[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9048-9049]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        COLORADO'S WESTERN SLOPE

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, I wish to talk a little bit about what is 
happening on Colorado's Western Slope this morning.

[[Page 9049]]

  Several weeks ago, a judge in Denver, CO, ruled that a permit was 
improperly given to a mine known as the Colowyo mine on the Western 
Slope in Northwestern Colorado. This lawsuit was brought, I think, some 
8 years after this permit was granted. Mine employees number around 220 
people on Colorado's Western Slope. It is critical to the region's 
economy, and it is critical to the economy of Craig, CO. Without these 
employees and without this mine, it will truly be an economically 
devastating moment in Western Slope history.
  So I hope the Department of the Interior will pay attention to the 
multiple letters they have received from our colleague Senator Bennet, 
from Governor Hickenlooper of Colorado, who have urged this to be taken 
seriously, to be reconsidered and appealed. It would be economically 
devastating for these communities to lose 220 jobs. I certainly hope 
the administration is paying the serious attention to this matter that 
it deserves.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Arizona.

                          ____________________