Congress

Bennet is ‘keeping an open mind’ on Gorsuch confirmation as he, Gardner introduce SCOTUS nominee

DENVER – Colorado’s Democratic Senator, Michael Bennet, joined his Republican counterpart, Sen. Cory Gardner, in introducing Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a move Bennet said was aimed at bridging Congress’s partisan divide.

At Monday’s introduction of Gorsuch, who is from Colorado and has spent the past several years as a judge on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, Bennet lamented his colleagues’ failure to give President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, a hearing – in some cases, not even a meeting. Continue reading

Colorado Sens. Gardner and Bennet will introduce Neil Gorsuch at onset of SCOTUS confirmation

DENVER – Colorado Sens. Cory Gardner and Michael Bennet will introduce Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch to the Senate Judiciary Committee Monday to kick of his confirmation hearings.

It’s customary for the senators of the states in which the nominated judge hails from to introduce them before the committee. Gorsuch is from Colorado and has worked as a judge on the Tenth Circuit since he was confirmed in 2006.

Gardner says he will support Gorsuch’s confirmation.

“A fellow Coloradan, Judge Gorsuch is an exceptional jurist who will bring a Western perspective to the Supreme Court. I enthusiastically support his nomination and I look forward to introducing him at his upcoming hearing,” he said in a statement.

Bennet will also introduce Gorsuch, though he has not taken a stance on whether or not he supports Gorsuch’s confirmation.

Denver7 is set to interview Gardner ahead of the introduction Monday morning, Leave comments for questions for him on the Denver7 Facebook page.

To see how Colorado reacted to Gorsuch’s nomination in January, click here.

For more on Gorsuch’s judicial history from the Associated Press, click here.

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Projection: 600K Coloradans will lose Medicaid, state will lose $14B by 2030 under AHCA

DENVER – Colorado would lose $340 million in federal funding in 2020 when Medicaid provisions under Obamacare run out under the GOP-sponsored American Health Care Act, and the state stands to lose $14 billion in federal funds by 2030, according to analysis on the proposal released Thursday by the Colorado Health Institute.

The report says the state will have to choose between cutting up to 600,000 Coloradans from Medicaid by 2030 or making cuts to the state budget the nonpartisan CHI says would be “historic.” Continue reading

EPA pays out $54K more to Colorado for Gold King Mine reimbursement costs

DENVER – Colorado and some local jurisdictions in the southwestern part of the state are getting fractions of what was initially sought in reimbursement money from the Environmental Protection Agency for the August 2015 Gold King Mine spill, but received another $54,000 Thursday.

The EPA said in January that it would not fully repay the 73 claims from both governments and private entities worth $1.2 billion for the spill, which was caused by EPA contractors and hampered communities in southwest Colorado, northwest New Mexico and southeast Utah for months. Continue reading

Coffman-Carroll competition for 6th Colo. House seat was among few close races nationwide

DENVER – Not only did Colorado have the fourth-highest voter turnout of any state in last year’s election, but one of our House races was among just a handful with a margin of victory within 10 percentage points in an election that was largely a landslide for congressional seats nationwide.

The U.S. Elections Project and Nonprofit VOTE released a report titled “America Goes to the Polls 2016” that details voter turnout and voting data from the 2016 election on Thursday. Continue reading

Sen. Michael Bennet to host five town halls across Colorado this week, his first in two years

DENVER – Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet is hosting five town hall meetings this week across the state.

As many of Colorado’s members of Congress hold both in-person and telephone town hall meetings with constituents, these five will be among the first hosted by Bennet in two years.

His fellow senator from Colorado, Cory Gardner, was lambasted for not appearing at in-person town halls organized by others in recent months, but Bennet has largely avoided criticism from Democrats for not hosting his own. Gardner has been hosting tele-town halls in recent weeks.

Rep. Jared Polis hosted two in-person town hall meetings in northern Colorado over the weekend. Rep. Mike Coffman is also hosting a telephone town hall Wednesday evening.

Bennet is set to appear at town halls in Colorado Springs, Pueblo and Alamosa on Thursday before hosting two more, in Durango and Grand Junction, on Friday. The details for each can be found below:

  • Colorado Springs – Thursday, March 16 – 11:30 a.m. — 12:30 p.m. – Tesla Education Center, 2560 International Circle
  • Pueblo – Thursday, March 16 – 1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. – Pueblo Union Depot, 132 West B Street
  • Alamosa – Thursday, March 16 – 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. – Rio Grande Water Conservation District, 8805 Independence Way
  • Durango – Friday, March 17 – 8:15 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. – Double Tree Hotel, 501 Camino Del Rio
  • Grand Junction — Friday, March 17 — 2:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. — Colorado Mesa University, South Ballroom, 1455 N 12th Street

His office is encouraging people to come early to ensure they get a seat.

