Confined to bed and forced to watch television coverage of the Senate for a week, an American citizen wouldn’t see anything resembling the old School House Rock cartoon about “How a Bill Becomes a Law.” Committees don’t draft careful legislation after weeks of deliberation. Senators don’t debate the pros and cons of that legislation on […]
Sen. Michael Bennet
U.S. Senator from Colorado
Twitter: @SenatorBennet
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Sen. Michael Bennet: How Biden’s COVID-19 relief bill helps cut child poverty
With a stroke of his pen, President Joe Biden launched the most ambitious effort to lift children out of poverty since the New Deal. The president’s American Rescue Plan, which the president signed today, will cut child poverty almost in half in a single year. It will cut poverty for Hispanic kids by over 45%, […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Sen. Michael Bennet: We were living our Founders’ worst fears during Capitol siege
Wednesday was a terrible day for our country, our democracy, and our example to the world. A violent mob incited by President Trump breached and ransacked the United States Capitol. A day meant to affirm American democracy will now go down as one of the darkest in our history. As Capitol Police escorted me and […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Michael Bennet: It’s more important than ever to encourage students to vote
As a U.S. senator and a university president from Colorado, we’re proud of our fellow Coloradans for having the second-highest voter turnout in the country in the 2018 midterm election and hope to carry forward that momentum in 2020. One group of voters who can help Colorado achieve the highest voting rate this year is […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Michael Bennet: We have 79 days
In 79 days, Americans will vote under conditions none of us would have imagined – a raging pandemic, a staggering economic crisis and unrelenting attacks on our democracy from the president of the United States. No president in our history has had less respect for democracy than Donald Trump. As a candidate, he refused to say whether he […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Michael Bennet: Time is running out on climate change. Trump must go.
The clock is ticking. By the time the next president is sworn into office in 2021, scientists say we will have just nine years until our climate is damaged beyond repair. Next January, our economy will still be reeling from the fallout of COVID-19 — a disaster that President Donald Trump has only made worse […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Michael Bennet: We will never heal until we dismantle our systemic racism
It’s been one week since the world watched Minneapolis police kill George Floyd. You cannot watch the video without feeling sick, without remembering Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile and the countless other Americans who have lost their lives in this country because they were black. When I worked for the […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Michael Bennet: Coronavirus and a housing crisis go hand in hand. Congress must act.
It is hard to ask someone to socially distance if they have been forced out of their home. But in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, we risk a new outbreak of evictions as 40 million Americans have lost their jobs and millions more struggle with reduced incomes. Colorado residents are about […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns, Politics and Government
Michael Bennet: Colorado is the obvious choice for the new U.S. Space Command’s home
This week, the Department of Defense will stand up the temporary headquarters for the new U.S. Space Command here in Colorado. As the department assesses options for a permanent location, it should look no further: the Centennial State is the obvious choice. Colorado is best positioned to ensure the United States maintains superiority in space. […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Growing hemp means growing economic opportunity in rural Colorado
In 2013, I received a call from now Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asking me, as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, to support a pilot program to allow farmers to grow hemp. Knowing Colorado farmers’ interest in the crop, I jumped at the chance and pushed to include the program in the 2014 […]