After a few early misses and much constituent consternation about the accessibility of U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, the freshman congressman (R-Colo.) held his first Tele-Town Hall on Tuesday night without a hitch. About 7,500 people joined the call.
To his credit, in the hour that was allotted for the call, Hurd gave a brief update about his legislative activities and quickly called for questions. In his update, Hurd described both bills he’s introduced – including the LOCAL Act, which would move the BLM Headquarters back to Grand Junction, something the Herald’s editorial board opposed in 2017 (Herald, May 13, 2017) and will again since most employees are already in the field, the power is in Washington and where already-underfunded agencies fight for resources – and bills he has cosponsored, including a bill that would compensate people and businesses impacted by the Gold King Mine Spill, and his recent travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Q&A topics – which were not cherry-picked by staff – included the Second Amendment, Medicaid and Medicare, federal firings, public lands, BLM Headquarters, Ukraine, the electric grid, energy, veterans and more.
The call revealed Hurd’s position on Putin and Russia, calling them “indisputably adversaries of America” and that it is wrong not to stand with Ukraine.
Callers were also likely relieved to hear of Hurd’s support of the 30% of CD3 constituents who receive Medicaid, and his support of federally-qualified health centers, such as Axis Health System. He also repeated a Republican talking point about requiring work requirements for Medicaid recipients.
What he may not know is that a majority of people who receive Medicaid are already working and there are significant barriers to requiring recipients to do so, something the Herald’s editorial board opposes, in part, because it would result in people losing coverage. We encourage him and his staff to review the Commonwealth Fund’s expertise on Medicaid to further inform his policy positions.
Although Hurd indicated he shares constituent concerns on indiscriminate federal agency firings and is working with the administration – and Congress by cosponsoring a bipartisan bill to protect and return probationary workers to their jobs, for example – we urge him to do more, and quickly. Summer is around the corner. How do we protect our communities from wildfire, and our public land tourism-based recreation economies, without critical staff?
In Durango, we’ve seen the effects of Elon Musk’s chain saw – lost public land management jobs (Herald, Feb. 21), canceled leases for the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers’ offices (Herald, Mar. 10), frozen grants that support emergency services public radio provides (Herald, Mar. 5) and small businesses that benefit local agriculture (Herald, Mar. 11) – all hurting people, our communities, economies and institutions.
Since Jan. 20, we have witnessed a wanton disregard for, and blatant ignorance of, how the federal government works and the role it plays in our lives. We understand the president and Musk don’t care, and destroying the federal government is their goal, but we know Hurd does care. It was heartening to hear so. We agree there are inefficiencies, in all business sectors, but a chain saw is not the tool with which to address them.
The Herald’s editorial board thanks the Representative for hosting this Town Hall and encourages more of them, and with increased frequency, online and in-person. The swift and chaotic changes the Republican administration is making to the federal government are, rightfully, eliciting a lot of questions, alarm, fear and indignation from most, albeit approval from some.
Citizens deserve access to the representative that has the most sway with this administration. To his staff, too. People want to be heard and seen, and see and hear their Representative. We know Hurd has been to Durango and Cortez to meet with business leaders, why not also meet with more of his constituents in person? Congress’ April recess would be a perfect time for this outreach.
And please, as Hurd did on Tuesday’s call without evidence, we hope the Representative will stop expressing unwarranted concern about in-person meetings, which he sounds open to hosting “as long as the dialogue is productive and does not devolve into political theater.” These are the Republican National Committee’s talking points and demeaning.
Constituents deserve the same respectful behavior the Representative experienced on Tuesday’s call with people who were clearly not all Republicans. The Dolores Public Library meeting that Hurd’s Southwest Regional Director left, even though she had the offer of a Sheriff escort, was civil, respectful and attended by people who are deeply concerned about the unprecedented changes that are taking place.
Rep. Hurd, your constituents want a two-way conversation, to know what you are doing in support of the people of CD3 and about the negative impacts of the changes to federal institutions the American people have relied on for centuries.
Thank you for your service.
