Colorado Legislative Strategies Updates 3.4.22

​COLORADO LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES NEWSLETTER
 
March 4th, 2022

We are now 52 days into the legislative session and firmly in the season of false spring and repeat winter. After sub-zero temperatures last week, this week had beautiful weather in the 70’s; but of course there is a new snowstorm coming this weekend. However, the weather isn’t the only thing changing in Colorado. ​

​This week opened up with a new legislator being sworn in and updates to committee assignments in the Senate. On Monday morning, Nick Hinrichsen was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as the newest member of the Senate. Hinrichsen will serve on a single committee - Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Ag committee went from a 3-2 split to 4-3 to accommodate adding Hinrichsen. Cleave Simpson, a Republican, was also added to the committee. 
 
The changes did not stop there. Dominick Moreno was replaced on the Appropriations committee by Rachel Zenzinger. Joint Budget committee members always serve as the Chair and Vice-Chair for the Appropriations committees. Zenzinger, in a surprise move, will still retain a seat on the Education committee, although she will no longer be the Chair of the committee; that title will instead go to Jeff Bridges. Additionally, Bridges will take over as Vice-Chair of Transportation and Energy, while Zenzinger, Brittany Pettersen, and Don Coram come off the committee to make it a 3-2 split instead of 4-3.
 
Julie Gonzales also made significant moves, giving up her role as Chair of State, Veteran, and Military Affairs to take over as Chair of Finance. Faith Winter also moved up to Vice-Chair of Finance, while Brittany Pettersen, Jeff Bridges, and Ray Scott all came off the committee. The Finance committee went from a 4-3 split to 3-2. Finally, James Coleman and Sonya Jaquez Lewis moved into the Chair and Vice-Chair, respectively, for State Affairs and Pete Lee was also added to that committee. 
 
After the shakeup in Senate Leadership in the wake of Leroy Garcia announcing his resignation to take a job in Washington, Bridges and Gonzales were the ones with a chance of moving up that did not ultimately make it into the top ranks. Thus, it makes sense that they are the ones now taking the helm of the committees they want. 
 
Tuesday made news for things happening outside of the Capitol. