This is something I am all too familiar with. My son is a type 1 diabetic. It’s only right that we continue to support these innovations and celebrate the improvement in the quality of life for so many who struggle with this disease,” said Reed.
The technology approved by the FDA for patients ages 14 and up is the Medtronic MiniMed 670G hybrid closed-loop system, which consists of insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors and software to automate the delivery insulin as needed, as a healthy pancreas does.
For the past five years, DeGette and Reed have been urging the FDA to expedite review of the technology. In addition, they worked to support and expand the Special Diabetes Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which has funded artificial pancreas research.  The SDP was reauthorized in 2013 and is due for reauthorization in 2017; DeGette and Reed are urging their colleagues to approve it.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/in-support-of-national-security-degette-votes-against-veto-override,"In Support of National Security, DeGette Votes Against Veto Override",2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chief Deputy Whip, today said U.S. national security interests compelled her to vote against overriding President Obama’s veto of legislation allowing lawsuits against the Saudi Arabian government over the September 11 attacks.
“This bill was meant to address an unthinkable loss, but it opens the door to further damage,” DeGette said of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA). “It would erode the principle of sovereign immunity that protects U.S. officials working on behalf of our country overseas. Without that protection, which is rooted in reciprocity, we jeopardize their safety and, by extension, our country’s security.”
JASTA would create a new exception to sovereign immunity, which protects countries and their diplomats from lawsuits. The bill is meant to let families sue Saudi Arabia for alleged complicity in the 9/11 tragedy.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398234,Rep. Polis leads bi-partisan effort urging house leadership to fully fund PILT,2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Rep. Polis leads bi-partisan effort urging house leadership to fully fund PILT
Washington, Sept. 28: Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) led a bi-partisan group of 95 Members of Congress, alongside Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), urging House leadership to secure full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program.
“I am fortunate to serve a district that is home to acres and acres of majestic public lands,” said Polis.  “We have to protect these public lands and compensate the communities that help maintain them.  Fully funding programs, like PILT, will simultaneously safeguard the wilderness and allow our communities to thrive.”
Nearly 1,900 counties across 49 states receive PILT funding to compensate for lost tax revenue due to the large amounts of federal lands in their counties, which are un-taxable according to federal law. A breakdown of the payments by state and county can be found here.
In a letter sent to House leadership, Polis and Stewart wrote, “If Congress fails to fully fund the PILT program by the end of the year, public lands counties across the nation will be unable to provide essential public services such as: law enforcement, search and rescue, public health and critical transportation infrastructure.”
Current PILT funding must be extended within Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations.  
Stewart and Polis also urged leadership to enact a fiscally responsible, long-term and sustainable solution to fully fund the program beyond next year.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398235,"Polis joins Grijalva, questions GOP commitment to tribal consultation as Majority prevents vote on Dakota Pipeline Amendment",2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington – Republicans late yesterday blocked a vote in the House of Representatives on an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) that would have made completion of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline dependent on the Army Corps of Engineers publishing a full environmental impact statement for the project. The amendment, originally offered on Monday, was technically “ruled out of order” by the majority of the House Rules Committee even though it complied fully with House rules.
“We must respect tribal sovereignty – period, end of story,” Polis said. “The Dakota Access Pipeline needs to be stopped before it destroys the environment and tribal cultural heritage. It’s past time we to start move beyond crude oil and invest in renewables. Our planet depends on it.”
Had it passed, the amendment would have clarified the process for approving or rejecting the pipeline, which is in limbo amidst federal court proceedings and an ongoing executive branch review of tribal consultation procedures.  

###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=48DE1BB8-B981-8596-B20E-D460D24DE04B,Bennet Statement on the Passing of Shimon Peres,2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement on the passing of Shimon Peres, the former Prime Minister and President of Israel:
""Our thoughts are with the people of Israel as they mourn the passing of Shimon Peres. He was an exemplary world leader who helped shape the special relationship the United States shares with Israel. His extraordinary commitment and vision strengthened the unbreakable bond between our two countries. His leadership and commitment to the state and people of Israel will serve as an example to future generations.""
In 2014, Bennet joined Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), along with Representatives Joe Kennedy (D-MA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ) in the House, to pass a bipartisan, bicameral bill that honored President Peres with the Congressional Gold Medal. The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award in the United States. It is awarded to individuals, organizations, or events that have made a tremendous contribution to the history and culture of our country.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=FE6A71C7-C325-945E-BB1A-98113E964385,"Bennet, Senate Pass $1.1 Billion to Advance Zika Research",2016-09-28,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and his Senate colleagues today approved $1.1 billion in emergency funding to continue research toward a cure for the Zika virus. The most recent data indicates that in the U.S. and its territories, more than 23,000 Americans have been infected with the virus, including 2,097 pregnant American women who show some sign of infection.
""Finally, Congress has put politics aside to address the very serious threat that Zika poses,"" Bennet said. ""This funding ensures that researchers can continue their crucial work to develop a vaccine that can protect millions of Americans. We're hopeful a cure can be found very soon.""
Bennet has led efforts in the Senate to approve the funding, which has been stalled in Congress since the Administration made its request back in February. In May, Bennet joined the Senate, which overwhelmingly voted to advance a bipartisan bill to provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat and prevent the spread of the Zika virus. Subsequently, the House passed an inadequate and irresponsible bill that included only $622 million, one third of the Administration's request. Bennet has urged both chambers to work across the aisle to finalize a serious funding package, including calling on Congressional leaders to reconvene both chambers of Congress to pass a clean funding bill to fight Zika. Ahead of the Senate's vote in May, he pressed Congressional leaders to consider and pass emergency funding. In February, he joined 45 senators in urging the Administration to coordinate an interagency response plan to address the spread of the Zika virus both at home and abroad. Bennet and a group of senators introduced a bill to fund the request and called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to quickly approve the funding. In April, he joined his Senate colleagues in urging Senate leaders to immediately pass the emergency supplemental funding request to help combat the Zika outbreak. Earlier this year, Bennet visited the CDC's Division for Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, where he toured the facility and received a briefing from researchers about their work to combat the Zika virus. In 2010, Bennet prevented funding cuts proposed by the Administration that would have virtually eliminated the vector-borne diseases program that is largely run out of the Fort Collins facility.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398230,Polis launches Congressional Blockchain Caucus,2016-09-26,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"WASHINGTON - Today Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) released the following statement regarding the formation of the new bipartisan Congressional Blockchain Caucus dedicated to the advancement of sound public policy toward blockchain-based technologies and digital currencies.
“The blockchain has boundless potential,"" Polis said. ""From cryptocurrencies to supply chains to banking to property titling, blockchain-based solutions have the ability to decentralize cybersecurity and revolutionize many industries. It's vital for Americans, businesses, and members of Congress to learn about blockchain so the U.S. can continue to secure its stance as the global leader of ingenuity.""
""The Blockchain Caucus will focus on raising awareness, advancing ideas that foster growth, and safeguarding consumers. I'm excited to work alongside Rep. Mulvaney, and I look forward to all that we'll accomplish,"" Polis added. 
A blockchain is a public ledger that is the main technological innovation powering cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. By using math and cryptography, blockchain supplies an open decentralized database of every transaction involving value. This creates a record of authenticity that is verifiable by the entire user community. Analysts and experts predict that blockchain could potentially transform 21st century transactions involving money, goods, property, and much more.
The Congressional Blockchain Caucus will seek to educate, engage, and provide research to help policymakers implement smart regulatory approaches to the issues raised by blockchain-based technologies and networks. Polis launched the bipartisan caucus alongside Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.). 
Polis has been at the forefront of educating lawmakers about blockchain and digital currencies. In 2014, he hosted a Bitcoin Demo Day at the U.S. Capitol to give lawmakers a chance to ask questions to industry experts and address concerns about the emerging technology of online currency.
Polis, the founder of several startups and tech companies, including ProFlowers.com and Techstars, has been a leader on open source technology since joining Congress in 2009. He’s the Co-Chair of the Congressional Innovation and Entrepreneurship Caucus, which promotes legislation to help startups and small businesses grow, and the Co-Chair of the Open Source Technology Caucus.
  
