ICYMI: Hickenlooper Marches for Justice, Tours Rural Health Clinic, Discusses Tariffs with Farmers, Child Care in Denver

WASHINGTON - In case you missed it, this week, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper marched in Denver's annual Marade and hit the road on the Eastern Plains, visiting a rural hospital, touring a high school's workforce development program, and discussing how the Trump admin's tariffs are impacting Colorado's farmers and ranchers. Hickenlooper also hosted a roundtable in Denver to discuss the Trump admin's cruel attacks on Colorado's child care providers and how to make child care more affordable nationwide.

On Monday, Hickenlooper continued his 25 year tradition of joining Denver's annual Marade to celebrate the life and accomplishments of civil rights activist and leader, Martin Luther King Jr. He spoke about Dr. King's legacy, the need for shared humanity in our current political climate, and our fight for a more perfect union.

In Hugo, Hickenlooper toured Lincoln Health Community Hospital (LCH), where he had helped secure three million dollars in federal funding to purchase medical equipment for the hospital's clinics and information technology system. Afterwards, he joined a roundtable discussion with rural health care leaders to discuss how MAGA Republicans' $1 trillion cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act will decimate rural health centers and hospitals. Already, six rural hospitals in Colorado have been labeled at high risk of closure.

Watch his HikTok where he highlights how Republicans' "Big Ugly Betrayal Act" left communities like Hugo out to dry HERE.

In Byers, Hickenlooper stopped to tour Byers High School's Career Technical Education (CTE) program, which helps equip students with transferable job skills for today's workforce. He has long championed workforce development as an important pathway for students to gain valuable experience and skills while supporting local businesses. In Byers, he heard directly from students about what they've gained from the CTE programs.

Hickenlooper continued to Fort Morgan, where met with local ranchers and farmers and heard how they're being crushed by Trump admin's senseless tariffs. The farmers talked about being hit by a "double whammy," with tariffs driving up their costs and undermining their ability to sell their products. They also detailed how the administration's reckless attacks on research has halted valuable agricultural research they rely on.

On Wednesday, Hickenlooper hosted a roundtable with child care providers to discuss the Trump admin's recent attempts to punish Colorado by freezing federal grants for child care. Hickenlooper previously condemned the admin's cruel attacks on Colorado families and called on the admin to quickly unfreeze the funding and provide evidence for such a freeze.

At the roundtable, they also discussed his bipartisan Child Care Modernization Grant Act, which would help make child care more accessible and affordable for Colorado families. His bill would reauthorize and improve the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) - for the first time in 14 years - to help provide quality, affordable child care to America's working families.

Check out what they're saying:

Colorado Public Radio: Rural hospitals wrestle with a new landscape after federal cuts, worry they're starting to drown financially

…Stansbury and some other rural hospital executives hosted Sen. John Hickenlooper on a tour, looking to spotlight new storm clouds on the rural health horizon.

…Fox, in blue scrubs, said a shadow had been cast by nearly a trillion dollars in federal cuts to Medicaid, as part of H.R. 1, also called the One Big Beautiful Bill, and Affordable Care Act tax subsidies not getting renewed. "The funding cuts that just came out of Washington, they slashed it huge for Colorado and how are we gonna make that up at the state level?" Fox asked.

Beyond the cuts, labor costs are going up, but government payments, reimbursements, don't cover costs for care, she explained. For example, Medicaid, which covers a lot of rural Coloradans, covers only 79 cents per dollar of care.

…While Hickenlooper was visiting, Stansbury took him to visit a hill covered in dry grass to the west of the hospital. That's the potential site of a new 92,000 square foot facility that would have clinics, surgery rooms, radiology, plus more hospital rooms, which would all be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

…He said he was trying to get legislation introduced in Congress that would change the way USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, surprisingly, the relevant federal agency, finances new rural hospital construction.

…Federal changes, made since the start of the Trump administration, could mean more people are uninsured, or have bare bones plans, which cover preventive care but not comprehensive care like hospitalizations or major illness.

