Congresswoman Harriet Hageman (R-WY) called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Thursday, November 20 for her monthly report from Washington D.C.

Rep. Hageman discussed H.J. Res. 130 with overturn the Biden-Era Buffalo RMPA, healthcare and insurance, and the Epstein files.

(0:00) Joining me live over the phone, U.S. Congresswoman Harriet Hageman of Wyoming today. Congresswoman, (0:06) good morning. How are you today? Good morning.

I’m absolutely wonderful. How are you? Hey, (0:11) doing fantastic. Really do appreciate the time.

One thing we haven’t had a chance to ask you yet, (0:16) Congresswoman, is in the busyness of being a United States representative, (0:22) what is a normal, quote, normal day like for someone who’s in Congress? I’m sure it’s all (0:29) over the place, but maybe give us a little behind-the-curtain scenes of what it’s like (0:34) to be in Congress. Every day is a little bit different, but very exciting and quite interesting. (0:41) Yesterday, I had, I don’t know, maybe eight or nine meetings, half an hour, 45 minutes (0:48) at a time, meeting everybody from county commissioners to oil and energy companies (0:56) and just all different kinds of constituents addressing the issues that are important to them.

(1:01) We go to the floor and we vote. I’ve had the opportunity this week to debate several very, (1:07) very important pieces of legislation, including the resolution 130, House Resolution 130, (1:14) which nullified the Biden administration’s moratorium on coal production in the Powder (1:21) River Basin. So that is a huge bill that we got through this week on the House.

I debated that (1:26) earlier. It immediately went over to the Senate. They expedited it over there with Cynthia and (1:31) John taking a lead role in that regard.

We’re hopefully going to get it passed on the Senate (1:37) side today and get it to the president’s desk for signature, which is just such a huge, huge, (1:43) huge development for the state of Wyoming and actually for energy production and energy (1:48) independence for the entire nation as a whole. So I spend a lot of time visiting with constituents (1:54) who come back here to visit. We have a lot of correspondence that comes out of this office.

(1:59) When people write us a letter, we respond, whether it’s about the Epstein files or it’s about a bill (2:05) that I’m doing or a particular hearing. I also am doing committee work. In fact, I just came downstairs (2:11) from the Natural Resources Committee Room.

We are debating the SPEED Act right now, and the (2:17) SPEED Act is the modernization of NEPA. This is the first time NEPA has actually had an overhaul (2:25) in over 50 years. What this is to do is this is part of our bigger agenda, permitting reform.

(2:31) Again, extremely important for a state like Wyoming. I was just debating that bill, and I’m (2:37) going to go right back up as soon as I’m finished with you. So it varies, but it has a lot to do (2:43) with constituent services engaging with the committees on issues that are important, (2:48) such as yesterday, addressing the problems associated with the 2020 Census and how those (2:54) problems actually resulted in about six additional Democrat representatives in Congress because they (3:00) overcounted blue states and undercounted red states.

So we’re doing an investigation into that (3:06) and then, again, voting and being on the floor. Well, I’m glad you brought up Resolution 130, (3:12) which passed out of the House. Let’s go back to that and spend some more time on it because (3:16) it is a big deal for Wyoming.

Give us some more background on what the Biden-era Buffalo (3:22) Field Office Resource Management Plan did and why you wanted to get this amendment through, (3:28) or this resolution through, I should say. So, CLFMA, the Federal Land Policy Management Act, (3:33) was adopted in 1976. It essentially governs how we manage our federal lands, primarily the BLM (3:40) lands.

And when you go back and you look at CLFMA, it’s very clear that Congress intended that we (3:46) would be using these resources for energy production, grazing, recreation, access, (3:53) all of those different kinds of things. So it was just very, very important that we’d be able (3:59) to use these resources because the federal government owns about a third of all the (4:03) surface estate in the United States, about 615 million acres. Well, over time, various environmental (4:11) groups and things have been pushing to constrain and constrain and constrain our ability to use (4:16) and access and develop our resources from these lands.

