Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) called into the Weekday Wake-up on Thursday, August 21 with her monthly report. Congresswoman Hageman discussed grizzly bear management, the Highway Funding Transferability Improvement Act, coal mining, energy production and illegal immigration.

(0:00) Joining us for her monthly report is U.S. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman today. (0:05) Good morning, Congresswoman. How are you? (0:07) I’m wonderful, Duke.
How are you? (0:09) Hey, doing great as always. And as always, appreciate you taking time to (0:13) chat with us this morning. A number of items to talk about.
Let’s start with Brian Nesbick, (0:17) of course, the former director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The Senate officially (0:21) have confirmed him as the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. And you and I have (0:26) talked about grizzly bear management in the past.
You had a bill related to that. And (0:30) it just seems like maybe this has the potential to (0:33) continue to push delisting of the grizzly bear down the path. (0:37) Boy, I sure hope so.
I’m pretty excited, obviously. He’s well, well qualified (0:41) for this position. He’s going to represent the United States while he’s going to carry out (0:46) his obligations as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
But from the standpoint of Wyoming, (0:51) he really truly understands our issues in great detail. And I think we’re going to be able to move (0:57) forward with some important initiatives. And we’ll see how everything goes.
If I (1:03) remember correctly, you did have a piece of legislation regarding grizzly bear management. (1:08) Remind us what that was. I still do.
(1:09) Okay, remind us what that is and where it is. (1:12) I’m still trying to get them delisted from the standpoint of a bill. And we’re trying to (1:18) do it a variety of ways, including doing it with the appropriations process, as well as (1:24) the standalone bills.
But one of the first things I intend to do when I get back to D.C. (1:29) after our August break is to get a hold of Brian and sit down and see what we can do to (1:34) move forward with that delisting. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman on (1:37) the Weekday Wakeup this morning. Congresswoman, another (1:40) bill that you had talked about in some recent communication was Highway Funding Transferability (1:46) Improvement Act.
Tell us what this is. Well, I’m just trying to provide more flexibility (1:51) for our Departments of Transportation to put their funds where they need them the most. (1:56) Right now, they can move about 50 percent of their federal funds or some of their federal (2:00) funds to different projects.
I want to increase that to 75 percent. You never know when you’re (2:05) going to have an emergency like what we had on Highway 22 near Jackson or some of the other (2:12) catastrophic failures that you can have. I just want to make sure that our states are able to (2:16) actually maintain and build our highways in the most efficient way possible.
(2:22) Of course, coal mining is such a big part of Wyoming and the coal that’s supplied across (2:28) the nation. There’s been some news recently in expanding coal mines in other parts of the state (2:33) outside of where we’re at in Lincoln County right now. Maybe touch on that and what you’re seeing (2:38) with coal from a national standpoint.
(2:43) A couple of things. With the reconciliation package and the reduction of the royalty rates (2:48) to pre-COVID levels or pre-IRA levels, we have one coal company in Wyoming. They said it’ll save (2:55) them $15 million just in the remainder of this year.
That’s money that they can reinvest into (3:00) the company itself as well as employees and training and all of those things. In addition (3:06) to which we just saw where one of our coal companies got a permit approved by the federal (3:14) government to expand their operations, it can take 15, 20 years to get those permits approved. (3:20) It’s pretty exciting when we get one that allows us to continue operating.
It provides stability (3:25) and certainty in the industry and it provides certainty to the state of Wyoming in terms of (3:31) what kind of royalty payments will be coming into the state coffers in the long term. (3:36) Absolutely. Speaking of energy, natural resources and energy production, President Trump (3:42) making some comments regarding solar and wind energy.
What’s your take on the all of the above (3:49) energy approach and what do you see maybe Washington, D.C. going forward following (3:54) those statements from the president? I want to focus on the energy that (3:58) the energy affordable and reliable energy. I don’t tend to talk about it all of the above approach (4:05) because I think that that’s just shorthand. We’re buying into the entire global warming nonsense.