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=9EB9ECDB-7F49-C64A-0785-147D6859B80B,"Bennet, Crapo Urge Leadership to Fully Fund PILT for FY 2017",2016-09-22,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Republican Senator Mike Crapo from Idaho led a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid urging them to work together to ensure that the PILT program is fully funded for Fiscal Year 2017. This fiscal year, Colorado communities received more than $35.5 million to fund critical services like police, fire protection, and emergency response.
In the letter the senators wrote:
""For more than 40 years, the PILT program has played a critical role in supporting our local communities by providing resources to nearly 1,900 counties across 49 states to offset lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt federal lands within their jurisdictions.
""If Congress fails to fully fund the PILT program by the end of the year, public lands counties across the nation will be unable to provide essential public services such as law enforcement, search and rescue, public health and critical transportation infrastructure.""
The PILT program compensates rural counties for federal lands that cannot be taxed, including parks, forests, Bureau of Land Management lands and wildlife refuges. Funding for each county is determined by a formula and is based on the number of acres of federal land within each county or jurisdiction and the population of that county or jurisdiction. PILT funding not only provides certainty and strengthens rural counties, but also improves infrastructure and public safety funding programs such as county led Search and Rescue operations.
Bennet and Crapo have continuously fought in the Senate to fully fund the PILT program, and in November of 2015 led a bipartisan coalition urging Senate leaders to fully fund the program. Last August, Bennet also cosponsored a bill to permanently fund the PILT program and the Land and Water Conservation Fund and fund the Secure Rural Schools program for six years.
In addition to Bennet and Crapo, the letter is also signed by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Cory Gardner (R-CO), John McCain (R-AZ), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Patty Murray (D-WA), James Inhofe (R-OK), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), John Thune (R-SD), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Barrasso (R-WY), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Jim Risch (R-ID), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), Joe Manchin (D-WV), John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Lee (R-AZ), Dean Heller (R-NV), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM) Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) Ed Markey (D-MA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).
Click here or read below for full text of the letter:
September 22, 2016
The Honorable Mitch McConnell  Majority Leader  United States Senate  S-230, The Capitol  Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Harry Reid  Minority Leader  United State Senate  S-230, The Capitol  Washington, DC 20510
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader Reid,
We urge you to work in a bipartisan, bicameral fashion to ensure the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program is fully funded for Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 and is offset in a responsible manner. For more than 40 years, the PILT program has played a critical role in supporting our local communities by providing resources to nearly 1,900 counties across 49 states to offset lost property tax revenue due to the presence of tax-exempt federal lands within their jurisdictions.  For FY 2017, the U.S. Department of the Interior has estimated that $480 million dollars will be necessary to fully fund PILT. If Congress fails to fully fund the PILT program by the end of the year, public lands counties across the nation will be unable to provide essential public services such as law enforcement, search and rescue, public health and critical transportation infrastructure. Without the certainty of full PILT funding for FY 2017, we risk severely crippling counties' ability to provide essential services for their residents and public lands visitors alike.
Moving forward, we hope Congress can work together to enact a fiscally responsible, long-term and sustainable solution to fully fund PILT in FY 2017 and beyond. As counties across the United States work to balance their budgets, it is essential that Congress act to reaffirm the federal government's long-standing commitment to public lands counties by fully funding PILT.  We look forward to working with you to end the financial uncertainty facing thousands of counties nationwide, and we thank you for your attention to this critical issue.
Sincerely,",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/democrats-walk-out-before-house-fetal-tissue-panel-approves-contempt,Democrats Walk Out Before House Fetal Tissue Panel Approves Contempt Measure,2016-09-21,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Republican members of a special House committee investigating fetal-tissue transactions voted Wednesday to hold a biotechnology firm in contempt of Congress, moments after Democrats walked out of the Capitol Hill meeting in protest.
The Select Investigative Panel, created by the House GOP to examine links between abortion providers and medical researchers, subpoenaed California-based StemExpress earlier this year seeking a variety of records. While the firm provided much of the information the panel sought, Republicans say it did not cooperate completely, withholding employee names as well as banking and accounting statements.
The panel’s chairman said Wednesday that the records are crucial to determining whether StemExpress is illegally profiting from the fetal tissue trade. The company has said it loses money on those transactions.
“The panel is entitled to this information so we can answer the question. … Did companies improperly profit?” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). “A subpoena is not a suggestion. It is a lawful order, and a subpoena is to be complied with.”
Democrats, who opposed the panel’s creation and have called for its shuttering, renewed their objections to the Republican inquiry at the Wednesday meeting. They raised several procedural and substantive objections to the contempt-of-Congress resolution and ultimately walked out of the meeting before the final vote after an unsuccessful attempt to adjourn the meeting.
“This whole process is illegitimate, and we are not willing to participate in it,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), the panel’s top Democrat, told reporters afterward.
Another panel member, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), called the proceeding a “kangaroo court.”
The next steps for the contempt resolution are unclear. The full House would have to approve the measure before it is referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. After the vote Wednesday, Blackburn said that “we will leave that for leadership to decide.”
Democrats said that because the panel is officially an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, the full committee would need to approve the contempt measure before it moves to the House floor.
The House last passed a contempt-of-Congress resolution in 2014, after former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner declined to testify before a House committee.
Republicans said that StemExpress’s unwillingness to share the records they sought suggested possible wrongdoing: “There is obviously something that is being hidden here,” said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.).
“What payment have they received that they don’t want us to see?” added Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).
But StemExpress said that they have cooperated with the probe and have been willing to cooperate further.
“This is a disappointing outcome after spending over a year providing accounting documents and offering to testify — an offer they never took us up on,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “The claim that we did not provide bank records is simply not true. StemExpress continues to be devoted to the acceleration of cures and prevention of serious medical conditions.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1480,Perlmutter Statement on VA Inspector General Report of Aurora VA Replacement Medical Facility,2016-09-21,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Perlmutter Statement on VA Inspector General Report of Aurora VA Replacement Medical Facility 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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      Washington, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) issued the following statement regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General (IG) report on the mismanagement of the Denver VA Replacement Medical Facility in Aurora, CO:
“I’m glad the VA Inspector General completed the review of the Aurora VA Medical Center. This report confirms the mismanagement of the project by former VA officials and details the numerous mistakes made by not controlling the design of the project and improperly managing the contract. This is precisely why the Army Corps of Engineers is now in charge of construction in Aurora and the VA was stripped of its authority to construct other large projects. Under the Army Corps’ management the project is now over 75% complete, and I will continue to work to ensure the VA has the resources and plans necessary to open the medical center as soon as possible to deliver high-quality healthcare to Rocky Mountain Veterans.”
###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=64B45C2E-6A6D-63F6-D613-FF98181746D1,Bennet Statement on VA Inspector General Report on Mismanagement of Aurora VA Replacement Medical Facility Project,2016-09-21,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Inspector General (IG) report on the Denver VA Replacement Medical Facility under construction in Aurora:
""The VA Inspector General's report confirmed that the VA fundamentally and completely failed in management of this project by repeatedly not enforcing the budget and ignoring warnings from multiple sources, including from Congress. We are glad the current VA leadership has concurred with the IG's recommendations and support the IG's continued monitoring to ensure the mistakes made on the Denver facility never happen again. We have already stripped the VA of its authority to manage the construction of major medical facilities, and we will continue to scrutinize the agency's future projects.
""Focus must now be on the completing construction and the activation of the facility so the Rocky Mountain region veterans can get the world-class care they deserve. We will continue oversight to ensure activation goes smoothly and urge the VA to consult with the community in that endeavor.""
Since taking office, Bennet has been committed to ensuring the hospital is completed. He helped lead efforts among Colorado's Congressional delegation to pass a bill to ensure construction of the hospital would be fully funded. When reports of delays and mismanagement surfaced, he raised concerns regarding delays to VA officials and urged the agency to work with the Army Corps of Engineers. He also offered several legislative proposals to help complete the hospital, and he led efforts to bring the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee to Colorado for a field hearing at the hospital. Bennet has also consistently fought to hold the VA accountable for mismanagement within the agency. Bennet secured an amendment in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 with Senator Cory Gardner that directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study on the administration and oversight of VA contracts for the design and construction of major medical facility projects. It will examine the VA's design models, the agency's change order process, and how the agency compares to private-sector best practices. The senators also introduced an amendment to give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority to manage major construction projects for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The amendment would designate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the construction agent on all VA projects over $100 million. He is also a cosponsor of S. 1856, the Department of Veterans Affairs Equitable Employee Accountability Act, which would give the VA Secretary authority to remove individuals who are a threat to public health or safety and require senior political leaders in the department to be held accountable for managing the department.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/select-panel-votes-are-designed-to-drive-researchers-healthcare,"Select Panel Votes are Designed to Drive Researchers, Healthcare Providers Out of Business, DeGette Says",2016-09-20,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO) today said tomorrow’s hastily-arranged Select Panel votes are designed to harass researchers and will put their life-saving work at risk.
“Enough with the smear campaigns, fishing expeditions and endless stream of subpoenas,”said DeGette, who is co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus and a senior member of the Panel. “Congressional bullying to drive researchers and healthcare providers out of business is a clear abuse of power and has to stop.”
On Monday evening, Chair Marsha Blackburn announced to media and then to Panel members that on Wednesday they would vote on whether to begin contempt proceedings against StemExpress. Among its wide range of services to researchers around the globe, the small biotechnology company procures fetal tissue with the aim of using stem cells for vital research that will accelerate prevention and cures of significant medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. 
StemExpress was a key target of the deceptively-edited videos created by anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden and the “Center for Medical Progress.” Republican Panel members have embraced Daleiden’s cause from the outset of this investigation. 
The Panel will also consider a resolution authorizing Chair Blackburn to release a researcher’s May 11, 2016, deposition.
Chair Blackburn’s broad and burdensome demands for documents and other tactics to imply criminal misconduct by this company and others have had a chilling effect on researchers and healthcare providers, DeGette said.
“Overly aggressive investigations have already drummed one tissue procurement company out of business, created pressure that resulted in a significant drop in donations to StemExpress, and put a stop to promising studies and clinical trials,” DeGette noted. “Dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric by Panel members has been echoed verbatim to justify attacks on healthcare providers, including in Colorado Springs. We have long called for this panel to be disbanded before it does any more damage. This latest stunt is intended only to harass people involved in life-saving work. It is as reckless as it is baseless.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398228,"McConnell, Wyden, Paul, Polis gain insight to advance industrial hemp research",2016-09-20,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"After U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) raised concerns about funding for industrial hemp pilot projects last year, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clarified which industrial hemp research programs are eligible for existing federal research funding.
USDA issued the guidance following a bicameral letter from the legislators. The guidance clarifies that industrial hemp would be eligible for National Institute of Food Agriculture (NIFA) funding, though research must take place in one of twenty-eight states with certified pilot industrial hemp programs. Eligible applicants are institutes of higher education and state departments of agriculture.
However, guidance issued in August by the USDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised further questions about other industrial hemp policies, which are inconsistent and conflict with federal law and the Agricultural Act of 2014 (also known as the Farm Bill), specifically regarding transportation, the definition of industrial hemp, and the sale of hemp.
“USDA determining that industrial hemp research projects are eligible to compete for federal funding through existing grant programs is a good development for Kentucky farmers and helps ensure that industrial hemp pilot programs can continue with federal assistance,” said Senator McConnell. “It also demonstrates that the federal government agrees that this is a crop worth researching.  I look forward to continuing to work with hemp researchers in my home state and my colleagues in Congress to ensure that progress on industrial hemp research continues.”

“Ensuring funding is available to our states and universities will help Oregon put more hemp plants in the ground and propel industrial hemp research forward,” Wyden said. “I will continue working with my colleagues to get answers to the questions that remain so pilot projects like Oregon’s get the resources they need to ultimately seize on this burgeoning industry that provides a trifecta of benefits for farmers, the environment and the American economy.”

“Historically, Kentucky was a leader in hemp production, and it is already staking out its position at the head of the pack once again,” said Senator Paul. “I’m pleased to see the USDA respond to Kentucky farmers’ concerns by officially leveling the playing field for industrial hemp pilot programs so they can compete for existing federal funding.”

“I greatly appreciate the Department of Agriculture’s response and guidance on industrial hemp,” said Polis. “Access to federal funds will allow researchers to develop hemp as an everyday product. While we are making progress with federal grants, there is still a fair amount of contradiction on transportation and the sale of hemp. Putting those discrepancies aside, I remain confident that we’re heading in the right direction and look forward to working with the USDA in pursuing commonsense guidelines.”
Industrial hemp is used throughout the world in thousands of products, including paper, fabrics, lotions, canvas, rope, and construction material. Under the Farm Bill, institutions of higher education and state departments of agriculture are permitted to launch industrial hemp research pilot programs if certain conditions are met. Twenty-eight states have authorized industrial hemp pilot studies or production.
On November 20, 2015, 12 Senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter requesting the USDA provide information on how the agency interprets their authority to award existing and competitive federal funds for the research of industrial hemp. The letter also requested information regarding how the USDA helps interested parties in the competitive grant process.     

###",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=D1588058-DD16-170C-33AD-B42646E45FE6,Bennet Statement on Recent Terror Attacks,2016-09-19,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement on the recent attacks in Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York:
""Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and the communities where these attacks occurred. These events serve as a painful reminder of the threats of we face both abroad and here at home. Law enforcement officials have our full support to bring those responsible to justice for these cowardly attacks. We must continue to do everything we can to degrade terrorist groups' ability to recruit, inspire, and train potential attackers.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/fight-against-opioid-heroin-epidemic-needs-more-funding-says-diana-degette,"Fight Against Opioid, Heroin Epidemic Needs More Funding, Says Diana DeGette",2016-09-16,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette called on Congress to better fund the fight against the prescription opioid and heroin epidemic in Colorado and throughout the nation on Friday, saying legislation to address the issue thus far needs to go further.
“It’s good to have the right policies in place,” the Denver Democrat said at the Stout Street Clinic downtown, “but you have to fund the programs or it doesn’t work.”
DeGette pointed to statistics showing Colorado is second worst in the nation in prescription drug abuse and highlighted the rising number of deaths from opiates. She said the problem is exaggerated in rural areas, where there are fewer treatment resources.
“Washington has been talking about this issue for a long time, and frankly not enough has been done,” DeGette told reporters at a news conference about the issue. “Earlier this year we passed legislation targeted at opioid abuse and it was signed into law. It was a big step in beginning to revise our country’s laws around opioid abuse, and frankly it came too late.”
She added: “Even though we passed that legislation, the funding mechanisms were woefully low in that bill.  There simply was not enough funding to give states and localities the money they need to combat opioid abuse.”
Heroin use has reached crisis levels across the nation, including in Colorado, where overdoses are up almost 350 percent in the past five years, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA says heroin has become its main focus in the state.
Kent MacLennan, executive director of Rise Above Colorado, a youth drug prevention organization, said prescription drug overdose deaths in Colorado have eclipsed the state’s rate of traffic fatalities.
Dr. Beth Cookson, who works in opiate treatment at the Stout Street Clinic, said treating those dependent on opiates is difficult and expensive and takes a combination of medication and therapy. Abstinence-based methods have only a roughly 15 percent success rate.
The clinic, which serves Denver’s homeless community, has begun giving out the opiate-blocker naloxone — also known by its trade name, Narcan — to their clients.
DeGette, MacLennan and Cookson all agreed that more resources are needed to battle the national issue and turn the tide on dependence.
“Opioid abuse is a very complex problem that has grown up in this country,” Cookson said. “It takes a very complex response.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=AFE1C894-C1BB-84E7-9CE7-2A3C4350EF33,"Bennet, Burr Introduce Small Business Employee Retirement Savings Act",2016-09-16,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Richard Burr (R-NC) this week introduced a bipartisan bill to make it easier for small businesses to set up retirement programs for employees. The Small Business Employee Retirement Savings Act increases the retirement plan start up tax credit to $5,000, incentivizes auto enrollment, and removes restrictions to increase participation in retirement plans.
""More than 990,000 Coloradans work for a small business, yet small business owners often find it difficult to offer retirement plans to their employees,"" Bennet said. ""Our bill improves the tax incentives for small businesses to establish retirement plans and provides new incentives to help increase employee participation. This bipartisan proposal represents an important first step we can take to make it easier for Coloradans to save for retirement.""
""I am proud to join Senator Bennet in introducing this bipartisan legislation to help more small businesses offer retirement plan benefits to their employees,"" said Senator Burr. ""This legislation gives small business employers better tools to empower employees when it comes to saving for retirement.""
The Small Business Employee Retirement Savings Act includes three key provisions that make it easier for employees of small businesses to prepare for retirement:
 
