Hickenlooper toured CU Anschutz, hosted roundtables in Denver and Aurora on proposed VA and Medicaid cuts, and joined postal workers at a rally
In case you missed it, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper recently held multiple events throughout the Denver metro area to talk with Coloradans affected by the Trump administration’s chaotic actions.
Hickenlooper held a roundtable at Inner City Health on the impacts of potential Medicaid cuts and the significant consequences they’d have on Coloradans. Hickenlooper voted against the Republican budget resolution, which would strip critical services that Coloradans rely on like Medicaid.
He then visited CU Anschutz to tour the facility and hear from researchers concerned about how the funding cuts impact their research and scientific progress.
Hickenlooper also heard from veterans and laid off VA employees at the Aurora Mental Health Center. Veterans make up 30% of the federal workforce, and the Trump administration has fired an estimated 6,000 veterans so far. The Trump administration also has plans to cut 80,000 VA employees.
Hickenlooper also joined postal service workers and supporters on the steps of the Colorado Capitol to show support for USPS employees in the face of attempts by the Trump administration to privatize and reduce service.
Check out the headlines below:
Colorado Public Radio: Sen. Hickenlooper Tours CU Anschutz and Hears from Young Researcher Hurt by NIH Cuts
A young researcher wearing a lab coat, transfers fluids using a pipette. The lab where the postdoctoral student is working was on a stop on Senator John Hickenlooper’s visit at CU Anschutz medical center on Tuesday. Cancer researcher Heidi Ford told him about how the student is studying how the immune system responds to breast cancer cells.
…Hickenlooper told the group he thought his Republican colleagues see the damage that’s being done, and most Americans, “may be suspicious about certain aspects of science, but they believe in the progress that it creates. They believe that long term, this is the right thing to invest in.”
9 News (Denver): Sen. Hickenlooper Comments on Harms of NIH Funding Cuts to Colorado Research
Today Senator John Hickenlooper took a walk through the CU Anschutz Cancer Lab, one of many medical research centers across the country in danger of losing millions in federal funding.
“They’re doing research back there that I saw where they’re actually being able to differentiate between which cells the chemo will attack and letting the normal cells go on about their business keeping you healthy. That’s so exciting, and now we’re suddenly going to give them a gut punch and pull their funding?”
Colorado Sun: Funding cuts to CU-Anschutz could erase years of medical research contributed by patients, advocates fear
As the ALS disease that will one day claim her life progressed, Barbara Johnson enrolled in a clinical trial at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus funded by the federal National Institutes of Health.
…Then, in the statement recorded by her daughter and played through her voice assistant, she directed a message to the man sitting on the other end of a long conference table from her, U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat.
“Does NIH really want to cut loose these years of research, one study building on the results of another, and all those lifesaving waves?”
Hickenlooper toured a lab and participated in a panel discussion Tuesday at the Anschutz Campus as part of an effort to understand how proposed cuts to NIH funding would impact research on the campus — and, in fact, already are.
…Researchers who participated in the panel discussion with Hickenlooper talked of the worry coursing through their labs and weighing on the long-term planning of their graduate students.
“There’s a lot of stress in academia right now,” Heide Ford told Hickenlooper during a tour of her lab, which studies cancer cells.
…Hickenlooper vowed to take these stories back to Washington, D.C., with him in the hopes of persuading Senate colleagues to oppose the funding cuts.
He rejected a more confrontational approach, saying that he believes many Republicans in Congress support science and believes a number are “getable” by finding common ground.
“Telling someone why they’re wrong and why you think you’re right never works,” he said. “Our country needs to figure out how we’re going to get unified around science again.”
The most powerful way to do that, he said, is by sharing the stories of researchers and the work they do — and the risk that funding cuts could derail it.
“I think as more people in Colorado or across the country hear about these setbacks in terms of consistent funding for real medical research that changes the world, I think people are going to be pissed off,” Hickenlooper said. “I think we’re going to hear from them, and we should. This is irresponsible.”
