(0:00) Getting into this hour’s guest interview segment to the monthly report from U.S. (0:04) Congresswoman Harriet Hageman live on the weekday wake up this morning. (0:07) Congresswoman, good morning, as always. (0:08) Appreciate your time.

How are you today? (0:11) I’m wonderful. Duke, how’s everything in western Wyoming? (0:14) We’re doing fantastic. (0:16) We’re doing and just enjoying the great fall weather we get here.

(0:19) Absolutely. Well, Representative, always a lot of things we can talk about. (0:24) I, of course, need to start with the assassination of Charlie Kirk last week.

(0:28) I wanted to get your thoughts on what was your initial reaction when you heard the news (0:34) and what’s been your kind of thought process since then? (0:38) Disbelief. I was getting ready to go over to the floor last week when a staffer came (0:42) into my office and said, Charlie Kirk has been shot. (0:46) And I just didn’t even think that that was remotely possible.

(0:49) I know Charlie. Charlie was a friend of mine. (0:51) I spoke a couple of different times at Turning Point USA events in Phoenix, Arizona.

(0:57) He was a kind and gentle man. (1:00) He was just absolutely a rock star. (1:04) What he was willing to do, his willingness to engage with people on difficult issues of (1:10) the day was unrivaled.

(1:12) And his ability to communicate, you know, since then, there’s been a lot of emotions that (1:17) I have gone through. As you can imagine, everyone is dealing with this in a different (1:21) way, but we’re all probably processing through it. (1:25) Just, you know, going through the anger and the disbelief and all of that, one of the (1:29) things that struck me about it is that Charlie Kirk was not assassinated for what he (1:35) said.

He was assassinated for what other people claimed that he said. (1:39) And I think that’s one of the biggest tragedies about this. (1:41) When I when I read even some folks in Wyoming who are almost attempting to justify or (1:47) excuse this horrific act by saying, well, but he was incendiary and he was, you know, (1:53) he was racist or he was sexist.

(1:56) None of that’s true. (1:57) None of that’s true. (1:58) He was just simply willing to debate what have become sacred cows for certain people (2:03) who want to say, no, those are those topics are off limits.

(2:07) You can’t debate those. (2:08) And what that is, is those are the kinds of things that we have to debate when they tell (2:12) us we can’t talk about it. (2:13) It’s the moment that we have to talk about these things.

(2:16) But that’s what you’re seeing on Charlie Kirk. (2:18) He was a great, great man, father, husband, friend, a communicator. (2:23) And he is going to be so sorely missed.

(2:26) One of one of the discussions and something that’s come from this is a lot of people are (2:30) talking now about the the political divide in America and and this act really (2:35) emphasizing that. What’s your take right now on on the on what appears to be a large (2:40) gap in politics right now between with Americans? (2:43) There is a large gap because there’s an incredible amount of lies and distortion out (2:48) there about Republicans and what we believe and what Charlie Kirk believed. (2:53) Charlie Kirk’s views were entirely mainstream.

(2:56) And the vast majority of the people in this country agree with what he said and what he (3:01) believed in and what he espoused. (3:03) This is some of the things that are happening. (3:06) You know, one of the things that we found out is that under the Biden administration, (3:11) and this is part of the political divide, we found out that there was a an operation (3:16) in the FBI called Arctic Frost, Operation Arctic Frost.

(3:21) And it was the Biden administration that has been surveilling and spying on (3:26) Republicans all across the country. (3:29) And I’m not just talking about Donald Trump, which that was bad enough. (3:32) They they were surveilling Turning Point USA, Turning Point USA, who sends kids to (3:38) college campuses and talks about the the problems with big government and too much (3:43) regulation and that we have to adhere to our constitutional values.

(3:48) The Biden administration were surveilling the Turning Point USA, but the Biden (3:53) administration was actually surveilling my consultant at the time that I was running (4:00) for office against Liz Cheney. (4:02) My consultant is on the list of people that was that was being targeted by Operation (4:08) Arctic Frost. (4:09) So when you ask the question, is there a divide in this country? (4:13) There’s a fear in this country that we have a government such as the Biden (4:17) administration who is willing to use the FBI and every other agency to go after (4:22) political enemies.

