Neguse, Bennet respond to questions about Medicare cuts, immigration during town hall in Frisco

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., during a town hall Friday in Frisco responded to questions about the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign and the passage of a Republican policy bill.

About 100 people gathered in the Summit Middle School auditorium for the town hall, where Neguse was joined by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet for part of the evening. Neguse said the event had been scheduled on short notice since he had just returned from Washington, after Congress passed what he described as President Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” along party lines.

“I don’t think it’s a ‘Big Beautiful Bill,'” Neguse said of the legislative package passed by Republicans. “I think it is a very destructive bill.”

Neguse said the bill makes $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid to pay for tax breaks for “billionaires and some of the largest corporations.” He said the bill’s cuts could lead to the closure of up to eight rural hospitals in Colorado, and he expects the state legislature will have to convene a special session to respond to the health care impacts.

Calling the bill “immoral,” Neguse said that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that it will also add $3.3 trillion to the national deficit over the next decade. While Republicans were able to push the bill across the finish line, he said he fought successfully to remove a provision that would have required the sale of public lands.

“We will keep our foot on the gas because we know they are going to try again,” Neguse said of Republicans’ proposal to sell off public lands. “It wouldn’t surprise me to see this proposal come back in some other form.”

Neguse said the next major push in Congress will be to pass a bill to fund the government by the end of September. He said he plans to use this upcoming legislation as leverage to urge his Republican colleagues to reverse the cuts to Medicaid and health care funding.

Responding to a constituent who described Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids as “kidnappings,” Neguse said communities need to continue “making the case that what is happening is not consistent with American values.”

Neguse said one of the most “insidious” provisions of the Republican’s bill was millions in funding for ICE. But he said that public support for Trump’s mass deportation campaign has “plummeted” and that public opinion “will shape the course of events in Washington.”

Both Neguse and Bennet encouraged community members to reach out to their offices about any immigration-related issues. Neguse also said his office will be working in coordination with local officials to respond to immigration-related concerns in the community.

In response to a question on how he plans to address Colorado’s high suicide rates, Neguse said the Biden administration made progress on issues of mental health but that the Trump administration has gone in the “opposite direction.” He said that, for now, he expects that the state legislature and local governments will be able to make the most progress on issues of mental health.

Neguse added that he believes the Trump Administration’s termination of the LGBTQ+ Youth Suicide Lifeline — something he said cost the federal government “virtually nothing” — was uncessary and “beyond cruel.”

One constituent asked about the workforce housing project that Summit County had been working on with the U.S. Forest Service and what Neguse and Bennet plan to do to address the community’s need for affordable housing.

Neguse noted that he and Bennet worked to get a provision included in the Farm Bill during the Biden administration that allowed the Forest Service to lease land to local governments for the construction of affordable housing. But he also noted that the Trump Administration “the Forest Service is being decimated” with thousands of employees leaving the agency, impacting projects including the workforce housing project in Summit County.

On the topic of affordable housing, Bennet said that he believes “we’ve got to build a lot more housing, we’ve got to build a lot more housing more cheaply and we’ve got to do it more quickly.”

While Neguse said he is “pretty despondent about the state of our country and the attacks on the rule of law,” he added that the United States has been through “difficult and perilous moments” throughout its history.

“Americans of good faith — I think — will come together, ultimately, to reject the hate and the division and divisiveness and the toxicity and the lawlessness of the last six months,” Neguse said. “I have to believe that.”