Increasing the size of the start up credit - Currently, small businesses (with less than 100 employees) receive a tax credit totaling 50% of the costs of establishing a new retirement plan or $500-whichever is less. The credit can be taken for three years and can be used to offset the costs for starting up a new 401(k) plan, a SIMPLE retirement plan, or a simplified employee pension (SEP). The bill would increase the credit from $500 to $5,000.
Creating a credit for new plans that offer auto enrollment - The bill creates a new $500 per year tax credit (for up to three years) for small businesses that offer new retirement plans that include auto enrollment. It would also apply to businesses that add auto enrollment to an existing retirement plan.
Eliminating the 10% auto enrollment limit - Currently, an employer can auto enroll an employee in a qualified plan and over time, can escalate the employee contribution to 10% of their wages. This bill would eliminate the 10% limit, allowing employees to make larger contributions to retirement savings.
 
  A recent study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding the challenges facing small businesses that wish to start a retirement plan found that ""....smaller or newer firms may be unwilling or unable to sponsor plans because they lack sufficient financial resources, time, and personnel. For instance, smaller employers noted that startup and ongoing costs involved with maintaining a plan, costs associated with reporting and testing requirements, administrative fees paid to an outside party, and any employer requirements to match employee contributions were barriers to plan sponsorship. Small employers also expressed the need to reach a certain level of profitability before they would consider sponsoring a plan and that general economic uncertainty makes them reluctant to commit to such long-term expenses.""

