Hageman delivers promise to fight for Sweetwater County
Sometimes, it takes someone from the top of the chain to help a small town out.
In the spring of 2023, U.S. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, on behalf of the city of Rock Springs, requested funding for the Bitter Creek Flood Control Restoration Project from the House Appropriations Committee in fiscal year 2024. In a letter to the Honorable Kay Granger, chairperson for the committee and Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the committee, Hageman explained that the funding will be used for restoring Bitter Creek for the purpose of decreasing flooding, providing recreational trail access, increasing housing and economic growth and restoring the natural ecosystem.
“The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because this federal investment will remove flood vulnerable areas from the floodplain, allowing many properties to be improved to provide much needed housing and economic growth,” she stated in the letter.
Rock Springs Mayor Max Mickelson expressed the city’s gratitude for Hageman’s efforts to secure funding for the Bitter Creek Restoration Project.
“She has been an absolutely phenomenal support to the city and to the state of Wyoming,” said Mickelson as he expressed his excitement for the $3.4 million Hageman has secured for the project. “I cannot adequately express how impressed I am with the work that she has done for a while, especially as a freshman. She has exceeded every expectation I’ve ever had.”
He added that her office wants the city “to start working on the next phase for an additional $3.4 million,” which he described as “massive.”
“She said, ‘I’ll do what I can to make that happen,’” he said.
During the Sweetwater County Town Hall, hosted by Hageman, on Thursday, Feb. 22, at White Mountain Library, she told Rocket Miner that their office gets contacted on a variety of things and they try to be as responsive as they can.
She explained there are offices in Cheyenne and Casper.
“I have people who travel all over the state that I have such as my Washington, D.C. staff, and we’re always just trying to make sure that when a community contacts us, we try to figure out how to resolve the problem and address their issues,” said Hageman.
During the town hall, Hageman told attendees that she is a member of the Committee on Weaponization of the Federal Government.
“What we have really focused on with that is the violation of our First Amendment that has taken place over the last several years,” she said. “It’s unbelievable what our government has been doing to us in terms of spying on us as well as attempting to label people who happen to be conservative Catholics as domestic terrorist threats.”
Currently, she is working on a bill, the First Amendment Accountability and Protection Act, that will hold the federal government accountable for violating First Amendment rights.
“Right now, we have no mechanism by which we can hold the government or individual employees accountable for violating our First Amendment rights. We can with other provisions, but not the First Amendment,” she explained, noting that if any federal employee surveils an individual because they’re exercising their First Amendment rights, he or she could sue them for damages. “I think it’s going to be one of the most important bills we put on the floor this year. We can start holding these federal employees accountable for attempting to violate our ability to communicate with our government, with each other, with our churches and with our friends.”
Hageman described the border issue as “a catastrophe.” She went to Yuma, Arizona, a year ago for a field hearing with the Judiciary Committee. She said that most of our fresh fruit and vegetables come from Yuma, which has more than 75,000 people. According to Hageman, they’re overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rather than the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“What I learned from the farmers down there is that they’re going broke,” she shared. “They have to go out and inspect their fields every single day, and if they find one footprint in their field, they have to destroy the crops within a five-foot radius of every single footprint.”
She added that some of them have been farming on that land for 130 years and “illegals who are coming across are destroying the crops.”
She mentioned the impact the hospitals have had “because of the invasion they’re experiencing in Yuma,” noting that they had $28 million in uncompensated care, especially for illegals.
She was in Eagle Pass, Texas, when she discovered they were processing up to 5,000 people a day through that sector.
She expressed her concern for the many accompanied children who enter the U.S., saying that “they really are keeping them in cages.”
She went on to describe the holding facility as “big glass rooms,” which were half the size of the town hall’s reserved meeting room with mattresses on the floor and a big screen TV. Each room is designated for certain age groups. She described the process as “a tragedy and inhumane.”
In the Tucson sector, Hageman was told that two years ago, 70,000 people crossed that area; this year, they’re looking at 800,000.
She pointed out that their only way to seek asylum is if they go through a port of entry. If they come across the border illegally between ports, they’re not entitled to asylum, but they’re still given court dates 10 or 12 years down the road to appear for asylum claims that cannot be granted.
She also expressed concern for fentanyl, which has declined to 50 cents a pill, entering the U.S.
“We need to control the situation. We know how it’s affecting our communities.”
With reference to the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan (RMP), Hageman said, “We will continue fighting that with absolutely everything that we have.”
She said that they have written letters challenging what the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has done.
“What they are trying to do with the Rock Springs RMP is illegal,” she expressed. “They did not follow FLPMA (Federal Land Policy Management Act). They did not follow the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act.
“They’re trying to adopt Alternative B, but it is not legally supported.”
According to Hageman, the Wyoming Legislature is putting $50 million into a fund so the state can sue the federal government “over this very thing.”
“Our own legislature is stepping up to the plate. You need to make sure that our attorney general and our governor’s office is getting the very best attorneys possible so that they can go in and present a case to make sure that if the BLM goes forward with Alternative B, we will get the courts to overturn that. It is critically important that our governor and our attorney general are engaged in this and are ready to fight that battle.”
“I do not believe that states have been aggressive enough to challenge the over-regulation by these land use agencies,” she said, noting that locals should be making the decisions for the people in the community, even if neighbors get mad at each other. “Somebody who had worked for the BLM for 38 years had never even seen sagebrush; they’re making decisions about what you guys can do on these lands out here.”
She said, “Being the lone representative from Wyoming is an incredible honor. We can represent and give other people around this country hope. And I think we do it every day.”
Hageman also discussed other issues such as the climate change, fraudulent elections and the Biden Administration’s direction.