U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, will hold a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Durango Public Library.
The congressman will brief residents and take questions on his legislative efforts in Washington, including bills to address the region’s wildfires and veterans’ health care.
The visit is timely. As forest fire season gets underway, the congressman has introduced the Healthy Forest Management Act and co-sponsored the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act.
The Wildfire Disaster Funding Act would require that Congress sign off on plans for supplemental funding from federal agencies like the Department of Agriculture. It would also require the inclusion of the cost of wildfire suppression over the last 10 years in the president’s budget.
The Healthy Forest Management Act, which excludes wilderness areas and national monuments like Browns Canyon, would allow Colorado to institute preemptive measures like “prescribed fire, mechanical thinning, chemical applications, grazing, or combinations of these methods” in sections of nearby national forests that would be designated as “high-risk” due to drought and insect infestations.
Scientists studying the rise of the infamous bark beetles at the University of Colorado Boulder have attributed their booming populations, among other things, to a longer breeding season connected to climate change.
While Congressman Tipton has expressed concern over the damage of the bark beetles as well as the receding snow cover on the Rockies as a result of a warming climate, he has opposed regulations aimed at limiting carbon pollution cited for fueling global warming, as he attributes the changes to “natural cycles.”
CU Boulder’s researchers assert warming is largely due to human activity. “It is reasonable to conclude that a substantial fraction of the recent warming in our region is due to anthropogenic climate change,” they write.
Health care for Veterans
Congressman Tipton’s main focus here has been the Veterans Access to Community Care Act and the Healthy Vets Act. The bills attempt to clarify federal rules, known as Veterans Choice, which would allow veterans more than 40 miles away from a Department of Veterans Affairs facility to use outside care providers.
The congressman has also taken issue with the recent proposal in President Obama’s budget to move excess funds of the 10 billion currently assigned to the Veterans Choice program to other parts of the VA.
On Wednesday, the congressman will continue his visit with meetings at the Pine River fire station at 8 a.m., the Pagosa Springs Chamber of Commerce at 12:30 p.m. and another town hall at the Ross Argon Community Center in Pagosa Springs at 6 p.m.
