This week was all about traveling and being away from the office. It started with a celebration of life well lived—former Mayor Leo Pando’s funeral was held at St. Louis Catholic Church in Louisville, Colorado. The Pandos moved to Louisville, CO, after Leo retired to be closer to their son. It was nice seeing folks from Cheyenne, who came to pay their respects to a man who gave so much to our community. Mayor Kaysen and I really enjoyed the stories about Leo’s life and impact.
Tuesday, the Greater Cheyenne Chamber of Commerce flew a group of 28 folks to Washington, DC, to visit our congressional delegation. Each year, the Chamber sponsors this meet and greet to allow our business community to share their concerns and to thank our delegation for all they do for Cheyenne and Wyoming. Every time I visit DC, I’m filled with wonder by the scale and beauty of the federal buildings. It gives me a sense of permanence to the jobs and missions that go on behind the scenes. The weather was great; the temperature was in the high 70s, the grass was green and getting mowed, and the wind did not blow. It was a glorious time to visit.
Our first meeting of the trip was with Senator John Barrasso, our senior senator. He updated us on the status of the new missile program slated to begin soon at FE Warren Air Force Base. The Sentinel ICBM will replace the venerable Minute Man III missiles currently on alert at three bases in the USA. With all that is happening in the world, China and Russia flexing their military muscle, it appears the missile upgrade is on track and budgeted. It will be a huge financial boost to our local economy, ensuring that our base has a mission for decades to come, and will be a huge upgrade for one leg of our nuclear triad.
We also spoke with Senator Barrasso about the needed upgrades of our C-130H model planes flown by our Air National Guard. The Air Force is now flying C-130J models. However, if we want to have a flying mission in the future, it will require our base to have newer model planes. We have been close to getting new planes recently, but you know how these decisions can change at the last minute. Nevertheless, we believe adding a firefighting mission as one of the decision points could help the 153rd get new planes and maintain their mission. The base has an amazing economic impact on our city, and we want to make sure it continues.
I asked Senator Barrasso to watch the Colorado River water situation. Cheyenne receives 70 percent of its water from the Colorado River Basin, and we need him to protect our interests in Congress. In Wyoming, one in seven people receives their water from our Board of Public Utilities. I also asked him to look for ways he can help our city and state create more affordable housing units. I shared the statistics and how it is a workforce issue for the state. Wyoming can grow its industry if there isn’t any place for the workers to live.
We spent a lot of time discussing the cost and time exhausted acquiring permits to get infrastructure built in our state. Most of us support the National Environmental Policy Act and the Buy American Act. However, there are some things our nation does not supply in enough quantity to support building projects, which we desperately need. Things like concrete mostly come from China, and without a variance to the regulation, local road and bridge builders can’t move forward.
Our next stop for the week was a visit to the US Chamber of Commerce. Jack Howard shared some insight on the political happenings—the closely divided House and Senate are having trouble moving legislation forward these days. In the Senate, they are having trouble getting judges and other appointed officials through the confirmation process. I found it interesting that only 6,700 votes determined control of the House. The US Chamber believes there are only 24 true moderates left in the House of Representatives and the remainder have moved further from the center. I also found this interesting; if a district has a Cracker Barrel, then the constituents are more likely to vote Republican, but if it has a Whole Foods, they are more likely to vote Democrat. Their research shows 48 percent of the electorate now identifies as independent. They shared there is only one potential employee for every two job openings in our country. A meaningful immigration policy is one solution they believe we need if we are going to continue to thrive economically.
Our next meeting was with Congresswoman Hageman. It was fun to see Wyoming’s hospitality team leaving the office as we were coming in. We shared similar concerns regarding the Colorado River, affordable housing, permitting, and our military support. Dale Steenbergen went a step further and talked about adverse property ownership. According to Dale’s report, we learned that governments who are opposed to the United States are buying property next to sensitive military and industrial locations for the purpose of spying. It is a goal to pass a law in Wyoming and hopefully in the nation to prevent this from happening. It is a tough issue as we believe in a person’s right to buy property, but how do we protect our interests against our enemies?
Representative Hageman’s team shared how the national debt is becoming a huge risk to the economic health of our nation. I think she said we are now over $31 trillion in debt and again passed our debt threshold.
Other folks from our group also spoke about the need for immigration reform. Those folks were representatives of the construction industry and for years now, have been unable to find enough employees to meet the demand. They asked for a legal way to bring a skilled workforce into the country to meet the need.
Senator Lummis was our last meeting on the Hill. We spoke again about the issues of the day. A big topic was if a continuing resolution would be required to fund the government, how would that affect the ongoing missile upgrades and new planes for our National Guard. A hopeful sign is the new leadership in appropriations from both sides of the aisle seems to be focused on working the spending bills. We hope a continuing resolution can be avoided.
During my visit, I learned Senator Lummis is part of the Colorado River Caucus in the Senate. She is the vice president of the upper basin states and is working very hard to protect our interests in the water we need to thrive. If you think about 1922, when the Colorado River Compact was first signed, it’s easy to see how much things have changed since then. At that time, Cheyenne had around 15,000 people, and today we’ve grown to 65,000. Now think about Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other southwestern cities. Their population has significantly increased since 1922, which means they use more water from the river. Today, the Colorado River can’t support the demand and changes that are coming, although the upper basin states are still not using the full allotment of water. We have to protect our rights to keep the large cities and California farmers away.
The last event of the week was a reception where we could meet the staff from each office. These staff members are the ones charged with handling different aspects of the offices. I was enthusiastic to meet the staffers working on housing and defense issues. Building enough affordable housing and attainable housing is one of my biggest concerns, right now. I came away with good information and contacts to help me as the city continues to work through the issues.
Tim Thornell from the hospital also educated me on a big need—we are projected to have a shortage of 189,000 doctors in the next five years. This will really hurt rural states like Wyoming. Getting more residency slots open to train doctors and giving graduating doctors visas to stay in our country would be a good first step. Right now, many doctoral candidates graduate from US schools and move to Canada because they can’t stay here legally. What a pity!
This has been a great week of learning for me, and I’m looking forward to using what I have learned for the benefit of our city. I appreciate the Chamber of Commerce and our congressional delegation for this educational opportunity.
If you have a question or comment for me, please send an email to media@cheyennecity.org. I’ll continue to answer your questions or concerns in the following Mayor’s Minute column.
Trending Now
Q3 Health Check for U.S. Small Businesses
