The Colorado legislature has expanded its floor calendars and plans fast agendas as it works to pass legislation on housing, gun regulation, transportation, taxes and other priorities ahead of the end of the 2024 session next week. Here are updates on major action and key developments.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
Updated at 6:43 p.m.: A package of late bills seeking to calm a brewing ballot battle between environmental concerns and the oil and gas industry passed their first hurdle in a Senate committee Thursday — but the compromise did not bring Republican senators aboard.
The Finance Committee passed both bills on a 4-3 party-line vote.
Senate Bill 229 would require the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to create rules to reduce nitric oxide emissions from oil and gas production by 50%, compared to 2017 levels, by 2030. It also would expand the fund used to plug orphan wells, as well as other ozone mitigation measures.
Senate Bill 230 creates a fee on oil and gas production that would fluctuate based on market conditions. The fee would start at 5 cents per barrel of oil when prices are at $40 per barrel or less, rising up to 30 cents per barrel when prices reach $60 or more — plus 15 cents for every $10 price interval beyond that. There’s a similar fee structure for natural gas production.
A nonpartisan fiscal analysis expects those fees to bring in about $109 million next fiscal year and $175 million the year after that. Of that, 80% would go to transit programs and 20% would go to Colorado Parks and Wildlife for habitat conservation and restoration.
The bills were previewed for the media on Monday and pitched as a way to defuse dueling ballot measures and legislation aimed at the industry and its environmental impacts. The bills were formally introduced on Tuesday.
“This is a significant step forward in ensuring that we are working together with industry to clean up pollution and reduce our ozone,” Sen. Faith Winter, a Broomfield Democrat and bill sponsor, said ahead of the vote on SB-229. She also pushed back on accusations that this was “a backroom deal”: “This came from over two years of working on different ways to reduce those things and we’ve been working a lot with constituencies, disproportionately impacted communities, with the regulators and with the industry.”
Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, said SB-230 wasn’t perfect but would lead to better air and legacy infrastructure projects “that will benefit us for years to come.” He was also hopeful it will bring “voices that often never agree on things” to the same table to work toward “mitigating some of the big problems facing our state.”
The three Republicans on the committee all voted against the measures. Sen. Cleave Simpson, an Alamosa Republican, said he’d had only a day to read and digest the bills. He noted some in the oil and gas industry were asking for amendments.
“Today I’m a no. Let’s figure out what the amendments are — what we can do to improve the bill, if possible,” Simpson said. “I’m always open and trying to be prepared on the floor. But today, I was not convinced it was the right thing to do yet.”
Updated at 6:36 p.m.: House Bill 1460 — the police whistleblowers bill — came within a hair of dying Thursday evening, a few hours after it had passed an initial voice vote in the House.
It’s a bit complicated, but bills that pass second reading — a voice vote — can still be killed on a recorded vote at the end of the day. A House Republican made that move in the early evening, and 32 legislators — a majority of those present in the chamber — voted to kill the bill, against 31 who voted for it. But to kill the bill, opponents needed 33 votes, or a majority of the 65-member chamber.
So, by the narrowest and most technical possible margin, the bill lived to see another day. Still, that doesn’t bode well for its long-term survival. It’s expected to face another recorded vote Friday. (Read more below, in the 4:38 p.m. update, about what’s going on with this measure.)
Updated at 6:06 p.m.: Things are slowly winding down in the Capitol. Well, sort of: The House is wrapping up its lengthy floor work. From here, they’ll break for various committees, which is where the Senate has spent its afternoon.
That’s how the remaining six days, five hours and 54 minutes will look: From the floor to committee and back again as legislators try to work through the scores of bills hanging out on the line.
Time ticks away, but many of the remaining bills are among the most consequential of the session. Among them are the TABOR reform bill, which is at the very beginning of its journey through the Capitol; the oil and gas grand bargain, which is similarly just learning to walk the halls here; and the bill to ban the sale and purchase of many high-powered, semi-automatic firearms in Colorado, which is waiting a likely fatal vote in a Senate committee.
There’s also the long-awaited property tax bill, which is expected to blunt additional tax increases. That bill hasn’t even been introduced yet. The latest it could possibly be unveiled is Monday, two days before the session ends.
The delay has allowed anxious rumors of another special session to blow through the building.
Meanwhile, three land-use reform bills — covering minimum parking requirements, accessory-dwelling units and density near transit — are all hung up in the Senate, awaiting various votes. All three face headwinds, both from Republicans and from some Democrats.
Senate Republicans, for instance, reportedly threatened to filibuster the parking bill late into Wednesday night; Senate leadership then pulled the bill for another day as supporters negotiate. The density bill was set for its final committee vote before moving to the floor Thursday morning, but then it, too, was pulled calendar at the last minute.
Tick tock.
Updated at 4:38 p.m.: A bill to boost protection for police whistleblowers passed a preliminary vote in the Colorado House Thursday after it had stalled out for several days, but the measure came in for changes that punted some of its proposed policies for consideration by a study group.
The police oversight legislation originally would have required investigations of alleged misconduct and established a misdemeanor crime for officers who fail to report misconduct by their peers. It had already been weakened, with those provisions removed to appease law enforcement leaders. On Thursday, lawmakers advanced an amended bill that would charge a “working group” with developing a state policy to protect police whistleblowers before the next legislative session.