(4:11) The reality is that so many of the predictions that have been made over the years were more (4:16) about control and dictating what we can do, more of a form of Marxism than actually caring about (4:22) the environment. I want to make sure that we’re looking at those kinds of energies that are (4:26) efficient. I just was at the uranium symposium this week, coal, oil and gas.
I want to make sure (4:35) that we’re doing what is the very best for the citizens of America, making sure that they can (4:40) have access to affordable, reliable energy. Wind and solar don’t meet those metrics. (4:47) Congresswoman Harriet Hageman this morning on the weekday wake up.
Congresswoman, (4:51) let’s go to the southern border. It’s been a while since you and I have had the chance to (4:55) talk about illegal immigration and how things have maybe give us an update on what you’re being (5:01) told and what’s happening as far as illegal immigration coming across the southern border (5:06) over the last few months. This morning, just this morning, I read that on average during the entire (5:11) four years of the Biden administration, it was almost 5,500 people who crossed that border (5:16) illegally every single day.
In the entire month of July, I think it was July, maybe it was June, (5:21) it was 4,000. So obviously, a total of 4,000. So obviously the border is effectively closed.
(5:30) All it took was six months and the will to follow the law as it has been written by Congress and (5:35) look what we’ve been able to do. What does that change? It changes the issues associated with (5:39) crime. It changes the issue associated with human trafficking and drug smuggling.
I mean, (5:44) it is absolutely an enormous development. And I was watching the news again this morning and (5:50) a comment that was made, which I thought was a very good one by Trey Gowdy, which is we’re not (5:54) the only country in the world to provide asylum. These people are traveling through country after (5:59) country after country after country to get here.
And they’re doing that in large part because of (6:04) our welfare system. So there are other places that if these people really truly had a fear, (6:10) if they truly were legitimate asylum seekers, there are many countries that they’re hopscotching over (6:16) to get to the United States and come across our border. So we need to be thinking about that.
We (6:21) need to make sure that we’re doing legal immigration and we need to stop this nonsense of the illegal (6:25) immigration. Congressman, anything else you would like to mention that you’ve been working on that (6:30) you’d like to discuss while we have you? Well, it’s just wonderful to be back in Wyoming. (6:36) It’s been a beautiful time here.
I’ve been able to spend some time with my family as well as getting (6:42) out and doing more town halls. I have one more town hall to do for the year. That will be in (6:46) Teton County.
It’s kind of tough to get the space that you need in Teton County for a town hall (6:52) during the summer months. So we’ll be doing that later this year. But I finished two more this week (6:56) with Converse County and Latrona County.
I did Fremont County last week. Great feedback, (7:04) discussions with the citizens of Wyoming. And it’s really been a delightful time to be out (7:08) traveling around.
As you’ve gone to these town halls, what appears to be a recurring theme or (7:15) issue? What are the people of Wyoming most concerned about right now that you hear in these (7:19) town halls? So it’s kind of funny. As the news cycle changes, so do the things that they want (7:24) to talk about. So for a while it was that in the reconciliation, it was the allegation that (7:31) in reconciliation we destroyed Medicaid.
Well, now that that’s all been debunked and the facts (7:36) are contrary to what some of the propaganda was out there, they no longer want to talk about (7:42) Medicaid. So it just kind of changes depending upon where you are. Obviously, they do want to (7:48) talk about affordability.
We continue to talk about energy production. I continue to explain (7:55) the reconciliation package because there’s an awful lot of moving parts related to that. So (8:00) that’s something that I focus on as I go to my town halls.
I want people to understand what we did and (8:05) why we did it. So that just seems to be one that is important, just to make sure that people (8:11) understand what we did in terms of immigration reform and border security. What did we do (8:15) in terms of energy, unleashing our energy industry? So that’s what I continue talking about as I (8:21) travel.
U.S. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman this morning on the Weekday Wake-Up. Congresswoman, (8:25) thank you again for your time. We appreciate it.
Thank you. It’s all part of the Weekday Wake-Up (8:31) on SVI Radio.