'Rampaging' Trump's funding package held hostage by furious Colorado senators

President Donald Trump's administration took a major swipe at Colorado this week — so Colorado's senators are fighting back by putting a hold on a key funding bill.

Earlier this week, Office of Management and Budget director Ross Vought revealed plans to dismantle the National Center on Atmospheric Research, an agency behind fire and flood studies located in Boulder, Colorado. Vought, a notorious extreme-right figure who helped craft the Project 2025 agenda, denounced the agency as "one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country," and said any NCAR functions he deems to be important will be re-delegated to other federal offices.

In response, Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) moved to block the so-called "minibus" package, a set of five bills that would secure funding through Fiscal Year 2026 for the Departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. Republicans had hoped to pass this bill, which funds up to 90 percent of federal agencies, to avert the threat of another shutdown in January.

In a statement obtained by Punchbowl News' Andrew Desiderio, Bennet and Hickenlooper made clear this was retaliation for the move to shutter NCAR.

"President Trump is attacking Colorado because we refuse to bend to his corrupt administration," they wrote. "His reckless decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research will have lasting, devastating impacts across the country. We are holding the Senate's appropriations package to demand full funding for NCAR. As Trump's rampage continues, we will pull every lever available to do what is right for Colorado."

This is not the only move Trump has made this year to enrage Colorado officials. He is also moving ahead with a plan from his first term to relocate the U.S. Space Command headquarters from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama, a move that earned bipartisan rebuke from the entire state congressional delegation, including normally pro-Trump Rep. Lauren Boebert.