Colorado’s U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper threw a wrench in the Senate’s plans to start work on a government funding package before heading home for the holidays.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
The two Democrats put a hold on the so-called mini-bus package over the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
“President Trump is attacking Colorado because we refuse to bend to his corrupt administration. His reckless decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research will have lasting, devastating impacts across the country,” Bennet and Hickenlooper said in a joint statement.
Hickenlooper told The Hill that the hold is to ensure that funding for NCAR in the budget bill is “used to keep it open (and) we don’t cancel it.”
In a social media post, Bennet, who is also running for governor, said “when Trump comes after Colorado, we don’t back down, we fight back.”
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., left, speaks at a news conference about the need for Congress to take action to support communities that receive migrants, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, at the U.S. Capitol as Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., right, listens, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
In announcing the “break up” of NCAR, Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management, said it was “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”
Many Colorado Democrats viewed the move to dismantle NCAR as retaliation over the state’s decision not to hand over or release former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is currently serving a nine-year state sentence. She was convicted of orchestrating a breach of her county’s election system.
Vought also highlighted two other cuts specifically for Colorado — the scrapping of $109 million in environmental transportation grants and of $615 million in Department of Energy grant funding — on his social media right before the NCAR post.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat whose district includes NCAR, told CPR News it was “clearly retaliatory action by the Trump administration connected to the state’s refusal to honor the lawless request by the Trump administration for the release of Tina Peters.”
Neguse defended NCAR’s work, saying it is “nonpartisan in nature. It is fundamentally about science, climate adaptation, weather forecasting, and other matters that are critical to our nation’s national security.”
All week, Senate Republican leaders had been working to clear objections on their side to aloo for quick passage of the package that would fund the departments of Education, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Housing and Human and Development, Labor, and Interior.
The hold puts a speed bump into plans for quick passage of the bipartisan spending package, something Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, acknowledged to reporters Thursday night.
“I’m sure there’ll be some conversations about that over the next couple of weeks. Then we’ll figure out a path forward,” he told reporters.
Without an agreement to move the package quickly, Thune will have to use up valuable floor time and even then, getting the necessary 60 votes to advance the bill is not guaranteed.
Funding for most of the government runs out on Jan. 30.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Type of Story: News Service
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