The President's 2017 budget proposal states that ""[n]umerous employers, especially those with smaller or lower wage work forces, have been reluctant to adopt a retirement plan for their employees, in part out of concern about their ability to afford the cost of making employer contributions or the per capita cost of complying with tax qualification and ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requirements.""
The Small Business Employee Retirement Savings Act will expand access to employer-sponsored retirement plans by breaking down barriers that make it difficult for small business to provide this benefit to their employees.
The text of the bill is available online here.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1471,Perlmutter Introduces Legislation to Help Mitigate the Impacts of Data Breaches,2016-09-15,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) introduced new legislation encouraging American businesses to fortify their systems and networks in an effort to mitigate the impact of cyber-attacks and data breaches.
The Data Breach Insurance Act (H.R. 6032) provides a two-prong approach by providing a fifteen percent tax credit to companies who purchase data breach insurance coverage and adopt the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework or any other standard approved by the Secretary of Treasury. The tax credit will help offset some of the costs associated with implementing the cyber frameworks such as risk assessments, hardware/software upgrades, employee education, training, and vendor testing.
In 2014, there were 783 reported data breaches in the U.S. which exposed 85.6 million records, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The average cost of a data breach is now $3.8 million, up from $3.5 million a year ago, according to data security research organization, Ponemon. And IBM estimates businesses are attacked an average of 16,856 times a year – or 46 attacks on every business every day, nearly two attacks an hour.
“Whether in the private sector or government sphere, hacks expose vulnerabilities and compromise our personal information including our financial records and identifications. They inconvenience our lives requiring new credit cards, credit monitoring and ID theft protection, and they can cost companies their reputations and billions of dollars,” said Perlmutter. “As more and more businesses become targets of cyber-attacks, it is more important than ever for them to be protected. That’s why I’m introducing this legislation to help do more to prevent massive data breaches that compromise millions of American’s private and personal information.”
The Data Breach Insurance Act helps businesses realize the value proposition of purchasing data breach insurance and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework as risk mitigation tools. This legislation will also help develop a robust data breach and cyber liability insurance marketplace to  help businesses cover legal and liability costs, costs of notifying affected consumers, business interruption, settling cyber extortion threats, among others.
“With the adoption of a cybersecurity framework preventing breaches on the front end and insurance to protect businesses on the back end, this legislation provides a two-pronged approach helping businesses take the necessary steps to address this growing threat,” continued Perlmutter.
In response to President Obama’s Executive Order (EO) 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity which was issued in 2013, NIST developed its Cybersecurity Framework with extensive private sector input and released it in February 2014. According to NIST, thirty percent of businesses currently use the Cybersecurity Framework to help manage their cyber risk.
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https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=A9D989E5-B51C-CB76-A7D1-1E57EDBB4893,Bennet-Authored Provision to Expedite Gold King Mine Reimbursements Passes Senate,2016-09-15,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - The Senate today passed a bill to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) with a measure sponsored by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet to expedite the reimbursement of emergency response costs assumed by States, Indian tribes, and local governments following the Gold King Mine spill. The bill also includes a Bennet-authored provision that will help protect Colorado waters from invasive species, such as quagga and zebra mussels.
""More than a year after the Gold King Mine spill, it's unacceptable that Colorado communities are still fighting for reimbursements from the EPA,"" Bennet said. ""Our bipartisan amendment requires EPA to fulfill its commitment to the State, tribes, and local communities who responded quickly to the spill. It also ensures the EPA continues to work with local communities to develop a long-term water monitoring program for the Animas River.""
Bennet joined Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and John McCain (R-AZ) to introduce the bipartisan amendment to address the response costs associated with the Gold King Mine spill. The measure creates an expedited review process for claims to be reviewed and paid by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It also allows for claims that include costs incurred beyond October 31, 2015.
The amendment requires the EPA to pay out all costs eligible for reimbursement that are consistent with what is typically reimbursed under federal law. It calls for the EPA to pay out all claims within 90 days and notify parties as to whether or not it will pay the claim within 30 days of reaching its decision. Lastly, the amendment establishes a water quality monitoring program and authorizes the EPA to reimburse the States, Indian tribes, and local governments for this monitoring activity.
The invasive species provision expands a program that authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to establish watercraft inspection stations for invasive species in local reservoirs. The language adds two river basins in Colorado - the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. It also authorizes an additional $25 million for the establishment and operation of inspection stations owned and operated by the Army Corps in those river basins. This could provide funding for several reservoirs in Colorado including Chatfield, Cherry Creek, John Martin, Bear Creek and Trinidad Lake. Additional funding could also help the state of Colorado to keep their state-wide invasive species program fully funded.
""This bill will help ensure that Colorado's reservoirs are protected from invasive species,"" Bennet added. ""Colorado already has a strong inspection program, and this bill includes a measure to ensure the Army Corps continue to be involved in the watercraft inspection program.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=B79DD9F0-44A0-05FD-9A51-82162D2B3067,Bennet Statement in Recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month,2016-09-15,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month. The festivities, which occur from September 15 to October 15, celebrate the many histories and cultures which make up the Latino community and the countless contributions Latinos have made to the country.
""One of Colorado's greatest attributes is the diversity of cultures that converge in our state, including a rich Hispanic history. Hispanics have played a significant role in revitalizing our communities and strengthening our economy. We need to keep fighting for issues that are important to the Hispanic community, such as improving college access and affordability, increasing job opportunities, and fixing our broken immigration system.
""Hispanic Heritage Month is a good time to reaffirm our commitment to the Hispanic community by honoring their valuable contributions in the shaping of our country, to mark the progress that has been attained in the community, and to continue to support the next generation of Hispanics.""
Hispanic Heritage Month began in 1968 as a week-long celebration under President Lyndon B. Johnson and was expanded to a month-long observance under President Ronald Reagan in 1988.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=EDBC239A-E1C6-B210-38E8-86A62CF16287,"Bennet, Hatch Introduce Bill to Support Innovative Career and Technical Education",2016-09-15,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) issued the following statements after introducing the Innovation for Tomorrow's Workforce Act of 2016. The bill follows another Bennet-Hatch bill which encourages schools to expand dual and concurrent enrollment opportunities for students in career and technical education courses.
""High quality career and technical education programs can provide important access to the knowledge and skills needed for job and career success for students across Colorado,"" Bennet said. ""At a time when a great education has never been more important, we must create opportunities for those on the ground to innovate and create new approaches to providing key workforce skills. In addition to creating a fund for innovation, this bill will help encourage states and communities to engage in pay for success initiatives. It also promotes vital work-based learning opportunities and apprenticeships, which can be effective pathways to successful careers and well-paying jobs.""
""Last year we enacted a valuable education overhaul that is beginning to address shortcomings of No Child Left Behind, especially the needs of Utah's transformative education system,"" Hatch said. ""This new legislation will supplement those efforts by providing resources to encourage and support better pathways from the classroom to the workplace. Utah companies are eager to improve STEM education in our schools to prepare students to work in our ever-changing workforce and global economy. This bill is the product of discussions with many Utah stakeholders to ensure that we build on Utah's successes by allowing funds to be used for Pay for Success initiatives and to bolster students' success by making free, high-quality Open Education Resources more accessible.""
Background: The Innovation for Tomorrow's Workforce Act of 2016 would amend current law to create a grant program to identify and support innovative activities to improve career and technical education (CTE) and to align workforce skills with labor market needs. Priority in awarding grants would be given to entities that predominantly serve students in low-income families, and entities receiving funds must provide for an independent evaluation of the activities carried out using the grant. The innovation fund may be used flexibly to strengthen ongoing state efforts in career and technical areas, including: improving teacher effectiveness, integrating STEM and computer science into CTE, increasing work-based learning opportunities, and supporting employment outcomes for students. This grant is similar to The Education Innovation and Research, which was included in the Every Student Succeeds Act thanks to Senator Bennet's and Senator Hatch's efforts. The House passed a similar version of this fund on the floor and the Senators added in pay for success (PFS) and open education resource (OER) programs as allowable local and state uses of CTE funds to support states' priorities. To support efforts to further develop apprenticeship opportunities, the Senators added language in the state leadership and local use sections to provide or support work-based learning opportunities as a permissible use of funds.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=F1F032D6-611D-28E8-808C-2393B38A895E,"Bennet Calls on Stakeholders to Resolve Issues Surrounding In-State TV Broadcasts for La Plata, Montezuma Counties",2016-09-15,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today joined Senator Cory Gardner in calling on all stakeholders to come together and finally resolve issues around La Plata and Montezuma Counties' access to local in-state broadcasts from satellite providers. Currently, the counties receive television broadcasts from New Mexico rather than Colorado, and thus do not receive local news, sports, and emergency information.  ""Coloradans in La Plata and Montezuma counties have waited far too long to access local news, sports, and weather,"" Bennet said. ""We've made significant progress in the last year helping to bring local broadcasts to the Four Corners region. I look forward to convening a meeting with our Congressional delegation, Denver broadcasters, satellite companies, and local officials to find a resolution once and for all.""  Since coming to the Senate, Bennet has worked alongside officials from La Plata and Montezuma Counties to help residents access in-state broadcasts for news, weather, emergency information, and sports. Over the past several years, Bennet's office has worked with local officials to provide technical assistance and resources to help the counties petition the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to add the counties to the Denver television market, and have engaged with the Denver broadcasters and satellite companies to be responsive to the counties requests. In 2010, Bennet pushed Congress to require the FCC to report on potential solutions to bring Colorado broadcasts to the two counties. He then urged the FCC Commission to use that report as a first step to resolve the issue and encouraged Coloradans to submit their feedback during the comment period for the report. The FCC issued the report in August 2011 along with feedback from Coloradans and Bennet. The report outlined several potential alternatives to resolve the issue.
Bennet also worked with former Senator Mark Udall to introduce several different bills to allow access to Colorado TV, including a 2014 bill that would allow cable and satellite providers to transmit signals from Colorado-based broadcast stations. Working with the Senate Commerce Committee, Bennet and Udall secured language in the bipartisan Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization (STELAR) Act that created the path to allow county commissions to petition the FCC directly to change broadcasting markets to better serve their communities. The STELAR Act modernizes rules for satellite and cable providers and broadcast television markets.
Following up on the passage of the STELAR Act, Bennet, along with Gardner and Representative Scott Tipton, wrote a letter to the FCC requesting this rule change to allow counties to petition the FCC directly. This rule was finalized in February 2016.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/opening-statement-of-rep-diana-degette-ranking-member-subcommittee-on,"Opening Statement of Rep. Diana DeGette Ranking Member Subcommittee on Health and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations; Joint Hearing on The Affordable Care Act on Shaky Ground: Outlook and Oversight  September 14, 2016",2016-09-14,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"As Prepared for Delivery
