Colorado

Senate passes debt deal a day after House. Colorado’s Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper vote yes

Published

1 year ago

June 2, 2023

Senate passes debt deal a day after House. Colorado’s Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper vote yes

Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper voted to pass a debt ceiling bill and avert default on the government’s debt. After passing the House Wednesday night, the Senate passed the bill 63-36 late Thursday.

“The most important part of this deal is avoiding a default. Period,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper.

Like many in both chambers, there were areas where he felt the deal fell short, but hoped the bill be lead to more action.

“We have far more to do on permitting reform if we’re going to take full advantage of the IRA’s (Inflation Reduction Act’s) boost to clean energy production and establish true energy independence. I’m ready to work with anyone to get that reform done,” Hickenlooper said.

“This bill is far from perfect– but it prevents a historic default that would have devastated the American economy,” said Bennet in a statement.

The senator, who sported a Denver Nuggets jersey heading to the chamber at the start of the vote series, has sponsored a bill to get rid of the debt ceiling, which over the years has led to heated political rhetoric and pushed the U.S. close to default.

“We cannot continue to allow politicians to weaponize the debt ceiling and hold the American economy hostage year after year,” Bennet said. “It’s time for Congress to pass my bill to eliminate the debt ceiling and permanently lift the threat of default from our economy.”

The Senate sprinted to the finish after leaders agreed to hold 11 amendment votes. But they also had to ensure that none of the amendments would pass. As Schumer noted Wednesday, the Senate can’t afford to change the bill and send it back to the House for another vote before the June 5 deadline. That’s the day the Treasury warns the United States will no longer be able to pay all its bills.

The strong bipartisan support for the bill in the House, where it passed 314-117, also helped pave the way for the bill to get through the Senate quickly. All of Colorado’s Democratic representatives voted for the bill, as did Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn. While both GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert and Ken Buck panned the bill, only Buck voted against it. Boebert missed the vote.

Many senators who opposed the bill were also resigned to the fact that it would pass and indicated they would not drag out the process.

The compromise agreement worked out by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suspended the debt limit through Jan 1, 2025 in exchange for caps on discretionary spending over the next two years. It also instituted expanded work requirements for SNAP and TANF with permanent carve-outs for certain groups like veterans and homeless, claws back unspent COVID funds, rescinding some IRS funding and streamlining permitting for some energy projects.

Source link

Click to comment

Colorado

Benton’s Tedeschi commits to Colorado State

Published

20 mins ago

June 29, 2024

Press Room

State

Zip Code

Country

Source link

Colorado

Fans roast EA Sports' 'laughable' Colorado ranking in 'College Football 25'

Published

8 hours ago

June 28, 2024

Press Room

Fans roast EA Sports' 'laughable' Colorado ranking in 'College Football 25'

EA Sports has released several rankings for its College Football 25 this week, teasing the July 19 release date for the much-awaited new game. When the company dropped the latest Power Rankings Friday, fans argued on social media about this team or that team’s relative ranking.

Yet fans universally seemed to agree on one ranking: Colorado is not the No. 16 team in the country.

Recall the Buffaloes started 3-0 last season under new coach Deion Sanders, and some fans had illusions of a College Football Playoff spot. But reality set in, and the Buffs dropped eight of nine to finish the season.

That is not what anyone looks for in a potential top 20 program. The popular College Sports Only X account noted, “EA Sports really ranked Colorado the 16th best team in “College Football 25″ after going 4-8 last season & losing 8 of their last 9 games.”

EA Sports really ranked Colorado the 16th best team in “College Football 25” after going 4-8 last season & losing 8 of their last 9 games. 🤦 pic.twitter.com/cmjIgbehz8
— College Sports Only (@CollegeSportsO) June 28, 2024

EA Sports has shared details about how it wants to make the game as realistic as possible, even having CFB 25 announcers such as Chris Fowler call every conceivable scenario that might happen in game play. Fans have pointed out some slight errors in the game thus far. For example, the Texas State stadium was rendered in the game without an upper deck.

But even with Sanders coming in and energizing Colorado’s football program, rating the Buffaloes 16th is a huge stretch. And fans had plenty to say on social media.

