It’s a mostly slow morning in the Colorado Capitol as the legislative session nears the one-month mark. But the schedule is lively: The cobwebs of the first weeks have fully been washed away, and lawmakers are starting to get into the meat of the legislative process.
A brief note about scheduling: The House and Senate print a weekly and daily calendar each morning, but they’re not gospel. Bills scheduled for committees or floor work can get pushed quickly, depending on several factors. It’s always wise to keep an eye on a bill’s page on the legislature’s website or on the legislature’s handy-dandy digital display board, which gives you updated insights into each day’s doings.
On Monday morning, a group of people whose relatives were kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel were greeted in the Senate on Monday morning. Roughly two dozen House members from both parties, including Speaker Julie McCluskie, were in attendance as well.
The families weren’t present for the House’s morning session, to the frustration of organizer Rep. Ron Weinberg, a Republican, who’d planned on appearances in both chambers. The chamber last month changed some of its policies to require advanced notice and approval for guests on the floor.
Here’s what to expect at the Capitol this week:
First gun bills set for committee
The first two gun-reform bills introduced this year — out of an expected suite of 10 measures — are scheduled for their first committee hearings in the Senate this week. Both are sponsored by Sen. Tom Sullivan of Centennial, who’s been a leading figure in gun legislation in the Capitol for several years. One bill, SB24-003, would direct nearly $1.7 million to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate illegal gun sales; that’s in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. The other, SB24-066, would attach specific vendor codes to the sale of firearms, ammunition and similar materials — that’s up in the Senate’s Business, Labor and Technology Committee on Thursday.
Legislative pay
The House State, Civic, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee on Thursday is set to hear HB24-1059, which would create an independent commission to study pay for elected officials in the state. The bill was first set for committee last week but was pushed back in the merry-go-round that is scheduling around here.
Lawmakers whose terms began in 2023 make $44,000 a year. Low pay for the hours required has been cited by some lawmakers when they opt to leave the legislature or run for a separate office, often at the county or local level, that pays more.
Other notable committee hearings
A few other notable bills are getting their first hearings this week. Among them is HB24-1030, which seeks to improve railroad safety and inspections. The bill was already drafted before September’s deadly train derailment near Pueblo, but that incident gave the legislation a timely boost. That bill will be up in the House’s Transportation, Housing & Local Government Committee on Wednesday.
A couple of opioid-related bills are scheduled for their first moment in the sun, too. One — HB24-1003 — would boost the availability of opioid overdose antidotes on school buses; that’s set for Thursday in the House’s Education Committee. The other — SB24-048 — seeks to improve substance-use disorder recovery efforts in Colorado. That bill is scheduled for the Senate’s Business, Labor and Technology Committee on Thursday.
In case you missed it
Eleven years ago, Democratic state lawmakers faced protests and recalls over their passage of a high-capacity magazine ban and universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of the Aurora and Sandy Hook mass shootings. The backlash left a scar on Democratic leaders, even as the recalled lawmakers said they had no regrets. For several years, legislators introduced few gun-reform bills, and none passed. But that timidity is now long gone — a turnaround attributable to increasing Democratic electoral dominance in Colorado and growing gun-reform activism that’s been fueled by a local backdrop of mass shootings, as well as grimly routine gun violence and suicides.
For the second time in two months, Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday signed a bill into law that temporarily doubles Colorado’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, boosting the amount of money that will go to working families this year.
Colorado legislators are set to give new anti-fraud powers to state Medicaid authorities, months after regulators uncovered an unprecedented, multimillion-dollar scheme allegedly perpetrated by a group of medical transportation providers.
At first, Bruce Brown thought the substance in his son’s room was a performance supplement, like the plastic bottles alongside it. The next day, Bennett died by suicide at age 17. He’d ordered a highly concentrated amount of sodium nitrite, a salt used as a preservative on meats, from a sporting goods store out of state. It cost less than a movie ticket, and it arrived with two-day shipping. As lawmakers in other states and at the national level scrutinize the availability of the substance, Colorado may be on the verge of banning it in its most deadly form. On Thursday, after testimony from three families who’d lost loved ones to it, a bipartisan and emotional committee of state lawmakers unanimously advanced HB24-1081.
Front Range residents who drive old cars that cannot pass Colorado’s emissions inspections could receive financial help for repairs if a bill before the state legislature is approved. The bill, SB24-095, would provide an $850 voucher that could be redeemed at qualified mechanics if a resident’s car or pickup truck could not pass the emissions inspection and the resident qualified for an economic hardship waiver — based on income and the age of the vehicle — through the Department of Motor Vehicles.
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