Mr. Chairman, I’m wondering something about the Affordable Care Act.  Do you know if it covers treatment for déjà vu?  There seems to be a mass outbreak of that on Capitol Hill when it comes to the ACA; here are some of the symptoms:
Between the health subcommittee and the oversight subcommittee on which I’m ranking member, we’ve held over 40 hearings on the ACA since it became law in 2010. 
We have been through six years of repeated votes to repeal and undermine the law. 
We’ve seen any number of Administration officials interrogated by hostile members of Congress about their work to implement the law.  These same officials have been the target of countless letters requesting briefings and documentation of every aspect of their work. 
Despite the hours and hours spent on these efforts, House Republicans have nothing to show for it. 
Instead of conducting good-faith review of the issues followed up by thoughtful, targeted legislation to improve the law -- as Congress did on previous major pieces of legislation like the Medicare Part D program -- this Congress has used its oversight powers to highlight failures while offering no solutions. 
And today will be more of the same. 
We had two hearings this Congress on the ACA’s state insurance marketplaces.  But we will hear again today about how some states struggled to set up exchanges and make them work as efficiently as possible. 
We had a hearing earlier this Congress about the co-ops, and I’m sure we will hear again from the Majority today that many co-ops have failed or are facing challenges. 
I’m not denying that these are issues worthy of congressional attention.  But what we will not hear from the Majority are meaningful solutions to these challenges—despite the fact that many experts say they exist.  More interestingly, I am guessing, we will hear nothing about how the law is reforming the delivery of health care to millions. 
Highlighting solutions or making important course corrections requires a willing Congress.   And at this point, Republicans aren’t willing to admit to the public that that the law has helped millions of people and simply needs fixing rather than being repealed.  So far, they’re doing so only in private – in conversation with me, among others.  It’s my hope that after the elections, we can all be more straightforward about what needs doing to get the ACA on the right course.
In the meantime, let me take a moment to share just some of the major accomplishments we’ve seen as a result of the Affordable Care Act. 
Since the passage of the ACA, the United States has experienced historic reductions in its number of uninsured.  The CDC reported last week that the uninsured rate is at a historic low – the lowest level in four decades.  That is an accomplishment.
Since the passage of the ACA, 20 million previously uninsured Americans now have coverage.  This includes millions of young adults who can now stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, which will result in a cost savings for millions of families.  That is an accomplishment. 
Since the passage of the ACA, with implementation of the marketplaces and Medicaid expansion, more than 12 million additional individuals have been able to enroll in the Medicaid and CHIP programs.  That is an accomplishment.
Since the passage of the ACA and the expansion of Medicaid, uncompensated care costs for hospitals have been reduced by an estimated 7.4 billion dollars.  This ultimately saves taxpayers money and helps patients gain access to better care instead of flooding emergency rooms when they get sick.  Another accomplishment. 
Since the passage of the ACA, the price of health care has increased at the slowest rate in more than half a century.  Its increase is now in single digits as opposed to the double digits I remember discussing with this Committee not that long ago.  That is an accomplishment. 
In short:  the law has benefited millions of our constituents, and this Congress has a duty to share this news with the American people.  It is irresponsible to ignore these successes and focus only on the shortcomings that the majority chooses to parade without end. 
Finally, Mr. Chairman, everyone in this room knows I am a fervent supporter of Congress’s oversight role, and I am proud of my position as Ranking Member on the Oversight Subcommittee.  And I strongly believe that Congress can use its oversight powers to do an immense amount of good. 
But I cannot support the type of oversight we are seeing today.  It is not being undertaken for the purpose of finding meaningful solutions to the problems we are uncovering.  These ACA hearings only highlight failure without an eye towards fixing a problem or improving the law.  
I believe the collective staff hours and Member attention we have given to this topic have been a missed opportunity and a sad chapter for this Committee.
But I would like to conclude on a more positive note.  The Affordable Care Act has made tremendous achievements through its enactment.  It has helped millions of hardworking Americans and children get access to care they never had in their lives.  But implementing this law and solving this health care challenge has not been easy and this law is not perfect.  It has hit snags and will continue to face hurdles. 
I hope the role this Committee will eventually play will be not to focus exclusively on failure, but improve the law and also the lives of the millions of Americans who send us here to do our work.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=F7E8ACF8-4A8E-1C89-A253-1DEB4F1B82A2,National Farmers Union Presents Bennet with Golden Triangle Award,2016-09-13,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - The National Farmers Union (NFU) honored Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today with the 2016 Golden Triangle Award, the organization's highest legislative honor. The annual award is presented to members of Congress who have demonstrated leadership and support policies that benefit America's family farmers, ranchers, fishermen, and rural communities. ""Colorado's farmers and ranchers and our $40 billion agriculture industry help drive our state's economy,"" Bennet said. ""Their input was invaluable as we tackled the Farm Bill, which we passed in 2014 and continues to provide more certainty for our producers, and rural communities. Listening directly to Colorado farmers will help us ensure that they have the resources needed to continue to provide food and fuel to Colorado and America."" This is Bennet's seventh Golden Triangle award. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Bennet helped craft the Farm Bill with the help of Coloradans across the state. He was also selected to serve on the conference committee convened to work out the differences between the House of Representatives and Senate versions of the bill. Bennet helped ensure that Colorado priorities were in the final version of the Farm Bill, including a strengthened crop insurance program, improved conservation easements, reauthorization of the livestock disaster program, important forestry measures for reducing the risk of wildfires, and the continuation of Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) funding for Colorado counties. The Golden Triangle Award is based on NFU's symbol - a triangle with ""legislation"" and ""cooperation"" forming the sides and ""education"" the base. The Golden Triangle Awards have been presented every year since 1988.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=93FCB3AF-4201-978A-6B15-E9BBD2CAE7BC,Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Measure to Expedite Gold King Mine Spill Recovery,2016-09-12,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Gardner (R-CO), and Tom Udall (D-NM) along with Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Martin Heinrich (D-NV), and John McCain (R-AZ) today introduced an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to address the response costs associated with the Gold King Mine spill, and direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to work with affected States, Indian tribes, and local governments on a long-term water quality monitoring program of the rivers contaminated by the spill. The Gold King Mine spill occurred on August 5, 2015 and resulted in the EPA's release of three million gallons of contaminated water into the Cement Creek, affecting waterways in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, the Southern Ute reservation, and the Navajo Nation.
The bipartisan amendment expedites the reimbursement of emergency response costs assumed by States, Indian tribes, local governments, and individuals following the spill, and is intended to include costs that did not conclude by October 31, 2015. The EPA has stated the agency will not reimburse response costs after this date apart from limited exceptions.
Additionally, the amendment requires the EPA to pay out all costs eligible for reimbursement unless the agency proves with substantial evidence that the cost is not consistent with what is typically reimbursed under federal law. The measure also requires the EPA to pay out all claims within 90 days and notify parties as to whether or not it will pay the claim within 30 days of reaching its decision. Lastly, the amendment establishes a water quality monitoring program and authorizes the EPA to reimburse the States, Indian tribes, and local governments for this monitoring activity.
""It's been more than a year since the Gold King Mine spill and it's unacceptable that the EPA still hasn't fully reimbursed Colorado communities for their costs. We've been pushing the EPA to fulfill their long overdue commitment to the State, Indian tribes, and local governments who responded quickly to the spill,"" Bennet said. ""The communities in southwest Colorado paid out of their own pockets to maintain drinking water, provide for extra staffing costs, keep the public updated, provide water for irrigation, and monitor water quality. This amendment ensures that the EPA fully reimburses these communities and works collaboratively to institute a robust long-term water quality monitoring plan.""
""The EPA is responsible for the Gold King Mine spill, and therefore I'll fight to hold the agency fully liable and to the same standard as a private company,"" said Gardner. ""It is unacceptable the EPA has not fully reimbursed all costs associated with the spill and that's why I authored an amendment to the Water Resources Development Act that requires the EPA to expeditiously pay out all States, tribes, and individuals for emergency action in response to the spill. Furthermore, the EPA must work in coordination and pay for long-term water quality monitoring, and this measure makes sure of it. I'm proud to lead a bipartisan group of Senators, whose constituents have also been affected, in demanding accountability and transparency from the EPA and fighting to ensure all outstanding costs are addressed.""
""The Navajo Nation and many others in the Northwestern corner of New Mexico were devastated by the Gold King Mine spill over a year ago, and this bipartisan measure will help repair some of the many mistakes that have been made since then. Although the EPA has publicly taken responsibility, it has not done enough to make things right. Reimbursements for response costs to Tribal and state governments have taken far too long, and the state and federal government have struggled to set up and fund transparent, long term monitoring of the rivers to avoid a future public health crisis,"" Udall said. ""This amendment requires the EPA to begin the process of reimbursing the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico. It also takes important steps to help rebuild confidence in the quality of the water in the San Juan and Animas rivers through longterm monitoring. But this is just a beginning - many Navajo farmers and others across the region have not seen a dime to compensate them for their losses. More needs to be done to compensate individuals for the damages they suffered, and I will continue fighting to ensure everyone impacted by the spill gets the help they need.""
""Last year the EPA inadvertently spilled millions of gallons of waste into the Animas River in Colorado, exposing the local environment to toxic heavy metals. This spill had a significant adverse impact on many downstream communities and businesses throughout multiple Western states-including Utah. This legislation, if enacted, will instruct the EPA to reimburse states and tribes for related costs they incurred and hold EPA accountable for this spill,"" said Hatch.
Heinrich added, ""It's been over a year and families are still recovering from of the Gold King Mine spill. The pace of reimbursement to those impacted by this terrible incident is unacceptable. This measure ensures that state, local, and tribal governments will be fully reimbursed for their emergency response costs and establishes a long-term water quality monitoring program in cooperation with local stakeholders. We must also take action to reform outdated policies in order to clean up the hundreds of thousands of similarly contaminated mines across the West and Indian Country that are leaking toxins into our watersheds. And we shouldn't wait for more disasters to strike. Western communities deserve full and complete protection of their water, land, and livelihoods. Our nation owes it to these communities to clean up these sites once and for all.""
""There's no question as to the EPA's responsibility for the Gold King Mine disaster, which has devastated lands and livelihoods across Indian Country,"" said McCain. ""The Navajo Nation and other tribes should not be left on the hook to pay for the EPA's failure. This amendment would ensure that impacted states and tribes are quickly and fully reimbursed for all damages and emergency response activities connected to the Gold King Mine spill, while building a water quality and sediment monitoring system they need to protect all citizens. Most importantly, this amendment sends an important message from the United States Congress that the EPA should be held fully accountable for this disaster.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1462,"Perlmutter Statement on the 15th Anniversary of September 11, 2001",2016-09-11,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Perlmutter Statement on the 15th Anniversary of September 11, 2001 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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Lakewood, CO - U.S. Rep. Perlmutter (CO-07) released the following statement in memory of the 15th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks:  
   
“Fifteen years have passed since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, yet the events of that day remain as a vivid and painful memory for all of us. Today and every day, we remember the thousands of lives lost and the families devastated by the attacks. We also remember the courage demonstrated by so many Americans that day, particularly our remarkable and courageous first responders, firefighters and medical personnel who saved countless lives. September 11, 2001 forever changed the course of U.S. history, but that dark day has also become a testament to the strength and resiliency of the American spirit.”  
   
