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Following her Town Hall meeting in Ten Sleep on March 16 U.S. Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) told Northern Wyoming News that she was disappointed in the decision to exclude Wyoming from the Wildfire Defense Strategy.

This program is a 10-year plan for wildfire management in the American West, and includes all western states except Wyoming. Hageman said “We need to change that, 48% of our land is federally owned. While that’s not all forest service lands, a substantial amount is. We need to make sure that Wyoming has access to the funds and resources to protect our national forests and surrounding lands.”

Hageman also voiced frustration over the lack of a response from the Biden Administration regarding a recent attack by the Gulf Cartel in Mexico on American citizens. On March 3, a group of four Americans traveling through a border city in Mexico for one of them to undergo a medical procedure were attacked in broad daylight by cartel members. Their vehicle was crashed into and they were fired upon; two of the Americans were killed in the attack, and the other two were kidnapped and later released.

When asked if she had seen any actions being taken regarding this attack, Hageman said, “I haven’t yet, which is very disturbing to me. It makes me very nervous.” She continued, “I feel so badly for those four folks who just went down there and experienced a terrible tragedy resulting in the death of two of them. There needs to be a response; we need to be taking on the Cartels directly. I’m extremely disappointed in this administration that they have not taken action.”

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Hageman also addressed questions from the audience during the Ten Sleep Town Hall meeting.

She was first asked about the state of laws pertaining to packaged meat labels, with imported meats being labeled as ‘Made in the U.S.A’ being a cause for concern. Hageman said that she has been working on this issue for some time as an attorney, and is continuing to do so as a Congressional House Representative. She spoke about the Country of Original Labelling law which required clear labelling about where a product came from. This law was repealed in 2015, something Hageman called a “bad decision.”

This opens up opportunities for foreign markets to bring meat into the United States, and so long as it is processed here, it can be labelled as ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ Hageman offered a solution by way of operating state-inspected packaging facilities that would allow smaller local producers to better compete in this now global market with authentic local products.

Another guest told Hageman that he had sent a letter to Hageman, and Wyoming’s Senators Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso. This letter, he said, voiced his concerns over crimes committed by Washington D.C. government officials. He was frustrated at the apparent lack of accountability held by the alleged perpetrators of these crimes, and asked Hageman if anything was being done about it.

Hageman responded that the Select Committee on Weaponization of Government, a committee that she serves on, is working to address this issue. She said “We can’t just talk about the FBI or the NIH [National Institutes of Health] or the CIA breaking the law because they are inanimate objects; it’s the individuals within those agencies that broke the law. We are going to have to name names.”

As an example she named Anthony Fauci, show served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, who she claimed has lied about the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines. Hageman said that he “needs to be held accountable,” and that people can expect actions to be taken against him soon. She added “Sunshine is the best disinfectant. We have to expose what has happened with these agencies and with these individuals, these federal employees.”

She added, “We are going to be passing bills to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

BIPARTISANSHIP

Hageman was asked if during her time in office she had observed bipartisan collaboration improving relative to what it had been in recent years, to which she responded “Short answer is, in some ways no.” She elaborated that there was still much polarization between the Democratic and Republican parties, and said that “the last couple of years have not helped.” Hageman claimed that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was harsh toward Republicans and created a rift between the parties.

Hageman did say that although she felt the atmosphere was still divisive, that did not mean there was altogether no bipartisan collaboration. For example, she said that her own bill that would allow tribal landowners to lease their land for up to 99 years has support from both sides. She also suggested that there is bipartisan support for a bill that would disallow the President from tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the purpose of selling it to China. She claimed this bill has been signed by 100 Democrats. As a final example she said that a bill had passed with 413 votes in favor and zero votes against to enforce the declassification of documents about the origin of COVID-19, having unanimous support from all parties.

As a final thought, Hageman said that during the lengthy process of electing a Speaker of the House this year, which took 15 separate votes to finalize, she noticed “people starting to talk more” as a result of spending time together, and she said that this “bodes well for the future.”

JANUARY 6

Hageman then received a comment about the prisoners being held related to the events of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the United States Capitol. The concerned guest said that she felt as though the prisoners were having their rights taken from them. Hageman agreed, saying that “how they are being treated are clear violations of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments.”

She continued, saying “I’m not excusing anybody who was a bad actor that day, but I also want to know how many provocateurs were in the crowd, I want to know who the FBI agents were in the crowd, I want to know who the undercover agents were in the crowd, I want to know who first started shooting the flashbangs, I want to know why they started shooting the flashbangs; there’s a lot of stuff that needs to be disclosed and that information will be coming out.”

Hageman said that a promising development in the case of the January 6 riot is the release of 41,000 combined hours of surveillance footage of the event, and believes that more details will be revealed from this footage. She also said that recently (R-AZ) Congressman Eli Crane had tried to make a visit to these prisoners but was blocked, and she wants to talk with him to find out what happened and why he could not see them. Hageman closed her thoughts on the matter by saying “the only way we are going to have closure is if we have disclosure.”