As a lifelong westerner, Mark has shown that he’s the type of public servant who works with anyone — no matter what their political affiliation — and who fights tirelessly on behalf of middle class families and small businesses to protect the Colorado way of life.

Since he took office in the Senate, Mark is routinely praised for his practical approach to problem solving and for his independent, Western-minded approach, which has enabled him to build an impressive record of accomplishments for Colorado. He consistently reaches across the aisle, building coalitions and finding unlikely allies to find solutions that work for Colorado. As Mark often says, one of his goals is to bring a good dose of “Colorado common sense” to Washington, D.C.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services, Intelligence, and Energy & Natural Resources Committees, Mark has considerable power to address issues uniquely important to Colorado. Mark works everyday on national security and veterans issues, Colorado’s burgeoning clean energy economy, and the preservation of Colorado’s wild lands and natural resources. Mark has always believed that his job is to make government work for Coloradans, not the other way around. Thousands of Coloradans have turned to Mark and his office for assistance in dealing with the U.S. government and he is committed to resolving problems, cutting red tape and making it easier for Coloradans to get the services they need to keep their quality of life.

As a senator, Mark has focused on fighting for policies that are designed to boost Colorado’s economy, job-creation, and innovation. He has worked to protect and grow jobs across Colorado, especially in our aerospace, bioscience, clean energy, defense, and high-tech sectors.

Bucking many in his political party, Mark has been an advocate for responsibly reducing our nation’s debt and getting our fiscal house in order. Mark has led the way advocating for a comprehensive, bipartisan plan to reduce our nation’s federal deficit. He authored a balanced budget amendment, supported the presidential line-item veto and his leadership led the Senate to ban federal earmarks. He continues to work with several Republican senators on bipartisan legislation to reduce government waste, fraud, and abuse.

A champion of Colorado’s wild lands and natural resources, Mark has worked across party lines to protect Colorado’s cherished wild land and water that is so central to the state’s way of life. He also has advocated for a responsible “all-of-the-above” approach to energy production, which recognizes the diverse energy resources of Colorado. One of Mark’s priorities is to build on the model Colorado has shown to the nation on energy issues and moving toward a renewable energy economy.

Mark has a long record of standing up for what he thinks is right and showing leadership when making the difficult national security choices that our challenging times demand. When Mark served in the U.S. House of Representatives, he voted against the rush to war with Iraq and against the PATRIOT Act. As a senator, he has been a leader on reining in the National Security Agency’s broad powers that violate Americans’ constitutional rights to privacy and holding our intelligence agencies accountable for the interrogation techniques used in the last administration that went against our country’s founding principles. Additionally, due to Mark’s leadership in the Senate, the Department of Defense’s outmoded policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed in 2011, strengthening our national security and allowing all Americans to serve their country, no matter their sexual orientation.

In addition, Mark focuses his work on protecting Coloradans’ consumer rights and constitutional liberties. That includes passing the Credit CARD Act to protect consumers from predatory credit card companies, giving consumers free access to their credit scores, and successfully forcing the IRS to stop its practice of looking at taxpayers’ online information without a warrant.

The many other issues that Mark has championed as a U.S. Senator include: equal pay for women, ensuring that women continue to have the right to make their own personal health decisions, comprehensive immigration reform and the DREAM Act.

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