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https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=5FCB35C2-C6B7-C438-B876-286703714F13,Bennet Statement of 15th Anniversary of 9/11,2016-09-11,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO - Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement in remembrance of the 15th anniversary of 9/11:
""Fifteen years ago, thousands of innocent lives were tragically ended in the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. 9/11 was a horrific event that changed the course of our nation and the world. Just as they did 15 years ago, communities across the country of every background, faith, and ethnicity are coming together to honor the fallen and remind each other to never forget. Today, we celebrate the heroes that saved lives, memorialize the thousands of innocent lives lost, and recognize the sacrifice of those who protected our nation on that day and every day since.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=B76FEF9D-58DD-AB63-0682-825081BD68FB,"Bennet, Colleagues Press House Leadership for Vote on Zika Funding",2016-09-09,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet joined 28 senators today urging House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to bring the $1.1 billion Zika funding legislation passed by the Senate to the House floor for a vote. As of today, there are more than 18,000 cases of Zika reported in the United States and its territories.
""Zika is now well established in the United States with cases of local transmission by mosquitoes being reported in multiple areas of Florida, as well as the U.S. territories,"" the senators wrote. ""While babies die, pregnant women and communities suffer, adults worry about future long-term neurological risks from Zika, and U.S. service members and military bases are affected, Congress remains deadlocked in partisan politics. Now is the time to lead and to show the American people that Congress will act to protect them."" 
In their letter, the senators note the broad bipartisan support in the Senate to act on Zika funding. They cited the passage of the Blunt-Murray compromise amendment to the FY17 MilCon-VA appropriations bill, which included the support of 23 Senate Republicans. The letter also reminds the House Speaker that more than 50 health, public health, provider, and other organizations have urged Congress to pass a Zika funding bill that can be signed by the president immediately.
Current funds to address Zika have begun to expire, leaving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention without the resources to effectively combat the virus. Due to Congressional inaction, the White House has supplemented funding to address Zika by reallocating funds from other public health threats like Ebola. This funding, however, will run out in September.
In addition to Bennet, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).
To read the senators' letter, clickhere.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=9F7F8F7F-B108-C28C-7C4F-3110635DFD2D,Bennet-Backed Provision to Protect Colorado Waters from Invasive Species Included in Water Resources Bill,2016-09-08,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - The Senate this week began debate on a bill to reauthorize the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) which includes a provision backed by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet to protect Colorado waters from invasive species, such as quagga and zebra mussels. Bennet has worked with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and water leaders from across Colorado to ensure the language was included in the bill before the Senate. The additional federal assistance will help Colorado maintain an effective invasive species program through a collaborative federal, state and local partnership.
""Colorado's rivers and reservoirs are precious resources in our state,"" Bennet said. ""Not only are they a source of clean drinking water for communities throughout Colorado, but they also help drive our agriculture and outdoor recreation industries. Unlike many surrounding states, Colorado's strong inspection program has protected our state from harmful invasive species. Given recent funding challenges, it's especially important that the Army Corps and other federal agencies continue to be involved in the watercraft inspection program.""
The provision expands a program that authorizes the Army Corps of Engineers to establish watercraft inspection stations for invasive species in local waterways. The language expands the current program to include two river basins in Colorado - the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. It also authorizes an additional $25 million for the establishment and operation of inspection stations owned and operated by the Army Corps in those river basins. This could provide funding for several reservoirs in Colorado including Chatfield, Cherry Creek, John Martin, Bear Creek and Trinidad Lake.
""We have watched with alarm the spread of quagga and zebra mussels across the country and throughout our nation's water storage and delivery infrastructure,"" said Eric Kuhn, General Manager of the Colorado River District in western Colorado. ""This provision comes at a particularly critical time when Colorado budget constraints are curbing previous inspection and prevention programs concurrent with new mussel infestations being reported in neighboring states. I want to thank Senator Bennet for his leadership and success on this important issue.""
""This is a positive step forward to protect our nation's headwaters against zebra and quagga mussels and other harmful invaders,"" said Bob Broschied, Director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. ""Federal and state partnerships are critical to maintain Colorado's aggressive invasive species prevention program. We are very grateful to Senator Bennet for his support of Colorado's Aquatic Nuisance Species program, and for his actions which are helping to facilitate solutions that will benefit our state.""
""Army Corps of Engineers Reservoirs on the Front Range, such as Chatfield, have the highest boat traffic in the State. Authorizing the Corps to participate in funding invasive mussel inspections is a great step forward, given the loss of severance tax revenues as a funding source,"" said Mike Preston, General Manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District. ""Colorado remains uninfected by mussels at a time when Kansas lakes are becoming badly infected. McPhee Reservoir, operated by the Dolores Water Conservancy District, faces the threat of a badly infected Lake Powell. It only takes one infected boat to infect a lake. This provision is an important step forward in bringing federal resources to bear on this urgent problem. Senator Bennet has done a great job of keeping federal agencies at the table including the advancement of this provision.""",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/degette-congress-must-act-to-protect-us-from-zika-virus,DeGette: Congress Must Act to Protect U.S. from Zika Virus,2016-09-07,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"The Colorado Statesman
By Congresswoman Diana DeGette
Congress has returned to Washington, having failed throughout the spring and summer to take meaningful action on some of the nation’s most pressing problems. Thanks to Republican legislators’ intransigence, we are now confronted by an issue that grew substantially worse while we were away: the spread of the Zika virus on American soil.
Fortunately, Colorado faces little threat of an outbreak, as researchers at Colorado State University recently proved. The mosquito that spreads the disease doesn’t thrive in our climate. There could be isolated cases involving travel to Zika-affected areas or intimate contact with people who have traveled there, but no mass spread is expected.
However, in meetings and at events throughout August, constituents raised justifiable concerns with me about Zika. They’re rightly concerned that the country is grappling with an ailment that only recently emerged on the world’s consciousness and is directly affecting Americans now.
Throughout the year, I’ve vocally supported President Obama’s request for nearly $2 billion for Zika research, prevention and treatment. Democrats throughout Congress have done the same. But the majority refused to fully fund that effort. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says current Zika funding will run out when the fiscal year ends on September 30.
And that’s a critical point in our fight against this persistent and pernicious disease.
Clinical trials on a possible vaccine, which have just gotten under way on a limited scale through the National Institutes for Health, can’t be carried out with no funding. In fact, NIH says it’s irresponsible to start any larger trials unless we can see them through.
There are infants in Zika-affected area who show no signs of the virus now, but may do so as they develop. Longitudinal studies tracking their progress will be impossible without sufficient support.
And even though infection rates will drop with the arrival of cooler temperatures, they won’t go to zero. The Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the illness has been shown to effectively survive the winter and come back in the next year.
Earlier this summer, President Obama addressed the nation about the Zika threat once it began to spread in parts of the continental United States. He reassured us that public health experts don’t expect to see the kind of widespread outbreaks that had occurred in Brazil, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. However, he noted that “we cannot be complacent because we do expect to see more Zika cases.” 
That’s why Congress needs to knuckle down now and complete the funding process with streamlined legislation that doesn’t include high hurdles that will trip it up. Congress must provide sufficient Zika funding immediately to state and local authorities along with federal agencies such as the CDC so they can do what’s necessary to combat Zika. And the funds shouldn’t come from other important health efforts, such as developing a vaccine for Ebola, nor be weighed down by provisions that are likely to cause needless controversy.
With the right support, we can speed the development of a vaccine, allow more people to get tested and get a prompt result, and ensure that states and communities have the resources they need to fight the mosquito that carries the virus.
  Congress needs to act now to ensure that we have the resources we need to take every step necessary to protect the American people from the Zika virus. 
Diana DeGette represents the people of Colorado’s First District in the United States Congress.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/degette-slaughter-call-for-gao-investigation-into-laws-restricting-women,"DeGette, Slaughter Call for GAO Investigation into Laws Restricting Womens Access to Reproductive Care",2016-09-07,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, DC – Congresswomen Diana DeGette and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), co-chairs of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, today called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into the many barriers women face at the state and local levels when trying to access reproductive medical care, including abortion services. 
“We are very concerned about growing trends in the enactment of state and local laws that make reproductive health services inaccessible to women,” DeGette and Slaughter wrote in a letter to Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States. “Without realistic access to care, many women lack any practical ability to exercise their constitutional right to choose. GAO’s study pursuant to this request will support us in our efforts to ensure the women’s fundamental reproductive rights are both meaningful and protected.”   
In 1973, the Supreme Court made clear that the Constitution protects a woman’s choice to have an abortion in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The Court reaffirmed this right in June in its decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which struck down Texas H.B. 2, a state law that placed extreme and unnecessary regulations on abortion providers. The decision also further clarified the “undue burden” standard as it relates to a woman’s fundamental right to have an abortion. 
Nevertheless, many states have restricted access with policies targeting clinics, doctors, or women themselves. In the letter to Comptroller General Dodaro, DeGette and Slaughter expressed concern about the negative impact that Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers, often referred to as “TRAP laws,” are having on women across the country. The congresswomen remain concerned that many state and local laws continue to deprive women of any meaningful right to choose, restricting their constitutional rights.
Click here to read the letter.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=7088C65F-688A-A48C-E557-D04DD8E1C8D6,Bennet: Congress Needs to Stop Playing Politics with Zika Funding,2016-09-06,2016,2016-09,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet issued the following statement on the Senate's vote on a bill that provides funding for Zika research while cutting funding from other public health priorities, including protecting families from getting the Zika virus in the first place. The bill failed to advance in the Senate.
""It's ridiculous that after a seven-week recess, the Senate has returned to Washington to vote on an unserious bill that has already failed to move forward twice before. This partisan bill makes completely unnecessary cuts to important public health priorities. Congress needs to stop playing politics with the health of the millions of families living in areas that are affected by mosquitoes carrying the virus. We need to pass the bipartisan Senate bill as soon as possible.""
The Administration recently warned Congress that funding to help fight the Zika virus could dry up by the end of the month. It also said it would shift $81 million from cancer research to the Zika virus to help continue research until Congress is able to approve additional funding.
In February, the Administration requested $1.9 billion for researchers to fight Zika. In May, Bennet joined the Senate, which overwhelmingly voted to advance a bipartisan bill to provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat and prevent the spread of the Zika virus. Subsequently, the House passed an inadequate and irresponsible bill that included only $622 million, one third of the Administration's request. Bennet has urged both chambers to work across the aisle to finalize a serious funding package, including calling on Congressional leaders to reconvene both chambers of Congress to pass a clean funding bill to fight Zika. Ahead of the Senate's vote in May, he pressed Congressional leaders to consider and pass emergency funding. In February, he joined 45 senators in urging the Administration to coordinate an interagency response plan to address the spread of the Zika virus both at home and abroad. Bennet and a group of senators introduced a bill to fund the request and called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to quickly approve the funding. In April, he joined his Senate colleagues in urging Senate leaders to immediately pass the emergency supplemental funding request to help combat the Zika outbreak. Earlier this year, Bennet visited the CDC's Division for Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, where he toured the facility and received a briefing from researchers about their work to combat the Zika virus. In 2010, Bennet prevented funding cuts proposed by the Administration that would have virtually eliminated the vector-borne diseases program that is largely run out of the Fort Collins facility.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/senior-democrat-says-republicans-privately-open-to-aca-fixes-after-election,Senior Democrat Says Republicans Privately Open to ACA Fixes After Election,2016-08-30,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Modern Healthcare
Everyone agrees the Affordable Care Act exchanges need some fixes. Now a senior House Democrat says Republican leaders are telling her privately that after years of all-out opposition to the law, they are open to working with Democrats after the November elections on measures to improve the functioning of the exchanges.Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Co.), the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said in an interview that she has had a number of private conversations with senior Republicans who have told her they realize the ACA is here to stay and that they can't yank coverage away from the millions of Americans who have benefited. They have told her that “after the election we need to seriously talk about how to improve it.”In those discussions with Republicans, whom she declined to name, they did not offer specific proposals. She said much will depend on whether Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wins the election, and whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate and the House.DeGette is known as someone who can reach across the aisle and strike deals with Republicans. She is the chief Democratic sponsor of the 21st Century Cures Act, a major bill to expedite federal approvals of new prescription drugs and medical devices. It overwhelmingly passed the House last year and currently is being considered by the Senate. She said she is in close contact with Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-Mi.), Senate HELP Committee chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Democratic Senate leaders, and the White House, and is optimistic that comprehensive legislation to accelerate access to new medical products will pass this year.Upton's office did not return a call for comment by deadline.To strengthen competition on the exchanges, candidate Clinton has proposed additional premium subsidies and tax credits for consumers, stronger risk protections for insurers, and the establishment of public plans to compete with private insurers. The Obama administration just released a proposed rule to provide additional financial protections for insurers.But Republican president nominee Donald Trump and House Republican leaders continue to call for repealing the ACA and replacing it with some type of more market-based system, though details are sketchy.Some Republican health policy experts have said, however, that full repeal is politically untenable. They instead have proposed that if Clinton wins the election, congressional Republicans should pursue a deal that would give GOP-led states greater flexibility to design market-based approaches to make coverage more affordable and reduce spending in exchange for covering low-income workers in non-Medicaid expansion states. A key element, conservative experts say, would be for a Clinton administration to make it easier for states to obtain Section 1332 waivers under the Affordable Care Act. Those waivers allow states to replace the law's insurance exchange structure with their own innovative models.Conservative experts also favor changes in the ACA to make coverage more attractive and affordable for younger people, including allowing lower premiums for young people, a wider range of benefit designs and premium subsidies for plans bought outside the exchanges and easing minimum benefit requirements.Asked what type of fixes her GOP colleagues are willing to consider, DeGette said she doesn't want to guess. “I'm not sure they have thought it out specifically,” she said.DeGette said she expects Republicans to work with Democrats on finding ways to increase exchange enrollment and competition among health plans, including through re-establishing a risk corridor system. She does not anticipate that Republicans will support Clinton's proposal to establish public plans to compete with private insurers.Democrats see standard GOP proposals to eliminate the ACA's individual and employer mandates as “not being really fruitful suggestions,"" she said. ""If you eliminate the mandates, you immediately will make it wildly expensive for remaining people in exchanges to afford insurance because you'll limit the size of the pool. We see the elimination of mandates as way to repeal the fundamentals of the ACA. That's not what we mean by improvement.”We'll probably have to wait until after the election to see what Republicans mean by improvement.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398214,"Polis criticizes private immigration detention centers, welcomes action",2016-08-30,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Boulder, Colo. – Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) welcomed news that the Dept. of Homeland Security will review its use of private contractors to operate immigration detention centers.  Colorado has a massive, private, 1,500+ bed immigration detention facility located in Aurora, just off of I-70.
The Dept. of Homeland Security’s decision follows the Department of Justice’s announcement on Aug. 18 that it will end its use of for-profit prisons.
""The majority of immigrants who are subject to our immigration detention system – including many asylum seekers, women and children – are held in expensive, private facilities that filter billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded government contracts to two morally bankrupt corporations. Taxpayers are forced to pay over a hundred dollars a night per person for months on end,” said Polis.
“If the use of private facilities is detrimental to our criminal justice system, as the Dept. of Justice recently determined, it follows that private facilities should also be avoided in our civil immigration system. For-profit detention centers with tiered pricing schemes incentivize the prolonged detention of the greatest number of immigrants possible and are fundamentally inconsistent with our values as a nation.  Taxpayers deserve better,” Polis added. 
Polis has been an advocate for reducing the use of immigration detention centers and closing private immigration detention centers.  In 2012, Polis called for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate incidences of sexual violence against immigrants in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security.  He has authored several columns on the topic, and is a vocal proponent of comprehensive immigration reform.  
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https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398211,Ski Train to Run this Winter,2016-08-24,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"Ski Train to Run this Winter 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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      Frisco, Colo., Aug. 24: Rep. Polis released the following statement regarding news that the Ski Train from Union Station in Denver to Winter Park will re-open this winter.
“After talking with members of the Colorado Transportation Commission, I’m glad to hear they announced a grant for the ski train.  With the fresh dusting of snow on the mountains today, the ski and snowboard season is around the corner, and I am happy the train is on schedule to return.  Our mountain communities rely on people’s ability to get up to the mountains and recreate,” said Polis.   

