Economy

Rep. Polis leads bi-partisan effort urging house leadership to fully fund PILT Washington, Sept. 28: Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) led a bi-partisan group of 95 Members of Congress, alongside Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), urging House leadership to secure full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) Program. “I am fortunate to serve a district that is home to acres and acres of majestic public lands,” said Polis. “We have to protect these public lands and compensate the communities t... Read more

After U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) raised concerns about funding for industrial hemp pilot projects last year, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clarified which industrial hemp research programs are eligible for existing federal research funding. USDA issued the guidance following a bicameral letter from the legislators. The guidance clarifies that industrial hemp would be eligible for Nat... Read more

Amendment would ensure new overtime protections are extended to residents of Puerto Rico Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In an effort to continue his push to incentivize clean energy and job growth, Representative Jared Polis (D-CO) introduced the Solar Expansion Distributed Generation Exponentially (EDGE) Act. The bill will promote investment in small scale distributed generation solar projects, especially residential installation, across the U.S., and encourage long-term job growth in the solar industry. “Investing in clean energy technology has been a top priority of mine and many Coloradans,... Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) released the following statements regarding legislation protecting natural disaster victims from unfair Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recoupments. The FEMA Disaster Assistance Reform Act, which passed in the House yesterday, included important requirements that safeguard individuals who have been harmed by misfortunes, such as the recent floods throughout Colorado. Both members have been strong advocates for ... Read more

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) today hosted an Industrial Hemp expo at the U.S. Capitol bringing together leading policymakers and entrepreneurs in the movement to restore industrial hemp to American agriculture. The expo, which drew more than 100 visitors, featured television personality Montel Williams and former CIA Director and Ambassador James Woolsey as keynote speakers, and showcased more than a dozen small busine... Read more

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez urging the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue a robust final rule on the Equal Pay Report – a critical data collection tool for combating the pay gap in federal contracting. The letter was co-signed by 24 Senators and 50 Members of the House of Representatives. The Equal Pay Report, once finalized, will require federal contractors to report summary c... Read more

Rep. Jared Polis (CO-02) released the following statement tonight in response to President Obama's final State of the Union address before Congress: "Tonight the President urged Congress to make 2016 a year of action, and I echo that call in the strongest terms possible. "Under seven years of President Obama’s leadership, our nation has made extraordinary progress in several areas – a historic international climate accord, a DREAMer program that has helped over half a million Americans build liv... Read more

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) today sent a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to clarify that industrial hemp research programs are eligible for existing federal research dollars. The letter was signed by a total of 12 Senators and 37 members of the House of Representatives. “It appears that USDA has the authority to award competitive gr... Read more

Rep. Jared Polis (CO-02), drawing inspiration from the Republican Study Committee’s proposal to require Congress to enact a hodge-podge of right-wing wish-list items before raising the debt ceiling, today released an alternative plan that would make staving off a global economic calamity contingent upon the immediate implementation of his personal whims and legislative preferences. Polis’s plan, entitled the “Default Avoidance and Polis Personal Decree Act of 2015,” would raise the debt ceiling ... Read more