(4:24) So I think that there’s a divide in this country, but the divide is between those of (4:28) us who believe in the Constitution and adhere to that and those of us who want and (4:33) those people who want to use the government to silence their opposition. (4:37) So there absolutely is a divide in this country. (4:40) And I think that we are at a turning point.

(4:43) We are at a turning point. (4:44) Which way are we going to go? (4:46) Are we going to get back to our constitutional values or are we going to continue down (4:51) this road of something similar to what we saw last week? (4:56) A lot of people are feeling that same way and wondering, OK, now what do I do? (5:00) And because you mentioned previously how articulate Charlie was and how and how he (5:07) was able to convey a message so well that he wanted to convey and a lot of people (5:10) thinking, I can’t do that. (5:12) And so from your perspective, what can the average Wyoming citizen do in what you’re (5:18) calling this turning point? (5:20) Keep talking, keep talking, go to the college campuses, talk to these young people, (5:25) tell them that what they’re seeing online isn’t reality.

(5:29) Talk about our values, our Judeo-Christian values as a country. (5:35) What makes our country great? (5:38) I get awfully tired of the people who spend all of their time describing how America is (5:43) the worst country in the history of the world. (5:45) And that is the exact opposite of reality.

(5:48) Talk about the greatness of our country. (5:50) We fought a civil war to end slavery. (5:52) We are the only country that fought a civil war to end slavery.

(5:56) Look at what we’ve done in terms of our education system. (6:01) Look at what we look at the prosperity that we have created in this country. (6:06) Look at the resources that we have access to.

(6:09) Look at just the opportunities in this country that are unrivaled in human history. (6:15) Yet we have people who want to believe that we live in some kind of a dystopian hellhole. (6:21) And the only way we’re going to change it is if we go full socialist, like the whack job in New York City.

(6:27) I mean, wanting to destroy everything that is beautiful about this country. (6:31) And we have to keep talking, pointing this out, defending who and what we are, defending our values. (6:37) We cannot back down.

(6:38) We need to do exactly what Charlie Kirk did, which he stood up and he forcefully proclaimed what he believed and what was right and what was beautiful and what was good and what we need to aspire to. (6:50) And we all have to continue with that message. (6:53) And it is not divisive to say that it is not divisive.

(6:56) It is saying we have something to celebrate. (6:59) We have much to celebrate in this country with our freedoms. (7:02) And we cannot let anybody silence that.

(7:06) Congresswoman Harriet Hageman on the weekday wake up this morning, Congressman, transitioning to some of the issues that you are working on as well. (7:12) I understand the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources held a legislative hearing where they discussed one of your bills, (7:19) the Combating Obstruction Against Leasing Act or the Coal Act. (7:23) Tell us what this act is and what it could potentially mean for Wyoming coal and including even chemical.

(7:30) Well, as I’ve been saying for years, coal is the energy of the future, and we had to kind of work our way through the efforts to destroy that industry. (7:39) But with the advent of A.I. (7:41) and with the demand of the data centers, we are going to have to continue to use coal into the long distant future. (7:47) We have been the leading coal producing state since 1986, and in 2024, we produced 191 million tons of coal, shipping it to 26 different states.

(8:00) We produce about 40 percent of the nation’s coal. (8:04) So the president earlier this year issued an executive order entitled Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (8:16) So this is a very pro-coal government.

(8:19) What the Coal Act does is it codifies key aspects of President Trump’s executive order. (8:25) And it also nullifies the Department of Interior’s (8:30) Order 3338, which placed a moratorium on new federal coal leases. (8:35) As you know, we’ve also been battling both there in Kemmerer being able to keep that mine open, but also in the Powder River Basin (8:43) with the Buffalo RMP, the BLM attempted to shut down all coal production in the Powder River Basin.

(8:50) And so through the One Big Beautiful Bill and then also with this Coal Act, it lifts those moratoria. (8:57) And I think that it’s just going to absolutely unleash Wyoming’s coal industry. (9:01) And we’re going to get back to common sense energy policy.