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24 million Americans would lose insurance under GOP proposal to replace Obamacare by 2026, CBO says

DENVER – Twenty-four million people who would be insured under Obamacare would not have insurance under the new health care bill supported by President Trump and House Republicans by 2026, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released Monday.

The CBO report, also compiled with the Joint Committee on Taxation, has been highly-anticipated since House Republicans first introduced the American Health Care Act just more than a week ago, as it anticipates the expected impacts on the federal budget and American people. The JCT released some initial estimates last week. Continue reading

Report estimates new health care bill will cause 15 million to lose coverage, possibly millions more

DENVER – A report out Friday from the Brookings Institution says it is likely the Congressional Budget Office will estimate more than 15 million people would lose health care coverage under the new House GOP bill.

The CBO is expected to release its projections Monday on how many people might lose health insurance, and how much premiums and out-of-pocket costs might amount to under the American Health Care Act – the bill House Republicans have put forth to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The budget office provides nonpartisan analysis of the effects legislation and other orders might have on the national budget and on Americans. It has no political affiliation or motivations.

The projections released Friday by Brookings Institution are based off prior CBO analysis and was compiled as part of the Leonard D. Schaeffer Initiative in Health Policy.

The analysis finds that it’s likely CBO will determine at least 15 million people will lose coverage by 2026.

“Estimates could be higher, but it’s is [sic] unlikely they will be significantly lower,” the report says.

It says that the ACHA’s repeal of the individual mandate contained in the ACA, better known as Obamacare, would leave 15 million uninsured. Further, the report says, the parts of the new bill affecting Medicaid would lead to “significant coverage losses, likely on the order of several million.”

The main basis for the report’s judgments is a recently-released CBO report that estimated that repealing the individual mandate of the ACA would cause individual premiums to increase by 20 percent and lead to 6 million people losing insurance by 2026.

Another CBO report determined that another 2 million would lose employer coverage and that another 7 million would lose Medicaid coverage.

Many, including Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, have voiced concerns about the provision that would end Medicaid expansion allowed under the ACA in 2020, and would further penalize people who had lapses in coverage. Others still have voiced concerns over a move to use tax credits that analysts have said benefit the wealthy more than low-income people and are 36 percent lower than the tax credits available under the ACA.

The CBO report is expected to have huge ramifications on the bill’s fate in Congress. It has already received significant pushback from both Democrats and conservatives, but passed through two House committees without significant changes.

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said that he didn’t believe that “individuals will lose coverage at all.”

But House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has led the effort to push the new bill quickly through Congress said, “We always know you’re never going to win a beauty contest when it’s free market versus government mandate,” according to a Vox report.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., has joined a growing list of members of Congress to say they would not vote on the new bill until they received estimates from the CBO.

“We’re not about to let the tyranny of the majority in Congress leave people vulnerable just because House GOP wants to jam this bill through,” she tweeted.

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Colorado may owe feds millions after Medicaid overpayment due to ‘human programming error’

DENVER – Colorado is trying to figure out how to set aside $25 million in case it needs to pay the federal government back after a computer programming error led to the state being overpaid by millions of dollars in Medicaid funds.

On Feb. 15, Office of State Planning and Budgeting Director Henry Sobanet sent a letter to Sen. Kent Lambert, the chair of the Joint Budget Committee, informing him of the overpayment. Continue reading

Tipton, Lamborn and Gardner all hosting telephone town halls Wednesday evening

DENVER – Three of Colorado’s Republican members of Congress are holding telephone town hall meetings Wednesday evening to talk with constituents.

Sen. Cory Gardner is holding his fourth in a series of town halls Wednesday evening at 7:10 p.m. Mountain Time. He is holding several throughout the year at different times of the day in order to connect with different groups of people, he says.

You can sign up to participate in the Gardner town hall by clicking here. You must sign up at least an hour before the start time to be able to pose a question, but anyone can listen in.

In the March 1 town hall, Gardner talked about marijuana, health care, and Russia, among other subjects.

Rep. Doug Lamborn will also host one Wednesday. His begins at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time. Sign up for the town hall by clicking here.

And Rep. Scott Tipton will hold a town hall starting at 5:30 p.m. Mountain Time Wednesday. The town hall was originally slated for Tuesday, but was pushed back to Wednesday because of flight delays, Tipton said.

You can sign up for Tipton’s town hall here.

Many of Colorado’s congressional delegation is holding town hall meetings over at least the next month in order to hear from constituents on topics concerning them.

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