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http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/aetna-decision-exposes-weaknesses-in-obama-s-health-care-law,Aetna Decision Exposes Weaknesses in Obamas Health-Care Law,2016-08-17,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"Insurance giant Aetna’s decision to stop offering much of its individual coverage through the Affordable Care Act is exposing a problem in President Obama’s signature health-care law that could lead to another fraught political battle in Congress.
Aetna’s announcement Monday night was the latest sign that large insurers are losing money in the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces, heightening concerns about the long-term stability of a key part of Obama’s domestic policy legacy. But addressing this issue could open the door to a nasty political fight, given that some Republicans have vowed to repeal the law outright.
If insurers continue to lose money, more are likely to withdraw from the marketplaces, a move that would reduce choices for consumers and could contribute to higher premiums. In one county, Aetna’s exit in 2017 could leave no insurers offering policies through its marketplace.
Aetna said it will exit 11 of the 15 states where it offers coverage through the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. That affects about 80 percent of its customers covered through insurance marketplaces.
The marketplaces, known as insurance exchanges, were created to provide coverage for Americans who cannot get affordable health benefits through a job. A key aspect of the health-care law, the marketplaces allow people to purchase insurance online with subsidies based on their income.
Earlier this month, Humana said it will cut back its participation on the exchanges from 15 states to 11. On an earnings call in July, UnitedHealth Group chief executive Stephen Hemsley announced that his company plans to remain on “three or fewer exchange markets.”
In a reversal of expectations, Anthem said it is projecting mid-single-digit losses on the individual plans it sells on the exchanges for 2016. And Cigna has said that it is losing money on the exchanges, although the insurer is planning to expand its marketplace presence to three new states in 2017.
The health-care law is likely to prompt another heated political battle, regardless of which party wins the White House and control of Congress in November.
GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has suggested that he would seek to scrap it altogether. Quoting a news story by Reuters on Tuesday, he tweeted: “Another health insurer is pulling back due to ‘persistent financial losses on #Obamacare plans.’ Only the beginning!”
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has pledged to modify the law to expand coverage and wants to add a public insurance option.
Both candidates’ proposals would face stiff political headwinds, but several health-care experts said lawmakers could still pursue more modest changes to make the program work better.
“The idea of somehow repealing it is far-fetched,” said Joseph Antos, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “But changing it is not far-fetched.”
There are many possible policy remedies, but the main issues have to do with the risk pool — the balance between healthy people and sick people with higher health-care expenses. Many insurers have noted that people who have signed up for health insurance on the marketplaces are sicker, putting greater demands on the system.
“You have here a situation which all of us who care about the exchanges have to worry about,” said Zeke Emanuel, who served as a top White House health policy adviser during Obama’s first term and is now vice provost for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. “There is a problem with the risk pool. There is a problem with the numbers of people signing up.”
One solution would be to entice more people — particularly healthy ones — to sign up for insurance, whether through a more robust public outreach campaign or by warning them about escalating financial penalties for not having coverage. Another would be to find new and better ways to give insurers that cover the sickest people greater financial relief.
“There are incremental steps the administration can take to address that, but I think more significant changes would require legislation that could get bipartisan support,” said Mark McClellan, director of the Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University.
In a statement Tuesday, Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson said the candidate is committed to expanding the law, which Obama signed in 2010.
“Hillary Clinton has outlined concrete plans to make health coverage more affordable in and out of the marketplaces, with more choices, expanded relief for costs, aggressively containing prescription drug expenses and the choice of a public option,” he said.
Many of these initiatives, along with any move to stiffen the financial penalties for not purchasing insurance, would require congressional approval.
In the meantime, however, some insurers are pulling back — and at least one county in Arizona has no insurers slated to sell marketplace plans in 2017.
Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini said in a statement that there are not enough healthy people to financially offset those with major health problems who require high-cost care. As of June 30, Aetna covered 838,000 people through the exchanges. In total, 11.1 million people were signed up for the marketplace plans at the end of March.
Katherine Hempstead, a senior adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said that these national carriers haven’t traditionally been the biggest part of the exchanges.
“I think the market could survive without these guys,” she said. “Obviously, it would be better to see lots of people seeing a lot of opportunity in this space. . . . But I don’t think it’s a chapter in a Greek tragedy.”
The decisions also come as four of the major insurers are in a battle with the Obama administration. The Justice Department has blocked two proposed mergers: between Aetna and Humana, and between Anthem and Cigna. The companies are fighting the decisions.
Anthem has said that if its proposed deal with Cigna is allowed to go through, it will increase its exchange offerings to nine additional states.
Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president at Avalere Health, a health-care consulting firm, said that the lawsuit may have affected the timing of Aetna’s announcement — in late April, Bertolini described the marketplace as “a good investment” — but not the underlying facts about the viability of the marketplaces.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in a statement that the administration deserves the blame. “Plans are rapidly exiting the so-called marketplace because Washington has damaged and upended the insurance markets,” he said.
But Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.), the top Democrat on Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said in an interview Tuesday that Republicans “seem to be hell-bent” on holding hearings “to support their multitude of efforts to repeal the ACA” and “have totally neglected their duty to try to fix it.”
DeGette said multiple senior and influential Republicans have told her privately that they are open to tweaking the health-care law after the November elections, when they have a clearer sense of the new political landscape.
“There’s a long list of things large and small that need to be adjusted,” she said. “But I don’t think anyone can say what that is until we know what the new Congress looks like.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=8A4786B0-456A-14D8-83BC-37104C11A93F,Bennet Holds Roundtable Discussion with Women Business Owners in Colorado Springs,2016-08-17,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Colorado Springs, CO - Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet met with Colorado women who own small businesses in El Paso County to discuss the challenges they face when starting and growing a business. ""One of the strengths of Colorado's economy is the number of successful small businesses that are not only responsible for employing hardworking Coloradans, but also for driving innovation,"" Bennet said. ""Our state is an ideal place to start and grow a small business and we need to keep it that way by continuing to provide the opportunities and incentives that allow them to thrive. Today's roundtable was a great way to connect with these entrepreneurs and hear what's important to them firsthand."" Since coming to the Senate, Bennet has worked to create new opportunities for entrepreneurs to start and grow their small businesses, which fuel our economy. Bennet played an integral role in creating and bringing the patent office to Denver. He also co-authored the bipartisan CROWDFUND Act that is now helping small businesses raise capital. He has also proposed legislation to allow small businesses to expense, or write off, up to $1 million in capital investments in a given year, which would free up capital quicker to invest in new purchases and help them grow.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://degette.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/democrats-seek-reversal-of-ban-on-federal-abortion-funding,Democrats Seek Reversal of Ban on Federal Abortion Funding,2016-08-16,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Diana DeGette,D000197,degette.house.gov,,,legacy,"NEW YORK — The law that bans federal funding for Medicaid coverage of most abortions is now in the spotlight some 40 years after it was passed by Congress, emerging as an election issue in the national debate over the procedure.
First approved in 1976, and renewed annually ever since as part of the congressional appropriations process, the Hyde Amendment makes exceptions in cases of rape or incest, or when a pregnancy endangers a women’s life.
For most of its existence, the amendment had broad bipartisan support in Congress, but that’s now changed. At their recent national convention, Democrats for the first time included in their platform a call for the Hyde Amendment to be repealed. Their presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, is embracing that stance, even as it risks creating friction within the party.
IT’S COMPLICATED
The amendment’s supporters depict it as essential in ensuring that taxpayers who oppose abortion do not have to subsidize it. Critics assail the policy as discriminatory, making it difficult for low-income women to obtain a legal medical procedure that’s readily accessible for more affluent women.
“Access to abortion shouldn’t depend on your zip code, and it shouldn’t depend on your pocketbook,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
For now, repeal of the Hyde Amendment is a long-term goal, not an imminent likelihood. Even if Clinton wins, Democrats would need improbably large gains in Congress to have a chance of ending the policy during her first term.
An extra complication: A handful of Democratic senators support the amendment, including Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Clinton’s own running mate — Tim Kaine of Virginia. Abortion-rights leaders were dismayed when Kaine reiterated his personal opposition to repeal.
“We sincerely hope that he will continue to educate himself on what Hyde means to the most vulnerable women in this country and join us in fighting this injustice,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
PARTY POLITICS
In the House, Democrats have introduced a bill that would nullify the Hyde Amendment and require the federal government to ensure abortion coverage in public health insurance programs, including Medicaid. No one from the chamber’s Republican majority is among the measure’s 119 co-sponsors.
Despite the political obstacles, advocates of repeal are upbeat as they succeed in drawing more attention to the amendment.
“I don’t think we’re as far away as people might think,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a leading abortion-rights supporter. “We got tired of tacitly accepting that a ban on Medicaid money was acceptable.”
WHO’S AFFECTED
The amendment is named after its initial sponsor, Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, who made clear from the start that the policy would target low-income women.
“I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman or a poor woman,” he told Congress in 1977. “Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the (Medicaid) bill.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, about half of U.S. women getting abortions have family income below the federal poverty line. The typical $500 cost for a first-trimester abortion is burdensome to many of them.
Guttmacher estimates that if Hyde were repealed, the number of annual abortions among Medicaid-covered women would likely rise by about 33,000.
MEETING THE DEMAND
Yamani Hernandez, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, one of the groups urging the amendment’s repeal, said the network gets about 116,000 inquiries per year, and is only able to help about 30,000 women. Its abortion assistance in 2014 totaled $3.5 million.
Hernandez says women calling the network’s hotline are often mothers already struggling financially to raise children who worry that bearing another child would push them deeper into poverty.
“We have to trust people’s decisions,” Hernandez said. “Wealthy people get to do that all the time — make the choices that are right for their families. People with lower incomes are expected to have their choices dictated to them.”
ACTING BEYOND HYDE
Even with the Hyde Amendment in place, there are 15 states — acting either voluntarily or under court order — that cover a wide range of abortions for low-income women with state Medicaid funds. These states are Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
In Illinois and Arizona, court rulings say state Medicaid funds should cover all medically necessary abortions. However, abortion-rights activists say relatively few women in those two states end up receiving such abortion coverage.
The remaining states restrict Medicaid coverage of abortion to the limited cases allowed under the Hyde Amendment. South Dakota goes a step further, barring coverage even in cases of rape and incest.
With Congress unlikely to repeal the amendment any time soon, action is expected at the state level. In Illinois, some Democrats are pushing legislation that would expand the availability of Medicaid-covered abortions. In West Virginia, abortion-rights supporters are braced for efforts by abortion opponents to make such abortions less available.
PUBLIC OPINION
The Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, is mounting a door-knocking campaign in three battleground states that emphasizes Clinton’s views.
The group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, says the repeal issue has the potential to divide Democrats, and she would like to see Republican nominee Donald Trump speak out in support of the Hyde Amendment.
“He’s insane if he lets that go by the wayside,” Dannenfelser said.
On the other side, abortion-rights activists are eager to maintain momentum after achieving a major victory in June when the Supreme Court struck down tough anti-abortion restrictions in Texas.
“Hyde is one of the harshest remaining barriers to abortion,” said Destiny Lopez of All above All, a coalition seeking the amendment’s repeal. “Young people, people of color — they understand this is about their communities unfairly bearing the brunt.”",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=1DD8BEB5-D256-09C4-67B5-B58645074B82,"Bennet Visits PharmaJet in Golden, Highlights Need for Emergency Research Funding for Zika",2016-08-16,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Bennet has led the fight in the Senate for emergency research funding to combat Zika virus
PharmaJet working with NIH on clinical trial for Zika vaccine
Washington, DC - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today visited PharmaJet in Golden, where the Colorado-based device company is involved in clinical trials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to eventually deliver a Zika vaccine to high-risk patients. NIH clinical trials for Zika that incorporate PharmaJet's vaccine delivery system could be delayed if Congress does not approve emergency research funding soon. Bennet has led the fight in the Senate to pass more than $1 billion to combat the Zika virus.
""Colorado businesses like PharmaJet are on the leading edge of innovation in the fight to combat Zika and provide a real solution for Americans,"" Bennet said. ""There are serious consequences when the only national clinical trial for a vaccine is at risk of being delayed, which is all the more reason Congress should get back to work and pass a clean and serious bill to help our researchers fight the spread of the disease. Zika is a public health emergency, and it is unconscionable that Congress hasn't taken it seriously. We've been calling for action since February, and the longer Congress waits, the greater the threat is to Americans.""
PharmaJet developed a needle-free technology for vaccine delivery and is currently working with the NIH on clinical trials to help deliver a potential vaccine to prevent the spread of the Zika virus. Following clinical trials, any Zika vaccine would then need to go before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for final approval.
The Administration recently warned Congress that funding to help fight the Zika virus could dry up by the end of the month. It also said it would shift $81 million from cancer research to the Zika virus to help continue research until Congress is able to approve additional funding.
In February, the Administration requested $1.9 billion for researchers to fight Zika. In May, Bennet joined the Senate, which overwhelmingly voted to advance a bipartisan bill to provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat and prevent the spread of the Zika virus. Subsequently, the House passed an inadequate and irresponsible bill that included only $622 million, one third of the Administration's request. Bennet has urged both chambers to work across the aisle to finalize a serious funding package, including calling on Congressional leaders to reconvene both chambers of Congress to pass a clean funding bill to fight Zika. Ahead of the Senate's vote in May, he pressed Congressional leaders to consider and pass emergency funding. In February, he joined 45 senators in urging the Administration to coordinate an interagency response plan to address the spread of the Zika virus both at home and abroad. Bennet and a group of senators introduced a bill to fund the request and called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to quickly approve the funding. In April, he joined his Senate colleagues in urging Senate leaders to immediately pass the emergency supplemental funding request to help combat the Zika outbreak. Earlier this year, Bennet visited the CDC's Division for Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, where he toured the facility and received a briefing from researchers about their work to combat the Zika virus. In 2010, Bennet prevented funding cuts proposed by the Administration that would have virtually eliminated the vector-borne diseases program that is largely run out of the Fort Collins facility.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=C2F2849D-5EDC-80A1-0223-785DE3C380F9,"Bennet, Western Senators Push for Increased Access to Great Outdoors",2016-08-12,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, along with Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM), are urging their colleagues to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) as bipartisan negotiations take place over the Energy Policy Modernization Act.  In a letter to the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the four senators highlighted the importance of LWCF. ""For the last 50 years, LWCF has been one of our nation's most successful conservation tools. LWCF has supported projects that increase opportunities for hunting, fishing, and other forms of outdoor recreation in every state in the nation,"" the senators wrote. ""LWCF strengthens our economy and enhances quality of life in our communities."" The Senate and House are currently negotiating a final energy reform bill and the senators want to ensure that permanent reauthorization of LWCF stays in the final bill.  ""Despite high profile attempts to transfer federal lands to states, we firmly believe that keeping public lands in public hands is key to maintaining our western way of life,"" the senators added. The letter to Senators Lisa Murkowski and Maria Cantwell can be read HERE.
Since coming to the Senate, Bennet has fought to strengthen the LWCF. Last year, he introduced a bipartisan bill with Republican Senators Richard Burr of North Carolina and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire to permanently reauthorize the LWCF. He has also fought to fully fund the program.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
http://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1448,Perlmutter Statement on DEA Marijuana Announcement,2016-08-11,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Perlmutter Statement on DEA Marijuana Announcement 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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      Lakewood, Colo. – Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) released the following statement in response to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) marijuana-related actions announced August 11, 2016:
""Today's announcement is a real missed opportunity. While I appreciate the expanded research capabilities, the fact is, federal law still conflicts with state laws on this issue. I will continue to work with both sides of the aisle in Congress to remedy the inconsistencies, especially with respect to banking.""
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https://polis.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398202,UPDATED TELEPHONE TOWN HALL SCHEDULE FOR AUGUST,2016-08-07,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Jared Polis,P000598,polis.house.gov,,,legacy,"UPDATED TELEPHONE TOWN HALL SCHEDULE FOR AUGUST 
   
