Every January, people make resolutions they half-expect to break. Exercise more. Eat better. Spend less time staring at their phones.
Members of Congress don’t usually make resolutions in public. If we did, many would sound predictable: get on more cable news, win more arguments online, never miss a chance to be outraged.
I’m going in a different direction.
As I start a new year representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, my resolution is simple: resist Washington’s obsession with volume and stay focused on usefulness.
That may not sound ambitious by Washington standards. But for a district like ours – large, rural, independent and practical – it turns out to be a pretty good governing strategy.
Over the past year, I’ve spent a lot of time across Western and Southern Colorado. When I meet with farmers, ranchers, health care providers, tribal leaders, sheriffs, small-business owners and parents, no one asks how many viral clips I’ve generated. They ask whether water will be there next year. Whether health care premiums will spike again. Whether federal agencies understand how their rules actually land on the ground.
Those conversations have shaped how I’ve tried to do this job.
My first bill signed into law – the Wetlands Conservation and Access Improvement Act – is a good example. It doesn’t create a new program or expand federal authority. It addresses a technical issue so more conservation dollars that already exist actually reach wetlands and habitat over time. It’s targeted. It’s bipartisan. It works. In Washington, that kind of bill is easy to overlook. In rural Colorado, it matters.
Health care has been another focus. Premiums are high, options are limited and uncertainty hits rural families hardest. That’s why I helped introduce the HOPE Act, which temporarily prevents sharp premium increases while Congress works through longer-term reforms. It’s not a permanent fix – and it shouldn’t be – but it’s a responsible guardrail while we address deeper cost drivers.
I’ve also worked with colleagues from both parties on legislation to support rural hospitals, improve wildfire mitigation, give livestock haulers common sense flexibility, reduce unnecessary red tape for farmers and ranchers, and strengthen workforce opportunities. None of this makes for dramatic floor speeches. All of it affects daily life here.
Here’s something I’ve learned after a year in Washington: Congress has a bad habit of confusing noise with progress. The louder the argument, the easier it is to miss whether anything is actually getting fixed.
My resolution for the year ahead is to resist that temptation.
There’s plenty left to do. Water security remains an existential issue. Rural health care is fragile. Transportation corridors need real investment. Federal agencies still too often make decisions as if rural communities are an afterthought.
But I’m convinced the right approach for Colorado’s 3rd District isn’t constant outrage. It’s steady attention. Asking basic questions. Fixing broken processes. And remembering that the goal isn’t to win the day’s argument; it’s to make things work a little better than they did before.
If that sounds boring by Washington standards, I’m OK with that.
For Western and Southern Colorado, steady progress beats loud politics every time.
Congressman Jeff Hurd represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. He serves on the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
