<\/p>\n
Sen. Michael Bennet vowed to fight federal cuts to health care and clean air and water protections during a packed town hall meeting at the DoubleTree Hotel on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
He also called for laws that would that would keep immigrant families together and support the study of climate change.<\/p>\n
Bennet also held meetings in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Alamosa and Grand Junction as part of a two-day tour of the state.<\/p>\n
The Durango crowd seemed to support his pledge to fight President Donald Trump\u2019s positions on many issues, and several people who asked questions identified themselves as members of Indivisible Durango, a progressive group formed after the election.<\/p>\n
Rural Colorado is facing a health care crisis because of the high cost and lack of competition, Bennet said. Some Coloradans had to buy insurance that they could not afford to use because of the Affordable Care Act and that needed to be corrected, he said.<\/p>\n
However, the American Health Care Act proposed by House Republicans does not solve the problems, but instead shifts the cost of Medicaid to the states and leaves millions of people without insurance, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no way this thing is going to get through the United States Senate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also criticized Trump\u2019s proposed budget cuts<\/a> because they would hit federal agencies that serve Western states, such as the U.S. Forest Service.<\/p>\n The proposal includes cutting the Department of Agriculture\u2019s budget by 21 percent and the Department of the Interior\u2019s budget by 12 percent.<\/p>\n In an interview, he called the proposals a \u201ccomplete nonstarter,\u201d in part because the cuts would fall heavily on rural America.<\/p>\n Several members of the crowd praised his position and called on him to fight for the protection of public lands.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that public lands are the foundation of the West,\u201d Jason Meininger said.<\/p>\n Bennet voiced concern that the new director of the EPA does not believe in climate change and said this conflicts with the beliefs of most Coloradans, including Republicans.<\/p>\n Under Trump\u2019s budget proposal, the EPA budget would be cut by 31 percent, 3,200 people would be laid off and climate change research would be eliminated.<\/p>\n \u201cI will fight that every step of the way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Danny Quinlan, executive director of Compa\u00f1eros<\/a> in Durango, said that some immigrants are living in a time of extreme fear and asked Bennet what can be done to expand legal status of those working in the U.S. in addition to the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy Act.<\/p>\n The BRIDGE Act <\/a>would protect from deportation immigrants who came to America illegally as children and allow them to work legally.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you are protecting the DREAMers, but sending their parents away that\u2019s pretty cold comfort,\u201d Bennet said.<\/p>\n The term DREAMer comes from the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, which would have provided a path to citizenship for those who came to the U.S. before they were 15 years old, but it never passed.<\/p>\n