    
       
      
  
    
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        Colorado Second Congressional District,
        August 7, 2016
      
       
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
      
      
      Rep. Jared Polis will hold two telephone town halls in August. Speak with Rep. Polis directly about the issues that matter most to you. Join our telephone town hall on: - Tuesday, August 9 from 6:00 - 7:00 P.M. (MST) at 855-756-7520, access code 32649#, - Wednesday, August 17, 6:00 - 7:00 P.M. (MST) at 855-756-7520, access code 32678#. 
    
  
  
  
    
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https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1447,Perlmutter Celebrates Startup Day Across America,2016-08-04,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Lakewood, Colo. On August 4, 2016, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) celebrated the fourth annual Startup Day Across America by interviewing two entrepreneurs in his family: his dad and his daughter

My dad worked for my grandfather when he started his construction company and then started his own company in the 1940s, said Perlmutter. My daughter, Abby, recently started her own business and blog named Denver Darling. While their businesses are quite different, they share similar experiences and the same entrepreneurial spirit.
New businesses create two million jobs a year and are a critical part of the economy. According to Startup America, 27% of startups nationwide are owned by women and 33% are owned by minorities. These startup companies are involved in a variety of industries including technology, retail, healthcare, entertainment, consulting, and education.
Startup Day Across America also provides local entrepreneurs with an opportunity to educate their elected officials about the challenges they are facing and discuss how federal policy can support their efforts to test new ideas, create new products, and grow their businesses.
Whether it's a family member or a local small business in the community, it's important to hear directly from entrepreneurs and small business owners about the challenges and opportunities they face, continued Perlmutter.
As a longtime advocate for micro and small businesses, Rep. Perlmutter has been involved in the JOBS Act, crowdfunding and the Export-Import Bank which helps small businesses in the export to overseas markets. Rep. Perlmutter also helped establish the new USPTO satellite office in Denver which helps small businesses and entrepreneurs obtain patents for new products.
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https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=79AFD18F-330C-5CD3-7FE4-BEE6AE076E51,Bennet Calls for Congress to Return Immediately to Address Zika Threat,2016-08-04,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Washington D.C. - Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, along with Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan to reconvene both chambers of Congress to pass a clean funding bill to fight Zika. There are currently 15 confirmed cases of Americans who have contracted the Zika virus on U.S. soil, and the actual number of those infected is likely to be higher. In Puerto Rico, the number of Zika virus cases continues to rise with thousands of residents, including up to 50 pregnant women, contracting the virus every day.
In the letter the Senators wrote:
""The problems the American people confront do not disappear simply because Congress does. We urge you to immediately cancel the remainder of the congressional recess and get back to work to help the American public, especially women and families, amidst this crisis.
""It has been 164 days since the President requested emergency funding to fight Zika. The combined time it took Congress to fund all of the last three public health emergencies - Ebola, H1N1 and Avian flu - was 137 days. The National Institutes of Health has said trials for a Zika vaccine will likely be delayed due to lack of funding. It is deeply troubling that the Zika epidemic which disproportionately impacts pregnant women and their babies would be treated any differently than these other emergencies. In each of these instances, Congress was able to set aside political rhetoric and act quickly to help. Unfortunately, we have seen no such action on Zika for pregnant women and families.""
Bennet has been consistently fighting in Congress to ensure that funding is provided to combat the Zika virus. Earlier this week, Bennet sent a letter to congressional leadership explaining the dire need to pass a clean funding bill.
In February, he joined 45 senators urging the Administration to coordinate an interagency response plan to address the spread of the Zika virus both at home and abroad. Following the Administration's request for $1.9 billion in emergency research funding, Bennet and a group of senators introduced a bill to fund the request and called on the Senate Appropriations Committee to quickly approve the funding. In April, he joined his Senate colleagues in urging Senate leaders to immediately pass the emergency supplemental funding request to help combat the Zika outbreak.
In June, when the Senate had voted overwhelmingly to advance a bipartisan bill to provide $1.1 billion in emergency funding to combat and prevent the spread of the Zika virus, Bennet spoke out against the partisan and irresponsible House Zika proposal which would fund only a third of the administration's emergency request from February.
Bennet has also visited the CDC's Division for Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins with Senator Cory Gardner, where he toured the facility and received a briefing from researchers about their work to combat the Zika virus. In 2010, Bennet prevented funding cuts proposed by the administration that would have virtually eliminated the vector-borne diseases program that is largely run out of the Fort Collins facility.
Other Senate Democrats signing the letter include: Harry Reid (D-NV), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jack Reed (D-RI), Thomas R. Carper, (D-DE), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Warner (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Al Franken (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Edward Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Gary Peters (D-MI).
The full text of the letter is below:
August 4, 2016
The Honorable Mitch McConnell  Majority Leader, U.S. Senate  The Capitol Building  Washington, DC 20004
The Honorable Paul Ryan  Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives  The Capitol Building  Washington, DC 20004
Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan:
The problems the American people confront do not disappear simply because Congress does. In the case of the rapidly expanding Zika crisis, the problem has grown significantly worse since the Republican-led Congress went on recess. We urge you to immediately cancel the remainder of the congressional recess and get back to work to help the American public, especially women and families, amidst this crisis.
In Puerto Rico, the Zika virus is now expanding at an accelerating rate, according to public health officials. Each day, thousands of residents, including up to 50 pregnant women, are infected. According to the latest data from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are now nearly 5,500 confirmed infections in Puerto Rico, with likely many times that number of unconfirmed cases. Zika could impact as many as 10,000 pregnancies by the end of the year. Experts fear a generation of children born with severe birth defects, such as microcephaly, caused by Zika.
In the continental United States, what public health officials warned for months was imminent is now a reality: Zika is spreading here. In Florida, 15 individuals - that we know of - have been infected by mosquito bites while residing in the state. According to an estimate cited by CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden, the cost of treating a single case of microcephaly in a newborn could be as high as $10 million over a lifetime. At present, more than 850 pregnant women in the U.S. and its territories have Zika.
While the Zika crisis grows, the Republican-led Congress has done nothing on funding. It has been 164 days since the President requested emergency funding to fight Zika. The combined time it took Congress to fund all of the last three public health emergencies - Ebola, H1N1 and Avian flu - was 137 days. The National Institutes of Health has said trials for a Zika vaccine will likely be delayed due to lack of funding. It is deeply troubling that the Zika epidemic which disproportionately impacts pregnant women and their babies would be treated any differently than these other emergencies. In each of these instances, Congress was able to set aside political rhetoric and act quickly to help. Unfortunately, we have seen no such action on Zika for pregnant women and families.
As you know, Congress left for the August recess after House Republicans killed a bipartisan compromise bill that received 89 votes in the Senate. Republican leadership acquiesced to their extreme right-wing Members, who demanded poison pill special-interest priorities that weakened clean water rules, supported the Confederate flag and limited access to family planning services by once again attacking Planned Parenthood.
The World Health Organization, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics, the March of Dimes, and the CDC have all called for greater access to birth control in Zika-impacted countries. Planned Parenthood affiliated clinics in Puerto Rico offered contraceptive services to 88,000 women and men last year, almost half of which went to those under 25 years old. Family planning services and access to contraception are primary tools to help combat Zika. By preventing these clinics from helping women at risk of contracting Zika, Republicans are limiting protection for Puerto Rican women in order to score cheap political points on women's health.
It is simply unacceptable that efforts to counter the spread of Zika and develop a vaccine are being held hostage by Republican partisanship. Americans expect Congress to do its job. Republican Congressional leaders should call both the Senate and the House back into session to pass a real and serious response to the burgeoning Zika crisis. The simplest course of action would be to pass the Senate's clean bipartisan compromise on Zika funding by unanimous consent and have the House pass the same bill immediately.
Sincerely,",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z
https://perlmutter.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1446,Perlmutter Honors WWII Veteran by Formally Presenting Medals for Service,2016-08-03,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Ed Perlmutter,P000593,perlmutter.house.gov,,,legacy,"Lakewood, Colo.  On August 3, 2016, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) held a formal medal presentation ceremony for Lakewood resident, Oscar Reiss, Ph.D. During the ceremony, Dr. Reiss was presented with seven military medals for his service during World War II.
Dr. Reiss has had an amazing life with some terrible losses but because of his courage and bravery, we've all benefited as a country and been blessed by his contributions both in and out of military service, said Perlmutter.
Born in Rhineland, Germany, Dr. Reiss moved to New York City in April of 1937. He later became a herdsman of 40 Ayrshire cattle delivering 250 gallons of milk. This was deemed essential as part of the war effort, however Dr. Reiss was unable to volunteer for military service because he was not a U.S. citizen. In 1944, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and attended Basic Infantry Training at Ft. McLellan, AL. As part of that process, he was awarded U.S. citizenship.
Dr. Reiss was then sent to Cherbourg, France assigned to the 79th Infantry Division B. Company in Alsace, France, guarding the right flank during the Battle of the Bulge. In 1945, Dr. Reiss was awarded the Silver Star Medal. Several days later he was wounded by shrapnel and taken to a hospital in Liege, Belgium and was later awarded the Purple Heart for these injuries. While Dr. Reiss was awarded both the Silver Star Medal and Purple Heart, they were never formally presented to him.*
Dr. Reiss contacted Rep. Perlmutter's office to ask for a formal medal ceremony for the Silver Star Medal and Purple Heart Medal. During that process, Rep. Perlmutter's office discovered five additional medals that Dr. Reiss earned for his service during WWII but were never obtained or formally presented.
Rep. Perlmutter has held several medal ceremonies for local Veterans who were never awarded or presented with the medals and/or honors they earned during their service to our country. Last summer, Rep. Perlmutter held a ceremony for three local WWII Veterans who were Prisoners of War (POW).
The specific medals presented to Dr. Reiss include:
 *Silver Star Medal: The third highest military decoration for valor that can be awarded to any person serving in the U.S. Armed Forced. The medal is awarded for gallantry in action against enemy of the U.S.
 *Purple Heart Medal: The oldest military award still awarded to those wounded or killed while serving in the U.S. military on or after April 5, 1917.
 Army Good Conduct Medal: Awarded for exemplary behavior, efficiency, and fidelity in active Federal military service to a soldier who distinguishes himself or herself from among his or her fellow soldiers.
 European-African-Middle Easter Campaign Medal: To recognize military service members who have performed military duty in the European Theater during the Second World War.
 World War II Victory Medals: Commemorates military service during WWII and is awarded to any member of the U.S. military.
 The Army of Occupation of Germany Medal: Service medal of the U.S. military which recognizes those members of the U.S. military who served in the European occupation force following the close of WWI.
 Honorable Service Lapel, WWII pin: Awarded to U.S. military service members who were discharged under honorable conditions during WWII.
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https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?id=4BC6BF4B-AF46-0CBA-2452-CEE5957139A2,Bennet Announces the Launch of Engage Cuba Statewide Council,2016-08-03,2016,2016-08,Democrat,House,CO,Michael Bennet,B001267,www.bennet.senate.gov,,,legacy,"Denver, CO - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet and Engage Cuba announced the launch of a statewide council that will work to open trade opportunities to Cuba and end the travel ban. The 38-member council is made up of a diverse group of Coloradans representing industries like banking, agriculture, travel and tourism, high-tech, healthcare, education, energy, and others.
Bennet is cosponsoring two bills to further this cause, including the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act and the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act. The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act would eliminate restrictions against Americans traveling to Cuba. The bill would also prohibit restrictions on any transactions related to travel, like bank transactions. The Freedom to Export to Cuba Act would repeal laws that prohibit U.S. companies from doing business with Cuba, and allow businesses to work directly with the Cubans to finance and ship purchases of American made products.
""We are grateful to have such an impressive gathering of diverse industry leaders to support the end of trade restrictions and travel barriers to Cuba,"" Bennet said. ""It's important that we recognize that our country has more ties to Cuba than just Miami and the coasts, and Colorado communities have a tremendous amount to gain economically and culturally from reestablishing this important relationship. This newly formed state council will allow us to forge new relationships, strengthen financial ties, and build bridges of opportunity for the next generation of both Cubans and Americans.""
""We're very pleased to work with all of our Engage Cuba Colorado State Council members to lift the Cuba travel and trade bans that is costing Colorado jobs and preventing economic development for the Cuban people. It's time to end 55 years of failed, isolationist policies toward Cuba,"" said President of Engage Cuba, James Williams. ""Colorado businesses are stuck on the sidelines as our foreign competitors continue to take advantage of Cuba's growing markets. Opening up trade with Cuba would provide tremendous opportunities for Colorado agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and renewable energy sectors and support Cuba's growing private sector.""
The council is focused on expanding trade with Cuba to provide economic and educational opportunities for the people of Colorado and Cuba. It's estimated that the current Cuban embargo has cost the U.S. $1.2 billion annually in lost export revenue. Normalizing relations is estimated to generate $4.3 billion in exports. The Cuban government has also expressed interest in building its renewable energy sector and has set a goal of generating 24 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Colorado's thriving renewable energy industry would be uniquely positioned to be an international leader in exporting energy infrastructure, technology and expertise to Cuba. Cuba also imports 80 percent of its food, which could provide excellent opportunities for Colorado farmers and ranchers to increase their exports.
Speakers at Tuesday's launch event included Bennet, Hikmet Ersek, CEO of Western Union, Barry Biffle, CEO of Frontier Airlines, Karen Gerwitz, President of World Trade Center Denver, Don Shawcroft, President of the Colorado Farm Bureau, Luke Albee of Engage Cuba, and Cuban-American Community Leader and CEO of CRL Associates Maria Garcia Berry. Colorado is the 12th state council launched across the U.S.",1,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z,2026-03-30T12:14:52Z