Biden signs DeGette's methane bill; Crow measure to speed Afghan visas passes House

Welcome to DC Doings, a weekly look at the Colorado congressional delegation's activity.

The House was in session for four days this week while the Senate was on a state work week. The Senate returns on July 12 following the one-week Fourth of July recess, and both chambers will be in session for the week of July 19.

Biden signs DeGette's methane resolution

President Joe Biden signed legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette on June 30 to reinstate rules restricting methane emissions at oil and gas drilling sites.

The resolution, brought under the Congressional Review Act, reverses a rule the Trump administration put in place last year that eased requirements on the fossil fuel industry to prevent release of the powerful greenhouse gas, which is 84 times as potent as carbon dioxide.

"This was a big win in our fight to combat the climate crisis," said DeGette after attending the signing ceremony at the White House with Senate sponsor Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

"Climate scientists agree that reducing our methane emissions is key to slowing the effects of climate change. While getting this legislation signed into law was a critical first step toward sufficiently reducing our nation's overall methane emissions, now, we need to do even more."

The House approved the resolution on June 25 on a vote of 229-191, with all four Democratic members of Colorado's delegation approving and all three Republicans opposing.

Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn told Colorado Politics he voted against what he called "[t]his heavy-handed legislation" because it ignores the energy industry's incentive to limit methane release so it can capture the gas and sell it.

"Innovation and technology improvements within the oil and gas industry and not ideologically driven government regulation has made the U.S. the world's leader in emissions reductions," Lamborn said in a statement. "Sadly, President Biden has waged a war on American energy production and independence since his first day in office."

THE AYES HAVE IT ... The House passed legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jason Crow on June 29 to speed the processing of visa applications for Afghan interpreters and others who have helped the U.S. government during the country's nearly two-decade presence in Afghanistan.

The Honoring Our Promises through Expedition for Afghan SIVs Act would temporarily waive medical examination requirements for applicants under the Special Immigrant Visa program, in place since 2009 but fraught with backlogs that can last years

Currently, Crow said, applicants can only get the required medical exam at one facility in Kabul at tremendous cost. Waiving the requirement before moving ahead with the process could speed the visas by a month for each applicant, he said.

"We cannot allow a slow bureaucracy to cost the lives of Afghans that served alongside our men and women," Crow, an Army Ranger veteran who served in Afghanistan, said in a speech on the House floor.

"In combat and in a war zone, every hour matters. Minutes seem like hours, days like week. A month will save many, many lives."

• An amendment introduced by Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse to establish a fund to preserve public lands and build resilience on the lands in the face of climate change passed the House on June 30.

Added to the massive INVEST in America Act — the infrastructure bill making its way through Congress — the amendment would create a $100 million Community Resilience and Restoration Fund, which would be administered by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Department of Interior. It includes a report after five years to assess the program.

Neguse said in a statement that he was happy to see the amendment pass with funding "to restore our public lands, protect wildlife and biodiversity and contribute to the health and wellbeing of our communities," calling the fund "an important tool" to support projects and activities in underserved communities.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE ... Democratic Rep. Ed Perlmutter, chair of the House Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions, held a hearing on June 30 about the risks climate change poses to the U.S. financial system.

The effects of climate change pose "severe and long-lasting" threats to the system's stability, Perlmutter said, citing the long-term risks to Colorado and other areas of the country of more severe and frequent wildfires, less snowpack and scarcer water.

"Whether it is rising sea levels threatening coastal communities, more severe hurricanes on the East and Gulf coasts, wildfires in the West, or regional climate changes affecting crop yields on the plains, climate change is affecting every state and community in the nation," he said.

"These risks are intertwined in the financial system. Insurers can expect more claims related to extreme weather events, lenders will see more risks in underwriting for carbon dependent industries, and economic changes will affect asset values across many sectors. Climate change is creating significant and complex risks in our financial system that we cannot ignore."

He urged immediate action to make sure the country's financial system can withstand climate change and associated economic shocks.

IN THE HOPPER ... On June 30, Neguse joined fellow House lawmakers to introduce a bill to waive overtime pay caps for federal firefighters.

The Wildland Firefighter Fair Pay Act would lift an annual salary limit placed on firefighters employed by the Departments of Agriculture and Interior who exceed eight hours a day during wildfire season.

"Colorado has experienced record-setting wildfires in the past year, and climate change threatens to make the 2021 wildfire season even worse," said Neguse, a co-chair of the bipartisan Wildfire Caucus.

"With wildfire seasons blending into wildfire years, it is our responsibility in Congress to ensure we make it easier, not harder, to respond. Firefighters risk their lives to protect our communities, and it is long past time we pay them the wages they deserve. Waiving the overtime pay cap for our federal firefighters is a step in the right direction."

• Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced a bill on July 1 aimed at preventing catastrophic wildfires by taking a comprehensive approach to forest management.

The Active Forest Management, Wildfire Prevention and Community Protection Act has provisions intended to improve the health of forests, remove trees killed by bark beetle, protect property and end what Boebert called frivolous litigation "by radical enviros to halt responsible forest thinning," her office said. The bill would also designate 25% of logging revenues to stay in counties that "actively maintain" their forests.

