US Senator Ken Salazar - Colorado
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   Greetings from U.S. Senator Ken Salazar
This weekend I will keynote the National Farmers’ Union 2006 national conference in Denver, CO. The conference theme is ‘Fuels from the Farm – Our Nation’s Future.’ In my speech I will lay out my vision for what rural America can become if we move forward with vigor on investing in renewable energies and new technologies. I have long argued that rural America is the forgotten America and that Washington, D.C. often seems to have lost touch with the real needs of our citizens in the heartland. Fortunately, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way where western and rural issues are gaining more focus and attention.

This week in the Senate Committee on Agriculture, I expressed my concern to United States Forest Service officials with the Administration’s legislative proposal to sell 300,000 acres (21,572 in Colorado) of USFS lands. I oppose the Administration’s proposal to sell off forest lands to address budget needs and I made it clear to the officials that I will fight the proposed sell-off of Forest Service land as part of a budget gambit. I also questioned United States Forest Service officials about the drastic 48 percent cut to bark beetle management funds in this year’s budget. Many of Colorado’s rural mountainous communities have been marred by bark beetle kills and there will be a real fire threat to those areas come fire season.

Over the past 20 years, Congress has designated 27 National Heritage Areas (NHA) to recognize and protect segments of the country that have extraordinary cultural, historical, environmental and recreational resources. This week I joined with Congressman Joel Hefley (R-CO, 5th) to introduce legislation designating Colorado’s South Park as America’s 28th National Heritage Area (NHA). The heritage area would preserve South Park by protecting 19 working ranches along 30 miles of stream corridor and 17,000 acres of wetlands and agricultural lands in the headwaters of the South Platte River.

On a broader topic, this week, I joined a bipartisan group of my colleagues in voting to reauthorize the PATRIOT Act which is crucial to the security of our Nation. I worked with my Senate colleagues on SAFE Act Six to strike a balance between law enforcement tools and civil liberties provisions in the bill. The compromise we struck with the White House is not perfect, but it does more to protect the civil liberties of Americans than the earlier law.

Also, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) will offer a companion bill to the PATRIOT Act to push for the civil liberty protections that the SAFE Act Six originally sought. I have joined as an original co-sponsor of that bill and will continue to monitor the implementation of the PATRIOT Act to ensure the civil liberties this country was founded on are not brushed aside.

As this session moves forward I will continue to work to improve our security and civil liberties protections. I will also continue to sound the call of our rural areas and search for solutions and build new coalitions to preserve our rural heritage, agricultural industry and communities. Whether through renewable energies, new technologies or diversified products, I look forward to providing our rural communities the ‘fuel’ they need get their main streets bustling again.

Sincerely,

Ken Salazar
U.S. Senator


Working for Colorado

Sen. Salazar votes for PATRIOT Act

Sen. Salazar questions Secretary of the Interior on lackluster support for rural communities

Sen. Salazar fights to restore transparency to government contracting

Sen. Salazar’s statement on Administration’s proposal to sell USFS lands to generate revenue


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Senator Ken Salazar's DC office is located at 702 Hart Senate office building, Washington, DC 20510. He has Colorado regional offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, Ft. Morgan, Pueblo, Durango, Grand Junction and Alamosa. For contact and mailing info, click here.


    

 

 


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Greetings from U.S
Senator Ken Salazar

Working for Colorado

  

E-mail Ken  




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