And it actually culminated a couple of (4:22) years ago in the Biden administration, issuing what’s called an RMP, a Resource Management Plan, (4:28) that would have cut off all leasing of coal within the Powder River Basin, all federal coal. Well, (4:36) for goodness sakes, 40% of the coal in the United States comes from the state of Wyoming, (4:40) and the vast majority of that comes from the Powder River Basin. 25% of our electricity (4:45) is generated by coal.

We send coal, Wyoming sends coal to 26 different states for purposes of (4:53) generating electricity. So the idea that we would forgo the use of this resource and not even being (4:59) able to access it was absolutely crazy. So what we did is we introduced what’s called a (5:07) Congressional Review Act Resolution.

And what the CRA process allows Congress to do (5:13) is that for any regulation, any agency action that we disagree with, we can bring a resolution (5:19) and we can nullify that resolution if we get sufficient votes in the House and the Senate. (5:25) So John and Cynthia and I used that process. We first used it working with the Montana folks.

(5:30) We used it on the Miles City RMP, which was the Montana side of the Powder River Basin. (5:38) And we received the approval of the GAO to use this mechanism to nullify the Miles City RMP. (5:45) And now we’ve done it with the Buffalo RMP, thereby making it so that the BLM in the future cannot (5:53) impose a moratorium on coal production in the Powder River Basin.

(5:58) Congresswoman Harriet Hageman on the Weekday Wakeup this morning with SBI Radio. (6:02) Congresswoman, last we talked, the government shutdown was still going. That, of course, (6:06) has ended.

What happens now moving forward, especially when we start talking (6:12) health care and the subsidies? And what kind of conversations are taking place right now? (6:19) Well, they are taking place right now because we recognize that with Obamacare, (6:23) it basically broke the system. And the reason that these subsidies have become an issue at (6:28) all is because Obamacare, the so-called Affordable Care Act, is not affordable at all. (6:33) And it has created a terrible crisis.

So three years ago, when the Democrats controlled the (6:39) White House, the House and the Senate through reconciliation, they passed a bill that basically (6:44) said you could make an unlimited amount of money. You can make a million dollars a year, (6:48) and we, the federal government, will subsidize your health insurance. (6:53) What they were doing is sending money directly to the insurance companies, not to the individuals.

(6:58) But it resulted in insurance companies making a substantial amount of money during this process. (7:05) Because that has a 10-year price tag of almost $500 billion, they had to cut it off at the end (7:13) of December 2025 because the price tag was just simply so astronomical, they couldn’t even justify (7:20) it. So that’s where we are.

What you’re seeing with the insurance companies is their rates are (7:25) increasing. That is not necessarily tied to these subsidies. If you make four times the poverty level (7:30) or less, your subsidies will continue.

So for example, a family of four can make $120,000 a (7:37) year, and you will continue to receive the subsidies. But we recognize we have got to (7:42) figure out a way to actually address the skyrocketing costs associated with healthcare. (7:48) I have had constituents write to me that they are going to spend as much as $5,000 a month (7:53) on health insurance.

Well, nobody could afford that. I couldn’t afford that. We can’t afford to (7:59) spend that kind of money.

That’s $60,000 a year on health insurance, and you would most likely have (8:04) a deductible as well. I’ve been visiting with some of the doctors in the Doctors’ Caucus as to ways (8:10) in which they see that we could potentially fix some of these issues to try to address these (8:15) increasing costs. I know that there are several ideas that are being considered and discussed (8:21) out there.

I am hoping we can move quickly. But this shutdown didn’t help. This shutdown really (8:26) delayed our ability to move forward.

That’s why we’re having, you know, votes at eight, nine, (8:31) ten o’clock at night, because we’re trying to catch up after not being in office. We’re adding (8:36) dates to the calendar of not being back here voting. So the shutdown hurt us, and one of the (8:42) areas where it hurt us is affecting our ability to try to find some relief for the American people.