"Forty-four large wildfires are currently burning more than 660,000 acres because of decades of poor forest management, radical environmental lawsuits, federal bureaucracy, and an emphasis on funding for suppression as opposed to active management," she said. "This bill is fully paid for and will bring in billions for the U.S. Treasury. Instead of pandering to radical enviros, my bill puts rural communities first."

The other two Republican members of the state's delegation, Lamborn and Rep. Ken Buck, are among the bill's 16 original co-sponsors.

• Sen. John Hickenlooper joined with fellow Democrat Sen Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island on June 28 to introduce a bill to encourage states to promote affordable electric vehicle charging.

The Responsibly and Equitably Change How Auto-charging Rates Get Evaluated Act — dubbed the RECHARGE Act — makes it more affordable to drive electric vehicles, its sponsors say, by having states review utility rates for charging, among other provisions.

"Colorado created one of the largest electric vehicle charging networks in the country," said Hickenlooper, a former governor and a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "The next step is making electric vehicles affordable and competitive. That's why we are focusing on how utilities bill charging stations."

• Buck joined with Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California to introduced bipartisan legislation to forbid corporations filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy from shopping for favorable venues.

The Bankruptcy Venue Reform Act of 2021 would require that proceedings take place where the corporation's principal place of business or principal assets are located.

"Under current U.S. law, corporations filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy have the ability to 'venue shop' and potentially choose a court that has issued lenient rulings in similar cases," Buck said in a statement.

"Our bill will require corporations filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy to go through those proceedings in the forum they are primarily located rather than running off to a court across the country. This will eliminate companies' ability to tilt the scale of justice and ensure the case is heard in a court familiar with all the affected stakeholders."

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN ... Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet joined with Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin to urge Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the department's Medicare and Medicaid administrator to review health care issues facing older LGBTQ adults in an effort to help providers better serve the seniors.

"With a growing aging population there is greater urgency to address the palliative and end-of-life care needs among this population," the senators wrote in a June 30 letter.

"LGBT persons have unique health needs and have experienced disparate health care due to discrimination based on their sexual minority status and associated fear of disclosure of their sexual orientation or gender identity to health care providers. These fears are steeped in historical discriminatory trauma as LGBT persons have been persecuted."

The senators are urging the officials to pattern guidance to hospitals, long-term care facilities and palliative and hospice care agencies on the work of SAGE, a national organization the works with older members of the LGBTQ community, or similar groups. They also want the department to reverse changes made by the Trump administration that removed questions about sexual orientation and gender identity from national surveys that help determine how to serve older and disabled Americans.

THE BULLY PULPIT ... Hickenlooper talked up the bipartisan infrastructure legislation he helped negotiate during a June 29 visit to the Southwest Carpenters Regional Training Center in Denver.

The $1.2 trillion plan, Hickenlooper told a group of apprentices, would be the largest infrastructure investment package since the New Deal, including funding to make key roads and bridges more resilient to climate change.

"Our bipartisan plan includes historic investments in public transit, high-speed internet, clean energy transmission, clean drinking water and electric vehicle infrastructure," Hickenlooper said. "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in infrastructure and make sure America remains competitive on the global stage."

The package, which was endorsed a week earlier by Biden, includes $109 billion for roads and bridges, $49 billion for public transit, $66 billion for passenger and freight rail, $65 billion to connect everyone in the country to high-speed internet, $55 billion for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, and $73 billion for clean energy power transmission, among other provisions.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE ... Boebert announced that Pueblo high school student Arianna Woodford was the winner form the 3rd Congressional District of this year's Congressional Art Competition for a painting called "Early Morning," which will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol for the next year.

"Arianna Woodford, a soon-to-be senior at Centennial High School in Pueblo, perfectly captured the beauty of Colorado's Third Congressional District in her piece, Early Morning," Boebert said in a statement. "I am honored to represent such talented student artists, and I am so excited to unveil this stunning painting in our nation's capital."

Boebert called Woodford to congratulate her. The student will receive two tickets to fly to Washington, D.C., for the unveiling of her artwork in the Cannon Tunnel, which typically counts 1 million visitors a year. The competition began in 1982, and since then, more than 650,000 high school students have entered.

TWEET OF THE WEEK ... Perlmutter honored Arvada Police officer Gordon Beesley and Good Samaritan Johnny Hurley, who were killed during a shooting on June 21 in Olde Town Arvada, in remarks on the House floor on June 29.

"These two men were heroes and my deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Officer Beesley and Johnny Hurley and the entire Arvada community," Perlmutter tweeted.

In his remarks, Perlmutter said: "This has been a difficult week for our community, including for members of the Arvada Police Department. Our heroes in uniform are charged with protecting our communities, and last week's shooting is a reminder of the dangers our police officers face each and every day across the country.

"Olde Town Arvada is a close-knit community at the heart of Arvada. On a typical day, it's a busy, vibrant and cheerful part of town. June 21, 2021, was a dark day for our community and it is difficult for many of us to process it. My deepest and heartfelt condolences go out to the family of Officer Gordon Beesley and Johnny Hurley and the entire Arvada community. Arvadans are resilient and strong, and together we will get through this."