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John Hickenlooper: “The PACT act, like I said, it's advanced care to over a…”

Featuring: John Hickenlooper, Democratic | U.S. Senate from Colorado

Virtual Town Hall with Senator Hickenlooper and Janine Davidson on National Issues

Published March 12, 2025 | Video Starts at 45:16

Whenever I was governor, I would go and try to see veterans anytime I could. Ever since I got to the Senate, I've been supporting veterans and enhancing VA care a priority. The PACT act, like I said, it's advanced care to over a million veterans. The news that the Trump administration is planning to fire 80,000 staff from the Veterans Administration is beyond words. It's insulting to our nation's heroes, and insulting is not a strong enough word. (45:16–45:22)

CLAIM

Asserts that the PACT act has advanced care to over a million veterans.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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John Hickenlooper

“They fired over 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees.”
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“They fired another 2,300 workers from the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Indian Affairs.”
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“Trump has already fired 6,000 veterans who are dedicated public servants.”
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“The House budget resolution calls on the committee that oversees Medicaid to cut $880 billion from their budget.”
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“60% of the seniors in nursing homes are able to be there because they're covered by Medicaid.”
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“The news that the Trump administration is planning to fire 80,000 staff from the Veterans Administration is beyond words.”
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“Roughly 30% of the federal workers are veterans.”
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“California, where they just lost over $250 billion from the recent wildfires alone.”
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“70% of the benefits from the Inflation Reduction act are these investments are going into red states, not blue states.”
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“Real opponents of democracy have won elections and they're attacking every level of our government.”
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“We've watched President Trump propose deep cuts to Medicaid to fund tax breaks for the ultra wealthy.”
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“The Republican's budget is a blatant attempt to strip critical services like Medicaid from Americans to fund tax breaks for the…”
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“President Trump is firing workers across government with no plan, leaving our national parks, our veterans, even our weather services in the…”
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“Colorado roads, bridges, airports, modernized through the bipartisan infrastructure law.”
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“The PACT act expanded health care for our veterans to a larger extent than ever before in history.”
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“The Inflation Reduction act is cutting energy costs, creating jobs, and driving the clean energy transition.”
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“The House Republicans passed a, so called a continuing resolution to fund the government through September. They put together this bill…”
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“They want to give Trump unchecked control over our nation's spending.”
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“Congress holds the power of the purse.”
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“This bill would wipe out congressional oversight, letting Trump cut and redirect funding however he wants.”
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“We have bipartisan appropriation bills that have been negotiated, came out of their committees with bipartisan majorities.”
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“Our strategy to fight back against the Trump administration's effort to. Well, they're trying to dismantle the federal government.”
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“Congress is granted the power of the purse in the Constitution.”
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“Many of Trump's cuts to funding passed by Congress are by any measure unconstitutional.”
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“There are currently something like 100 ongoing legal challenges to the Trump administration policies, and about 41 of those rulings have…”
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“Last week, the Supreme Court ruled against President Trump's request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid.”
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“The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to comply with the lower court order to unfreeze the federal funds.”
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“Republicans may have a majority in both houses of Congress, but it is slim.”
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“There are something like 50 districts where Republicans are vulnerable.”
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“In 2023, outdoor recreation economy generated... maybe it's more than $17 billion for Colorado's economy.”
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“Outdoor recreation... employed... 130,000 Coloradans.”
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“Coloradans overwhelmingly support protecting our public lands... 75, 80, sometimes 85% of voters.”
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“We've got a million Coloradans that are enrolled in either Medicaid or CHIP.”
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“President Trump says he wants to rid the government of fraud and abuse, but this budget would balloon our national debt by over $4 trillion.”
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“The average tax benefit for people who make less than $400,000 a year is about $400.”
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“He's going to have to cut $880 billion from the budget. That means coming after Medicaid.”
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“He's going to balloon our deficit to $4 trillion.”
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“I don't support any cuts of any kind to our central social safety net programs, especially Social Security.”
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“Two thirds of Americans say the government is spending too little on Social Security.”
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“87% of Americans agree that Social Security should be a priority for the nation.”
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“The Trump administration continues to allege that they're not going to make any cuts to Social Security, to Medicaid, to Medicare.”
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“We did make city government smaller.”
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“We went over all 24,500 rules and regulations and we either eliminated 11,000 of them or dramatically simplified them.”
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“The Trump administration halted all federal grants and loans.”
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“Head Start, truly vital Service for over 9,000 low income kids in Colorado, they probably have to shutter their operations.”
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“Meals on Wheels serves 25,000 seniors.”
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“Colorado rural hospitals and clinics that serve and deploy our rural neighbors would have been left out in the cold.”
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“The funding was already appropriated by Congress on a bipartisan basis.”
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“It's in the Constitution that that right belongs to Congress.”
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“The Supreme Court ruled against the administration on freezing foreign aid.”
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“Russia invaded Ukraine.”
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“Putin is a dictator, not President Zelensky.”
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“Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed or wounded.”
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“President Trump has weakened U.S. leadership in NATO.”
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“There is still tremendous bipartisan support for Ukraine.”
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“There are at least 20 Republicans that previously were outspoken in their belief that we should be supporting Ukraine.”
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“A broad bipartisan Senate majority supported the PACT act, which allowed veterans who'd been around these toxic burn pits throughout the…”
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“This is important in Colorado because we're the proud home of over 400,000 veterans.”
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“I think we are the highest density of veterans in the country.”
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“Already, over 6,000 veterans have been let go.”
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“We introduced an amendment during the reconciliation process, which, of course, they ignored.”
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“Colorado is one of the leading science states in the country.”
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“The new administration has elevated people into cabinet positions who peddle some of this anti-science claims and mistruths misinformation.”
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“Funding for things like medical research through the NIH or climate research at NOAA, why it's so important.”
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“NOAA's a huge part of being able to track this, this, this worsening drought we've been dealing with for the last 20 years.”
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“At the CDC in Fort Collins, they're doing research there in terms of vector diseases like Lyme disease.”
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“We’ve already demanded an investigation for those fired from NOAA.”
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“Probably the greatest investment in addressing climate change, certainly in the history of this country, probably in the history of the…”
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“We've invested millions in Colorado, created over 400,000 jobs across the country.”
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“Roughly 70% of all the benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act go to red states.”
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“The Inflation Reduction Act, lowered energy costs increases reliability, it creates jobs, but the same time it's addressing climate change.”
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“The administration is going to try and slash $4 billion in federal funding for critical research.”
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“In 2023, Colorado researchers received almost $600 million from the NIH.”
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“Our office gets thousands of calls, emails, I mean, constituents in person, walking in.”
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“We're seeing intense backlash from voters at Republican town halls, not just in purple states, but we're seeing the backlash in red states…”
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“The Trump administrations are trying to hurt the most vulnerable in our communities.”
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“Our democracy is legitimately being phrased or threatened.”
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“All the calls we're getting, especially from Republicans, these are going to push back against the Trump administration.”
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“We're already seeing that that public pressure is working.”
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“If you're having trouble with a federal agency like the IRS or the Veterans Administration, Citizenship or Immigration again, the best way…”
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