The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Hanging with Bennet, Hurd and Hickenlooper’s people
By Mark Reaman
Crested Butte mayor Ian Billick returned last week from a five-day lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. It is the second year Billick headed east to meet with our direct Congressional representatives in the House and Senate. He met with Senator Michael Bennet and Congressman Jeff Hurd while touching base with the staff of Senator John Hickenlooper.
The town picks up some expenses for the trip. He said this year that ran about $800 as town paid for the airfare, metro tickets, and meal reimbursements. He stays with family in the area, so no lodging expenses are included.
We asked him what he has learned from the trip and whether it was a journey worth taking.
(Mark Reaman): This is the second year you’ve made the trip to D.C. to meet with our representatives in Washington. How did it go?
(Ian Billick): Last year my visit was in the middle of DOGE slashing and burning government agencies. This year had a different feel. I was told that Wednesday on the Hill was as packed as it has been for years with Kristie Noem and Tim Walz testifying. Thursday, Noem was fired and the House was voting on the War Powers Resolution.
(MR) What do you see as the primary benefit of these trips?
(IB): As in a lot of things in life, but especially on the Hill, the squeaky wheel gets the attention. These visits are important for keeping our community’s concerns front and center. The meetings often involve coordination with staff ahead of time, so it’s an opportunity to talk about those key issues multiple times with the same offices.
(MR) What topics came up in your chats?
(IB): The key issues were largely the same across offices (Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper and Representative Hurd), though emphases depended a bit on their ability to exercise influence through their varying committee assignments: affordability, especially around housing and health care; lands management with a focus on the Gunnison Outdoor Resource Protection Act (GORP); and being diligent that the grants the government has awarded our community actually show up.
Between the Safe Streets for All funding, the Mountain Express campus and some bus awards, our community has approximately $30 million in grants headed our way. While unlikely, it doesn’t seem impossible for the Trump administration to revoke awards after we go under contract. That would be devastating on multiple levels. From a risk management perspective, we need to stay ahead of that possibility, including having our entire delegation ready to help.
(MR) Have there been positive results, this year and last?
(IB): Last year the top issue was the pending loss of the CB Post Office with no meaningful plans for replacement. We got a delegation letter from all three elected officials, the first time, I believe, that all three elected officials issued a joint letter. Not long afterwards, the U.S. Postal Service extended their lease on Elk Avenue through 2031. I’m not certain anybody knows exactly what drove that extension after years of conversation, but the delegation letter didn’t hurt. Maintaining postal services is too important to our community to not stay engaged.
I’m also excited about having the bipartisan support, Republican Congressman Hurd and Democratic Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper, for the Gunnison Outdoor Resource Protection Act, something our community stakeholders have been working on for more than 10 years. We’re playing the long game, so I don’t anticipate a signed bill this year. The public lands underly our local economy and are why many of us are here, from ranching to skiing, hiking and biking, to research and science. Our community does things the right way — have the hard conversations and engage in the real give and take — and that will pay off in the long run. But we can’t take things for granted.
I feel good that we won’t see awarded federal grants revoked but ask me next year.
(MR) What is your message to the national reps?
(IB): The hard affordability conversation is health care. A small and meaningful segment of our community, depending upon age and family situation, is exposed to devastating health care costs. When high-deductible policies start costing more than CB housing, pushing towards $4,000/month, we have a serious problem. Many families covered by group health care may not yet see the problem. But the town of Crested Butte, along with other employers, is spending an increasing part of its budget on health care premiums. There is a real short-term opportunity cost — there are important services we are not providing because of that. In the long-term, it is simply not sustainable. Resolving this issue will require integrated policy work from the national to the local level. Unfortunately, the solution is not just reviving the subsidies. Unless we get a handle on costs, our system will collapse.
(MR) Do they have a message for you to bring back here?
(IB): I met directly with Senator Bennet and Representative Hurd. They are both engaged in the big national issues, but they both wanted our community to know they are focused on their constituents. Senator Bennet very quickly dug down into issues around affordability, displaying an understanding of what our community has been doing with housing and transportation. When we talked about health care, the Representative pulled a book off his shelf on health care economics, showing me passages he had marked up.
(MR) What is your main takeaway from the trip now that you’ve had some time to reflect on it?
(IB): There is so much going on, much of which is beyond our control, that it can be easy to sit depressed on a couch watching cable television. But there is incredible, long-term power in showing up, whether it is over coffee on Elk, a work session in council chambers or with national politicians on the hill, to talk about the real problems our communities are facing. Many of the issues that get national attention are just hot-button abstractions that social media algorithms push to grab our attention, manipulating and dividing us. We have to build our communities from the ground up, person to person, solving problems that matter. There is no magic bullet, nor any one person who will be our savior, despite what the campaign ads say.