Janet Marschner, a contractor who does CPA work at the hospital and splits her time between Colorado and Wyoming, lost the enhanced tax credit for ACA coverage. That's like tens of thousands of Coloradans and millions of Americans, who no longer got the credit when Congress failed to renew the subsidies for people to afford to buy insurance.

She saw her monthly premium costs double to $4,000 a month and decided to get a cheaper plan for her and her husband, a retired refinery worker. "It feels risky to me," she said. "I guess I'm willing to take that risk and save."

She said she has what's called short-term health insurance, which does not cover preexisting conditions and has other strict rules and payment caps.

…If people like Marschner have health issues that are not covered, hospitals like Lincoln will often still care for them, which will also drive up its uncompensated costs.

'People will not survive if the hospitals are not there.'

…Later, during a roundtable discussion, hospital executives talked with Hickenlooper about a new $50 billion rural transformation fund passed by Congress. Colorado will get $200 million a year for five years.

They told the senator the money could help. But it won't make up for what's been lost to other federal cuts.

It's something Hickenlooper said he, too, is worried about, noting the federal law cut hundreds of millions of dollars in healthcare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy.

"It's serious harm to these rural clinics and hospitals. And it's hard to figure out how they're going to stay in business," he said.

…Other hospital executives bristled at money made available, both from the federal and state government, which also includes a major administrative burden, and lots of hoops to jump through to get the funding.

"I fully appreciate people who are leaning in and trying to provide resources to rural hospitals, but they're trying to slam a square peg into a round hole," said Brian Bogel, CEO of Kit Carson Memorial Hospital in Burlington, a Trauma Level IV facility near the Kansas border. "Our needs are not the same. Our programs are not the same. Our physical plans are not the same. Our medical staffs are not the same."

…When Coloradans, or out-of-state visitors, get sick or injured in remote parts of the state, a hospital makes all the difference.

"Cardiology and vascular, heart attacks, time is muscle. Strokes, time matters," Millsap said. "The traumas that we all see in rural hospitals are real. People will not survive if the hospitals are not there."

Colorado Politics: Colorado farmers warn U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper tariffs and research cuts endanger agriculture

Northern Colorado farmers told U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper this week that tariffs and President Donald Trump's decision to import $40 billion worth of beef from Argentina have hurt Colorado's agricultural industry.

But the administration's cuts to scientific research are almost as bad, they said in a forum in Fort Morgan Tuesday night.

…Hickenlooper said he wanted to hear directly from Colorado farmers about how tariffs have affected them so he could share their stories with his Senate colleagues in Washington, D.C., in hopes of persuading Congress to reclaim its authority over tariffs.

…History has shown that tariffs are a great short-term solution, but that's not what's happening now, Hickenlooper explained.

Then there's the issue of Brazil. Pfaltzgraff said Branzil can raise two to three crops per year without government restrictions. "We've told America our farmers feed the world. We've lost the world market," he said.

The $40 billion the Trump administration is paying for Brazilian beef puts the U.S. at risk, Hickenlooper added.

The hidden factor: agricultural research

One of the reasons American agriculture has been so strong is the balance between public and private partnerships in research, Vollmer said. "We've given everyone these technologies and practices, but we're not supporting our own agricultural research."

Private organizations, companies, and land-grant universities worked together on solutions, but those grants were withdrawn at the beginning of 2025.

Now, keeping abreast of new technologies has been extremely problematic, Vollmer said. Pfaltzgraff noted that at one point, there were eight research projects on his farm. Six disappeared with the stroke of a pen, and that research will never be published because the researchers are now out of work.

He now has to pay for that research himself, as he said it's important to develop the technologies. The cuts were brutal, he said. He would share the results of that research with everyone across the valley. "It's all gone now," he said.

Hickenloopersaid he's heard the frustration and anger over cutting science grants for agriculture, manufacturing, artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals and engineering.

"We're now going in full reverse," but the United States has never gone backwards in scientific research before. "This will bankrupt the country," Hickenlooper said. "It's an active war against science."

For the future of agricultural policy, in addition to tariffs, the government should also consider labor and improvements to the H-2A and H-2 B visa systems…

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