In the News
After a seventeen-year absence, U.S. Space Command may finally return to Colorado.
A bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers sent a letter on March 7 to Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan urging him to re-establish Space Command in Colorado, where it was headquartered in Colorado Springs from 1985 to 2002.
It's important to note that Space Command is not the United States Space Force, the space warfare military branch proposed by Donald Trump that's expected to cost some $800 million over the next five years to launch (no pun intended).
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver joined several other Democratic lawmakers Tuesday to introduce legislation to repeal an amendment banning government-sponsored insurance plans like Medicaid from providing access to abortion services.
According to a release from DeGette's office, the legislation would overturn the Hyde Amendment, which was enacted in the 1970s and prevents federal insurance providers from covering abortion services. The bill is called The EACH Woman Act. A spokesperson for DeGette says EACH stands for Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance.
Colorado congresswoman Diana DeGette plans to introduce legislation this week that could ban e-cigarette flavors on a national level, her office announced Monday.
The bill, expected to be introduced to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, enters a contentious debate on how to regulate vaping products and address rising levels of e-cigarette use among youth.
The Democratic-controlled House on Wednesday approved a measure requiring federal background checks for all firearms sales and transfers, the first major gun control legislation considered by Congress in nearly 25 years.
Democrats called the 240-190 vote a major step to end the gun lobby's grip on Washington and begin to address an epidemic of gun violence that kills thousands of Americans every year, including 17 people shot and killed at a Florida high school last year.
Lawmakers concerned about vaccine exemptions.
On Wednesday, U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D-Colorado) chaired a hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to discuss the current nationwide measles outbreak and concerns about vaccine hesitancy.
As of Feb. 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 159 cases of measles in 10 states.
The Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement chief on Tuesday defended the Trump administration's work, despite a report by her own agency showing that civil and criminal crackdowns on polluters have dropped sharply in the past two years.
Assistant administrator Susan Bodine, who heads the office of enforcement, said the idea that EPA is soft on enforcement is "absolutely not true," adding that the agency is giving states a greater role in regulation and enforcement and stressing education and voluntary compliance by companies.
Colorado U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette oversaw a congressional hearing Thursday on a Trump administration immigration policy that separated thousands of migrant children from their parents if they entered the United States illegally.
DeGette called the policy "cruel" and said the hearing by the House Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittee was intended "to make sure it never happens again."
"These are real kids, real families, that were forcibly torn apart," DeGette, a Denver Democrat, said in her role as the new chairperson of the oversight subcommittee.
Washington (CNN)A senior Department of Health and Human Services official told lawmakers on Thursday that he had raised concerns about separating families apprehended at the US-Mexico border to three Trump appointees before the administration's controversial "zero tolerance" immigration policy was announced.
The Health and Human Services official responsible for helping to reunite families separated by the Trump administration said Thursday he had warned colleagues that separating children from their parents would cause lasting, serious psychological trauma.
A House panel is requesting additional documents from the Department of Health and Human Services related to the administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy that led to the separation of families apprehended along the southern border, after an earlier request went unfulfilled.