Colorado Senator Fears Trump Will "Intimidate" Republicans Into Federal Funding Freeze

President Donald Trump's administration is withholding more than half a billion dollars in federal funds from Colorado entities — after Congress authorized the spending and federal judges ruled the money must be released.

It's part of a wide-ranging federal funding freeze Trump initiated in late January, pausing payments for grants and other programs. Federal judges blocked the funding freeze, but say the administration is not fully complying. In continuing to hold back millions of dollars, Trump is testing the limits of his presidential power and challenging Congress's constitutional authority to tax and spend.

With a power struggle looming, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet worries that his Republican colleagues won't be up for the fight.

"That is my concern, that the president and his crew will intimidate people in a way that will make them less willing to protect the institutions, to protect these checks and balances," Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, said during a press call on February 13. "We just can't let that happen. Because once they start to spiral, they start to spiral."

Members of Colorado's Republican Congressional delegation have previously defended the funding freeze. Representative Lauren Boebert called it "a necessary, temporary pause...as part of following through on President Trump’s promise to cut wasteful spending." Representative Gabe Evans said he supports "reviewing where our government is too bloated or spending on frivolous initiatives such as DEI."

At least $570 million in federal funding is currently inaccessible to Colorado grantees. Bennet says this includes money for wildfire risk reduction, energy efficiency and conservation project; the freeze also threatens the employment of the more than 40,000 federal workers in Colorado.

"These programs have broad bipartisan support and Congress has passed them. The president doesn't have the constitutional ability to make his own decisions about funding," Bennet said. "These institutions that were designed by our founders are here for a reason. It's not for the senators themselves, it's because the American people are supposed to have a say in these decisions.

"No president has ever been king of this country," he continued. "The reason for that is we have almost always acted consistent with the checks and balances that the founders put forward for us. I don't think we can take that for granted today. We have to fight to make sure that we enforce those."

He and Senator John Hickenlooper, a fellow Democrat, are working with Republican Congress members to encourage them to defend their spending authority "even when it's politically difficult for them," Bennet added.

Bennet, Hickenlooper and Governor Jared Polis sent a letter to the Office of Management and Budget last week demanding Colorado's federal funds be released. Bennet and Hickenlooper have also written to federal leaders to warn of the impact funding freezes have on wildfire preparedness efforts. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined a 22-state lawsuit attempting to halt the funding freeze.

"Companies are considering staff furloughs. Employers in rural communities are rescinding job offers. Long-standing Colorado businesses, some with over forty years of operation, now struggle to pay contractors working on facility expansions," reads the letter sent on February 7.

"We're in uncharted territory," Bennet said on February 13. "We've got concerns all over the state among people that are worried that funding is going to be cut off or has been threatened to be cut off. ...It's been a difficult time for a lot of folks."

During the call, Bennet also raised concerns about recent Trump appointees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist now confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services — and Kathleen Sgamma, a Colorado oil and gas lobbyist nominated to lead the Bureau of Land Management on February 11.

According to Bennet, Trump and the Republican Party are not entirely to blame for the current situation. He placed some of the responsibility on Democrats for allowing the GOP to secure control of the executive branch, the Senate and the House.

"The Democratic Party is in a profoundly problematic position that's not Donald Trump's creation," Bennet said. "We have to figure out how to get to a place where we are providing a vision for the country that is compelling to them so that we can overcome Trumpism in the long term."

How does Bennet want his party to achieve this? By picking their battles carefully, he said, and not "chasing every single social media thread and every single cable media host every single day."

The federal funding freeze is one battle he is happy to take on.

"We're obviously pushing back because these things are important," he concluded. "I hope very much that the Senate and the House will stand up for our constitutional prerogative."