Denver Gazette: Amid Trump cuts, Colorado medical leaders worry about losing ‘generation of researchers’
A group of Colorado medical leaders on Tuesday expressed fears that proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health medical research grants would not only hurt current research but risk losing “a generation of researchers.”
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper sat at a roundtable with 16 local medical CEOs, presidents and researchers to discuss NIH’s decision to cut “indirect cost” rates for medical research grants.
…Prior to the discussion, Hickenlooper toured the campus’ cancer lab, which focuses on cancer research treatments. The entire lab is funded by NIH grants.
Sentinel Colorado: Hickenlooper collects stories at Aurora round-table to persuade Republicans to halt cuts to VA, veterans
Colorado veterans, Veteran Affairs employees and a Colorado senator say they are angry and fearful over the way the Trump Administration is handling massive federal government cuts and layoffs.
…Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper held the group discussion along with Aurora Mental Health and Recovery to talk with veterans and VA employees about the administration’s cuts and firings and how they affect veterans and military-connected families in Colorado.
Hickenlooper said it made him angry, which he says is rare for him, adding that he can count on one hand the times congress has made him angry.
“The talk about waste, fraud and abuse in the Veterans Administration drives me nuts,” Hickenlooper said. “Any time I hear people discrediting and tearing down the Veterans Administration in any way, it gets me in a place that I don’t usually go to.”
…“This is egregious,” Hickenlooper said.
Hickenlooper said he knows “for a fact” from the years he was Colorado governor that the VA never had enough funding, so the Trump cuts will hurt veterans significantly.
Hickenlooper said he enjoys “good” relationships with 20 to 25 Republican senators right now. He said he hopes to take the veterans’ stories from Aurora to share with those GOP senators and persuade them to make changes.
“The more stories I can give to them about what’s really happening, the better,” Hickenlooper said. “The sooner we’re going to turn this around and begin to recognize and deliver on some of that funding that you guys are all deserving of.”
Colorado Newsline: Colorado veterans cut under Trump feel ‘like trash,’ Hickenlooper told
Ryan Bevard worked at a hospital within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for eight years before he got a position he had been vying for as a social work associate.
…U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, listened to Bevard and about two dozen other veterans talk about how the Trump administration’s funding cuts and layoffs have affected their ability to access health care and other benefits at the Aurora Mental Health Center Tuesday.
“These veterans put their life on the line,” Hickenlooper said. “In many cases they suffered debilitating consequences to their physical health, to their mental health, things that are never going to be back 100% the way they were.”
…Hickenlooper said the notion that the VA is riddled with “waste, fraud and abuse” — which is what Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is tasked with targeting — angers him. He called the “draconian cuts” to the VA “egregious,” and said he doesn’t think his Republican colleagues in the congressional majority have heard how cuts and layoffs have affected veterans. He said he has good relationships with about 20 to 25 Republican senators, and the sooner they hear stories like those shared with him in Aurora, the sooner VA funding will be restored.
“I don’t think they’ll be happy with what they’re going to hear,” Hickenlooper said. “They believe in the military, they believe that people that have served our country in defense deserve to be cared for. I think almost all of them do.”
Veterans losing their jobs without cause will further worsen the increasing suicide rates among veterans, Hickenlooper said. He said he supports shrinking the government, but “random firings without cause” is “not how to do it.”
“Everyone who’s still working is filled with doubt and anxiety, so they’re not doing a good job,” Hickenlooper said. “You’re not making government more efficient, you’re making them less efficient.”
CBS (Colorado Springs): Sen. Hickenlooper speaks at postal workers rally
“Liberal or conservative or in between, wherever you fall on the political spectrum: you deserve your mail and the services that the post office provides and that’s very important”
Colorado Springs isn’t the only place where the rallies popped up; workers up in Denver were also protesting. Senator John Hickenlooper spoke at that rally: “What President Trump is doing here (and he’s doing it elsewhere) is not only illegal, it’s unconstitutional, and I think when you look at what the postal service does, it delivers mail to every person regardless of your zip code, and I recognize how hard that is, right? I’ve traveled to every corner of this state, you know, there’s some pretty remote towns, but everybody in this state gets the mail.”
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