U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse addressed a standing room only crowd at a town hall event at Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs Wednesday evening, confronting the anxieties and hopes of the community, and a nation, seemingly at a political crossroads.

“This is by far the biggest (town hall), so thank you all for showing up and participating in our democracy,” Neguse said, describing a marathon day of meetings across five counties in Colorado.

Neguse’s remarks quickly turned to the “litany of local issues” — wildfire mitigation, watershed protection, postal service woes — but the congressman was clear that the stakes had never been higher for the country’s constitutional order.

“One of my favorite quotes is from one of our founding fathers, Thomas Paine, who wrote…’These are the times that try men’s souls,'” Neguse reflected. “For the first time in my life, I have begun to question where we go from here.” 

He noted his experience as an impeachment manager during President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, warning that threats to the rule of law he had feared “have now come to fruition.”

“What will we do in this moment when agencies of the federal government are being unilaterally dismantled by an executive who clearly, in my view, has no regard for the constitutional fabric that has made us the envy of the world?” he said. “When the constitutional guardrails that… we have taken for granted are now being tested in ways that they haven’t been before?”

His answer: “I intend to use every legislative tool that I can to push back against any unlawful and unconstitutional actions by this administration, to do my work in protecting Colorado, protecting our way of life, doing what I can, working with all of you to make the case that there’s a better way.”

Pressed by a Navy veteran in the audience about whether any Republicans in Congress were beginning to break ranks, Neguse was candid. 

“There’s been nothing more frustrating to see not a single Republican colleague of mine… truly willing to stand up and be counted and say, ‘You know what, this is a bridge too far.'”

He emphasized the razor-thin Republican majority in the House, noting that “if just four Republicans joined our efforts… we could end those (tariff) policies next week.”

“Hope springs eternal that that will change,” he added. “We shouldn’t assume that our institutions are impervious to public opinion.”

Neguse mentioned the failed 2017 repeal of the Affordable Care Act as an example of citizen activism making a difference.

“That didn’t happen by osmosis,” said Neguse. “It happened because citizens like yourself and others lifted their voices, made the case that not in our name are we going to have health care stripped away for 20 million Americans.”

The town hall was branded by questions that linked local anxieties to national policy. Paula Black, a longtime resident, raised the deteriorating state of the Steamboat Springs Post Office and fears of privatization. 

Neguse acknowledged the “whack-a-mole” nature of postal service crises across the Western Slope and pledged continued pressure on federal officials. “We sent a letter to the acting interim Postmaster General with Senator Hickenlooper and Senator Bennett, focused exclusively on the Western Slope post offices,” he said. “We’ll have some follow-up in that regard.”

Black also voiced alarm over civil rights rollbacks and the onslaught of the federal government targeting vulnerable groups. 

Neguse responded by highlighting his leadership of the House Democrats’ litigation task force and urged constituents to share their stories through the task force’s website, litigationandresponse.house.gov.

“We just filed our sixth action today, an amicus brief in the case regarding the dismantling of the Department of Education,” he said. “This is an unprecedented thing for House Democrats to do at the trial court level, to say, ‘We’re going to get involved in this litigation to basically make the case to the courts that the activity that the Trump administration is pursuing is unlawful.'”

 “We’ve seen that when the administration feels enough outcry, they have…pulled back and reversed the actions that they have tried to implement,” he added. 

The congressman, an advocate for public lands legislation, expressed deep frustration at the current administration’s moves to “open up our public lands to the highest bidder.” He acknowledged bipartisan efforts to block land sales but admitted that “there’s no singular solution to pushing back against all of these draconian policies…We’re just going to have to keep at it.”

AmeriCorps funding cuts and the trickle-down threat to local organizations like the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps drew concern from Sarah Brock, a former Americorps service member. 

“The only way to really solve that challenge would be for the federal government administration to reverse the step that they’ve taken,” Neguse said, adding that Americorps has received bipartisan support for several decades and that he was working with colleagues across the aisle to restore funding in the next fiscal year.

Brock also pleaded for Neguse to stand with the transgender community. “Please: if you have not yet developed empathy for the trans community of Steamboat Springs, (of) the Yampa Valley, now is the time,” she said.

Neguse responded by pledging continued support for the LGBTQ+ community, describing himself as a “champion” of the Equality Act and emphasizing the importance of “being a voice for the voiceless…now more than ever.”

Neguse, the son of Eritrean immigrants, also spoke about the administration’s immigration crackdown.

“We are at our best as a country when we’re living up to those fundamental core American values of being a beacon of hope and liberty and freedom to the rest of the world,” he said. “To see those same values debased in this way by the president…is sobering.”

Neguse decried the proliferation of Trump’s executive orders, many of which have been found unlawful and unconstitutional by federal courts. 

“President Trump has issued more executive orders in the first 100 days of his presidency than any president in the history of our country,” Neguse said. “Federal courts under Article Three have plenary powers, inherent powers under common law, and it’s important for those courts to exercise those powers if they feel as though orders have been defied.”

Neguse closed with a call to action, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair,” urging the community to “stay engaged, stay activated, keep participating, and hold me and every elected leader from the local level to the federal level accountable.”