WASHINGTON – With his campaign for governor well underway, Sen. Michael Bennet says he is still “full steam ahead” in Congress.
He announced his decision to run for governor in April, in part because he believes his efforts to oppose President Donald Trump will be more effective at the state level. Bennet has faced criticism for not opposing more of Trump’s executive nominees, especially those at the cabinet level – something he defended as necessary to build relationships to protect Colorado from further administrative turmoil.
Should he win the Democratic primary in June and the general election in November, Bennet would have less than a year and a half left in the Senate. Until then, he hopes to push through a slate of bills that hit close to home for Colorado.
And with the Democratic Party in the minority in both houses of Congress and facing an uphill battle advancing legislation, Bennet believes bipartisanship on narrower policy areas is the solution.
“We have continued to push bipartisan legislation where we can, even in an era when Donald Trump is making that harder and harder for us to get done,” Bennet said in an interview with The Durango Herald.
In the past, Bennet has said that meaningful bipartisanship on broader, more contentious issues, such as immigration or energy policy, is more likely to originate at the state level rather than in Congress.
A priority for Bennet in what could be his final months in the Senate is fighting to ensure firefighters don’t face caps to their pay, especially after Colorado just experienced its worst fire season in five years, with more than 200,000 acres burned.
Bennet has worked to increase pay and improve benefits for firefighters in recent years, and secured compensation in 2021 when parts of the Tim’s Act were enacted through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Still, those fixes were partial, and without further congressional action, many firefighters will continue to see their pay limited by annual caps.
The pay caps come at a time when U.S. Forest Service workers have already experienced mass layoffs as a part of the Trump administration’s federal downsizing. The San Juan National Forest lost a significant portion of its full-time, non-fire staff, with many of those being red cardholders – those certified to be deployed during wildland fire incidents.
Bennet has been a staunch advocate for reversing the layoffs, sending multiple letters to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, speaking on the Senate floor and introducing a budget resolution amendment to reinstate employees.
He also pointed to bipartisan cooperation with Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District congressman Jeff Hurd in a number of state-specific public lands initiatives. He continues to push progress to protect portions of the Gunnison Basin through the Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection Act, as well as to compensate communities affected by the Gold King Mine spill of 2015.
But Bennet and Hurd aren’t in agreement on all public lands issues. Bennet’s Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, which protects over 400,000 acres of public lands in the state and establishes wilderness and recreation areas, does not have Hurd’s support. He has even introduced opposing legislation that would promote resource development.
In the past, Bennet has repeatedly said that simply pointing out Trump’s corruption is insufficient – a key part of why he decided to run for governor.
“Everyone in America knows how corrupt Trump is,” Bennet said. “We obviously should continue to show the kind of decisions he's made (are) based on politics, not on our national interest.”
Bennet also wants to keep pushing for some Democrat-backed bills, including the Keep Kids Covered Act, which would prevent children under 6 from being thrown off Medicaid in the wake of Republican cuts to the program.
Still, he believes that emphasizing bipartisanship shows Americans “a positive vision for the future.”
Richa Sharma is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at rsharma@durangoherald.com.