During debate on the House floor, proponents of House Bill 1460, sponsored by Denver Democratic Reps. Leslie Herod and Jennifer Bacon, argued that passing the measure in the final days of the session was urgent for officers who came forward to lawmakers and testified about their efforts to expose misconduct. Among them was former Edgewater Police Officer McKinzie Rees, who was sexually assaulted twice by a sergeant and whose attacker has been convicted of unlawful sexual contact.
Rees still is barred from working in the state because supervisors put her name on a list of problem police officers maintained by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
The amended bill, which needs a final House vote and then consideration by the Senate, still would require longer retention of police records and prohibit government agencies from charging fees for making unedited police body-worn camera videos available for public scrutiny.
Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, acknowledged “some of the most heart-wrenching testimony I’ve ever heard” from officers who sacrificed their careers to expose misconduct.
Addressing those victims, Soper said: “We want to make sure we get the policies right.”
At one point, as lawmakers stood in solidarity with victims, Rees, 30, stood up in the House gallery, where she’d been watching the debate with her grandmother. She’s been pet-sitting to support herself since her forced resignation.
“This is a start,” she said, flanked by officers from Colorado Springs. “We are doing the right thing. Nothing worth it is ever easy.”
Updated at 3:16 p.m.: The House advanced a bill Thursday afternoon that would launch a study to determine “any potential historical and ongoing effects of slavery and subsequent systemic racism on Black Coloradans that may be attributed to practices, systems and policies of the state.”
The study mandated by Senate Bill 53 would be conducted by History Colorado and overseen by a governor-appointed commission. The study’s aim would be to determine the degree to which Black Coloradans face systemic discrimination; quantify the economic impact of that discrimination; and recommend solutions that are consistent with the state constitution. The study would be funded through grants and donations, not state money.
The bill, which has already passed the Senate and now needs a final vote in the House, is backed by Democratic Sen. James Coleman and Reps. Leslie Herod and Naquetta Ricks.
Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said the study wasn’t a solution to systemic racism but that its results would represent a tangible reflection of Black Coloradans’ experiences — which, on their own, apparently haven’t been enough, she said.
“Do I believe this study might be belittling in that way? Absolutely,” she said. “But it’s a recognition of ‘Believe me.’ ”
Updated at 11:25 a.m.: A bill to require written policy and training for the use of prone restraint by police will go to the governor after passing the Senate Thursday morning.
The original version of House Bill 1372 would have outlawed the use of prone restraint except when deadly force would be justified. It was pared back in the House to require training and written policies regarding the use of prone restraint, while still defining it as a use of force.
Prone restraint is when force is used to keep a person flat on their stomach on the ground. Research has tied the maneuver to the deaths of at least 17 people in Colorado in recent years. That includes Elijah McClain, who died in 2019 after he was forcefully restrained by police and then injected with ketamine while walking home. An Aurora police officer and two paramedics were convicted of criminally negligent homicide, while two other officers were acquitted of criminal charges, over the incident.
Defining prone restraint as a use of force means unlawful or excessive use of it could carry the potential for criminal and civil punishment. Under the bill, department policies would need to direct officers to move people out of the position as soon as pracitable and also give guidance on when to call for medical aid.
Sponsor Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat and among the most progressive members of the Senate, noted that the changes helped several law enforcement agencies move to a neutral position from initial opposition.
“Frankly, colleagues, if the Fraternal Order of Police and I can agree on a policy, I think it’s a good policy,” Gonzales said.
It also won the support of Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican. He was the lone Republican to vote for the measure.
“I believe it is little to ask to have a policy and training in something whose use could result in death,” Gardner said.
Updated at 10:43 a.m.: A controversial bill aiming to keep young people from seeing social media content related to drugs, guns and sex through better enforcement of policies by platforms died in committee Wednesday night.
Senate Bill 158 would have tasked social media companies with creating policies that explicitly prohibit selling and advertising illicit substances and firearms, the sex trafficking of juveniles and creating sexually exploitative content. It would have also required companies to monitor this kind of activity, block users who posted about the aforementioned topics, and report it to local law enforcement, including the state attorney general.
The bill also would have established age-verification requirements for social media companies. It passed the Senate 30-1 last month.
The measure had support from a variety of high-profile local officials, including Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, who spoke in favor of it during the House Education Committee’s meeting Wednesday. Critics, especially those in psychedelic advocacy circles, argued the bill would infringe upon individuals’ right to free speech. The committee postponed consideration of the bill indefinitely.
Rep. Meghan Lukens, a Steamboat Springs Democrat, said there wasn’t enough time in the legislative session to get the details ironed out to where they need to be. Lukens said there was a need to make social media safer for Colorado youth and that she was committed to working on an initiative in that vein for future sessions.
“The reality is, this bill simply needs more time. We are talking about bills becoming law, which is something that I know we all take very seriously,” Lukens said.
Another social media-related bill, House Bill 1136, has passed both chambers and will head to the governor. It would require the Colorado Department of Education to create a resource bank that provides information to educators and parents about the effects of social media on youth mental health.
The measure also would require social media apps to display pop-up notifications to users younger than 18 if they have been on the app for more than an hour within a 24-hour period or if they open it between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
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