VOLUME 35 | ISSUE 35
WEEK OF AUGUST 31, 2023
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Caraveo vows to defend social programs
Colorado seeks to stifle air pollution record access
from around Northern Colorado. Yet many Republicans views’ contrast with Democrats on the issue. The Republican Study Committee’s “statement of priorities” for 2024 seeks to eliminate $16 trillion in spending to balance the federal budget in the next seven years. To do that, the RSC budget would reduce Medicare premiums and states the proposal “would not affect benefits for any senior in or near retirement and would prevent insolvency for the next decade.” “Years of inaction and overspending have put us in this position,” the RSC argued in the proposal.
The Environmental Protection Agency says Colorado agencies and citizen watchdogs cannot possibly enforce the Clean Air Act against polluters unless everyone has open public access to the polluters’ records of what they spew into the air. Until state regulators make it easier to find those records, the EPA says, the federal agency won’t fully approve Colorado’s required plan on how it will attack ozone and other air pollution problems. Colorado had a swift response to the demand for open government. The state sued the EPA to fight more open records. “The current public access, which is zero public access, is great for the polluters,” said Robert Ukeiley, a Colorado attorney on air pollution issues for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The attorney general’s office is spending hundreds of times more taxpayer money on suing the EPA than it would cost to agree with the EPA that more transparency from polluters is a good thing and give the public access,” Ukeiley said. Given the failures of more than a decade of state clean air plans to reverse Colorado’s growing ozone pollution problem, with a recent string of high ozone days as the latest examples, Ukeiley said, “Excuse us if we don’t trust that the state has it under control.” The EPA agreed with portions of the environmental groups’ protest against the state’s air pollution improvement plan. The EPA has “repeatedly” held that for state pollution-fighting plans to be practically enforceable, people “must have reasonable access to
SEE PROGRAMS, P3
SEE POLLUTION, P16
• Page 9
• Vestas to lay off 200 employees
BUSINESS
BY MICHAEL BOOTH THE COLORADO SUN
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Minority leader Jeffries joins congresswoman at Brighton roundtable •27J Schools moves online-only Dec. 1
LOCAL
Jan Parker of Thornton urges representatives to repeal two provisions that limit how much Social Security beneficiaries can receive PHOTO BY SCOTT TAYLOR while Rep. Yadira Caraveo listens during a roundtable discussion Aug. 22 in Brighton.
BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
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With talk of budget cuts swirling in Washington, the U.S. House’s top Democrat swung through Brighton with a Colorado congresswoman to meet with seniors worried about the future of programs for the aged. The backdrop was a Republican proposal for budget cuts that aims to rein in “excessive” federal spending
and “unsustainable debt” by reducing or reviewing some Medicare and Social Security benefits. Democrats don’t support such cuts, Democratic Congresswoman Yadira Caraveo told the group. “Social Security and Medicare benefits are not places to save money,” she said. “They are places to make sure that hard working families get the benefits they have paid into for decades.” Caraveo was elected last year in Colorado’s newest House District, District 8. She and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, were at Brighton’s Eagle View Adult Center on Aug. 22. The roundtable drew more than 50 people
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