(9:04) Also wanted to ask about the Biden public lands rule. (9:07) You, along with Senators Barrasso and Lamas, issued statements in support of an announcement that the Trump administration intends to rescind the Biden public lands rule. (9:16) What is that lands rule and what would the rescind should mean? (9:19) So what the Biden administration did again, it was the BLM and it was Tracy Stone Manning, a radical, radical environmentalist who’s now the head of the Wilderness Society, if that tells you anything.

(9:30) But what what she attempts to do was elevate conservation above all other uses on BLM lands. (9:37) Despite the fact that the Federal Land Policy Management Act or FLPMA does not allow for that. (9:43) The in terms of BLM management, it specifically identifies our statutory framework, specifically identifies what the uses of our BLM lands are, including energy production, grazing, timber harvesting, rights of way, that sort of thing.

(9:58) And so she came up with this idea that we would create this concept called conservation, although they never defined what that meant. (10:05) So it was a very ambiguous term. (10:09) I mean, everybody can ascribe to it what what they believe conservation is.

(10:12) And she attempted to elevate conservation above all other uses. (10:16) In other words, to let to make everything lie fallow, no use, no grazing, no energy development, nothing. (10:23) And it violates the law.

(10:25) It violated FLPMA. (10:26) I know that Wyoming has a lawsuit challenging it. (10:29) And all the Trump administration is doing is withdrawing what is an illegal rule and and moving forward with with actually carrying out FLPMA, the intent of FLPMA and making sure that we have access to these resources.

(10:45) U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman on the weekday wake up this morning. (10:48) Congresswoman, you were recently just not far from us in Grand Teton National Park discussing the Great American Outdoors Act inside Grand Teton National Park. (10:57) Tell us what the purpose of this visit was and what you felt came from it.

(11:00) So this is the Great American Outdoor Act was signed into law in August 2020 by President Trump, but it is set to expire. (11:09) It had a sunset on it. (11:12) And I believe of September twenty twenty five, I believe that there was about eight billion dollars originally appropriated under that.

(11:21) And we have now doubled that. (11:22) When we passed the reconciliation package in July, we have included an additional 16 billion dollars to carry forward the Great American Outdoor Act. (11:32) And basically what it is is to try to address some of the maintenance and construction and infrastructure backlog on our national parks, national forests and other federal lands.

(11:43) So we held a field hearing in Teton in Teton National Park two weeks ago. (11:48) It was absolutely beautiful. (11:50) It was just absolutely gorgeous.

(11:52) But we had Chip Jenkins, the superintendent there in Grand Teton National Park and four other witnesses. (11:59) And we asked some questions. (12:01) How can we improve this act? (12:02) So while we have appropriated the money, I think that there are some changes that we need to make, including some of the priorities for these these folks on the ground.

(12:12) For example, we waste such an enormous amount of money on procurement and contracting. (12:17) And they have some really good ideas of ways in which we can streamline that as much as twenty five to thirty percent of the money goes towards contracting and procurement costs, just the overhead. (12:30) So if you’re spending one hundred thousand dollars on a project, twenty five thousand or thirty thousand of that is going to essentially to a procurement cost.

(12:38) That is not what we should be spending the money on. (12:41) Also permitting again, another thirty five to forty percent of this money is going towards just compliance with permitting. (12:49) And so we need to streamline that.

(12:51) But we got some really good ideas from the folks who attended the hearing that day. (12:55) It was wonderful to be back in Wyoming and to be able to showcase my beautiful state for other members of the committee. (13:02) Congresswoman, as always, thank you for your time.

(13:04) Anything that you would like to touch on today while we have you? (13:08) I just I really want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about the importance of Charlie Kirk’s message. (13:15) I know that folks in western Wyoming, there are many of them who knew him, who listened to him, who were inspired by him. (13:24) And I just appreciate the opportunity for us to be able to acknowledge the change, the difference that he made in the world.

(13:32) And I also just want to thank you for keeping your your listeners informed by checking in with me every couple of weeks. (13:39) It’s just really good to talk to you. (13:41) Absolutely.

Thank you so much. (13:42) That’s Congresswoman Harriet Hageman this morning. (13:44) It’s the weekday wake up on SBI radio.