(8:48) You mentioned speaking with quite a few people in the medical industry about maybe some potential (8:52) solutions. What do you see as a potential solution to the cost of health care right (8:57) now in the United States? You know, one of the problems that we have is that with Obamacare, (9:04) in Wyoming, we don’t have competition. We don’t, we, it really, all of our insurance companies (9:11) lapped, other than Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Another issue is whether we ought to be able, (9:17) so should we be able to buy health insurance across state lines? That’s something that has (9:22) been discussed for years, and I think that that, especially in a state like Wyoming, (9:27) could potentially provide some relief. You know, there are several others. I don’t necessarily want (9:33) to go into the great amount of detail, simply because I don’t know if any one of these are (9:37) going to end up being what we do, what we, what is decided to do, but I know that the President (9:43) is talking about sending money directly to the individuals to buy health insurance, (9:47) and in reality, you know, Obamacare was adopted in 2010 on, ostensibly with the idea that there (9:54) were 20 million people that did not have health insurance.

That was the excuse for it, and (9:59) essentially, they ruined the health insurance system for 330 million people trying to address (10:05) those 20 million. Had they simply subsidized those 20 million, they wouldn’t have had to wreck (10:10) the system, but that really was not the intent. The intent was to force us into a single-payer (10:15) system, like what you see in Canada and Europe, and we don’t want that, and the subsidies, that, (10:21) again, trying to get everybody onto the single-payer system is what they were trying to (10:26) do a couple of years ago with the subsidies, and it hasn’t worked, because financially, (10:31) we can’t afford to do it, so one of those things that has got to be addressed is stopping states (10:36) from California giving health care to illegal aliens.

That’s one of the big costs that we have (10:43) that we’ve got to be addressing, and those are just some of the ideas, but I know (10:47) we’ve got to try to find a way to be able to provide health insurance without it breaking the bank. (10:54) Well, Congresswoman, I did want to ask real quick about the Epstein file vote (10:57) after years of nothing happening there. All of a sudden, it’s a nearly (11:03) unanimous vote for those files to be released.

What changed, and why the vote? (11:08) Well, we need to put it behind us, and not because it isn’t important, and these files (11:13) shouldn’t be out there. They should. The point of it was, I didn’t like the procedure that was (11:17) used doing a discharge petition.

The fact is that the Oversight Committee has released almost (11:23) 70,000 pages already, and they are the ones that have the subpoena power. It’s the Oversight (11:31) Committee that actually was able to subpoena Epstein’s emails, and we are finding all of (11:36) this information out about his contact with Democrats. People were not opposed to releasing (11:41) the files.

We believe that they were doing that pursuant to the orderly process that you find with (11:47) the Oversight Committee, which is exactly what was happening. So voting for it or against it (11:52) didn’t necessarily matter. All of the files are getting out there right now.

I voted in favor of (11:57) it because we all want to have the files out there, so if this helps to get some additional (12:02) files out there, so be it. That’s great. At the same time, there are a lot of issues like what (12:08) we were just talking about that I think are so incredibly important.

I think what the Epstein (12:12) files are going to show are exactly what I predicted a long time ago, which is he was a Democrat. His (12:17) contact is going to be with Democrats. He donated money to Democrats.

That’s what you’re going to (12:22) find in these files. Whether there are names, whether they’re going to identify other men who (12:27) have engaged in this horrific contact, I don’t know the answer to that. I do know that there’s (12:32) almost 70,000 pages that have been released just in the last six weeks or so.

Congresswoman Harriet (12:38) Hageman on the Weekday Wake-Up, always appreciate your time. Anything we missed you’d like to touch (12:42) on today? No, I think that this was great. It’s always so wonderful to be with you, Duke, and (12:47) have the opportunity to give an update on what’s going on back here.

It was kind of fun to talk (12:51) about what a day in the life of being a congresswoman is in Washington, D.C. There’s (12:58) aspects of it that were surprising to me when I came back here, but I guess I feel incredibly (13:04) blessed. I’m so honored to represent Wyoming. I am so honored and I am so blessed with the staff (13:10) that I have.

They love Wyoming, and they’re very dedicated to helping people. I think we’re over (13:16) $11 million in terms of bringing money back to Wyoming that various federal agencies have been (13:22) improperly withholding from individual Wyomingites, and so I’m very proud of the work that my staff (13:27) does in that regard, and we’ll just keep working for the state, for the citizens of my great state, (13:34) and I hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Absolutely.

Thank you so much. That’s (13:38) Congresswoman Harriet Hageman this morning. It’s the SBI Radio Network on SWIFT 98 and the SPUR.