EA Sports developers leaving Colorado after guaranteeing Deion Sanders a top 25 ranking pic.twitter.com/Ngm614yZRc
— Pregame Empire (@PregameEmpire) June 28, 2024
Advertisement

HOW IS COLORADO at SIXTEEN LMFAO?!
— Athens Steve (@rainy_steve) June 28, 2024

Again why is Colorado this high? They won 4 games last year 🤦
— Bryan (@BGauvin23) June 28, 2024

EA had to screw something up on this game eventually 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/T1I1piPO8d
— Brandon Suarez (@Bdon300) June 28, 2024

where’s the logic here https://t.co/S8jQzHDtfL
— lifetime grizzlies fan (@therealkevinyeh) June 28, 2024

I’m convinced the person in charge of ratings is a 17 year old hype beast https://t.co/YnHC3dk5uN
— mike (@burnacount4mike) June 28, 2024
Advertisement

One of their developers must be Rocky Mountain high if they think Colorado is that good.
— J.P. McDonough (@JPMcDonough74) June 28, 2024

EA sports ranked Colorado at number 16 in college football 25! This is laughable! This makes no sense! Finished the season four and eight! But they’re the 16th best team in the country. OK!
— 5star CFB (@5starcfb) June 28, 2024

[College Sports Only on X/Twitter]

Source link

Colorado

Nurses at Rocky Mountain VA rally for more staffing to serve Colorado veterans

Published

15 hours ago

June 28, 2024

Press Room

Nurses at Rocky Mountain VA rally for more staffing to serve Colorado veterans

For Colorado ICU nurse Jordan LeBlanc, working at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center has been a rewarding experience because of his daily interaction with the veteran population.

“What could be greater than our veterans. They’re funny. They’re kind. They’re forgiving. They think that we know best, even when we don’t, but most of all they trust us,” said LeBlanc.

It is that trust that nurses say they are pushing to protect, in the wake of what they say has been an ongoing hiring freeze from nationwide budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We have 57 open vacancies that are frontline,” said Sharda Fornnarino, who is the director of the local National Nurses United at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA. “That basically entails the ICU, med surge, the OR, some of our surgical areas as far as the outpatient surgeries, SCI and our mental health area.”

On Thursday, nurses from the medical center rallied across the street from the building in Aurora to raise awareness about their existing staffing shortages and the challenges they have faced being able to serve the veteran population because of this shortage.

LeBlanc says often nurses like him now have to take on a greater patient workload and sometimes work more hours to do so.

“Our ICU specifically has been staffed at less than 85% of its functional capacity,” he said. “Right now, we’re at 18 bed ICU that only 12 of the beds are open. They’ve closed six beds because of staffing levels.”

Nurses say the staffing challenges does not just affect their morale, but it can also compromise the relationship they have with each patient.

“Any veteran or any patient within our system will get less than they deserve, less than the total dignity that each individual really deserves to be provided,” he said.

VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes responded to nurses rallying across the country, saying there is no freeze on hiring nurses and they are continuing to hire nurses needed across the country. Hayes’s complete statement is as follows:

VA’s top priority is providing the world-class care that Veterans deserve, and we are committed to making sure we have nursing staff we need to deliver the soonest and best care to Veterans.
There is no nationwide hiring freeze on VA nurses, and we are continuing to hire nurses, as needed, across the country to ensure that we can deliver world-class care to Veterans. Over the past 3 years, VA has aggressively hired nurses nationwide – increasing our nursing workforce by 14,000 nurses to a total of 122,000 nurses, the largest nursing workforce in the country and in the history of VA. VA is also retaining our great nurses, with turnover rates currently at 3.4% – far outperforming the private sector. There are also locations where we need to continue hiring nurses, and we are doing that – as demonstrated by the below hiring numbers.
Partly as a result of these hiring efforts and our great nurses, VA is currently delivering more care to more Veterans than ever before, outperforming non-VA care, and Veterans trust VA care at all-time record rates.

The VA’s office went on to share statistics on what they say have been all time high rates of veteran trust in VA care and decreasing wait times. However, Fornnarino says any hiring has been to fill strategic positions, where in reality all vacancies need to be filled.

“I haven’t seen more of those hires come to the bed side,” she said.

Nurses also worry the VA will become more privatized if staffing needs are not met.

“When we don’t have the staffing, we have these beds shut down,” said leBlanc. “That means that our veterans go to community care, and they’re not set up to provide veteran served ethical care.”

Source link