{"id":51389,"date":"2025-12-18T21:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51389"},"modified":"2025-12-18T21:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T03:42:12","slug":"trump-move-to-dismantle-climate-agency-blows-up-senate-funding-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=51389","title":{"rendered":"Trump move to dismantle climate agency blows up Senate funding deal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A potential&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5655795-appropriations-bill-package-2026\/\"><u>deal<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/donald-trump\/\"><u>President Trump\u2019s\u2002<\/u><\/a>efforts to dismantle a key climate agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said that Trump\u2019s attempt to dismantle a premier weather and climate center based in Boulder, Colo., was like a \u201cstick of dynamite\u201d that exploded any chance of a bipartisan breakthrough on spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Colorado Sens.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/michael-bennet\/\"><u>Michael Bennet\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/john-hickenlooper\/\"><u>John Hickenlooper\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D) objected to moving forward with the so-called minibus spending package that, if enacted into law, would result in 85 to 90 percent of the federal government being funding through September of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need to fix this problem,\u201d Bennet said, explaining his opposition to moving forward with the spending package. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to work together. We\u2019ll have to work together to figure out how do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have to find a way together to fix this problem,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Senate Majority Leader&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/john-thune\/\"><u>John Thune\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-S.D.) made a herculean effort to get the spending package passed before Christmas and it looked earlier in the day as the Senate might be on track to clinching a deal after conservative GOP senators dropped their objections to the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">But Bennet and Hickenlooper took the lead in bringing the package to a dead halt by objecting to an agreement to set up date and amendment votes on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">They were infuriated by the Trump administration\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/energy-environment\/5652674-ncaf-research-faces-cuts\/\"><u>announcement<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;Wednesday that it plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, a leading research institution specializing in climate science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Sen.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/people\/sheldon-whitehouse\/\"><u>Sheldon Whitehouse\u2002<\/u><\/a>(D-R.I.), a leading Democratic voice on climate issue, called the research a \u201cglobal crown jewel of science\u201d that \u201chelps us learn a great deal about whether which matters a great deal to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5656366-colorado-senators-block-minibus-deal\/\">thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A potential&nbsp;deal&nbsp;to fund large swaths of the federal government, including the Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services, collapsed on Thursday night after Colorado senators demanded that Congress stop&nbsp;President Trump\u2019s\u2002efforts to dismantle a key climate agency. A Democratic senator involved in the negotiations over passing a five-bill package of appropriations bills before Christmas said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":51390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1223,35691,1230],"class_list":["post-51389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-climate","tag-dismantle","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51389"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51392,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51389\/revisions\/51392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}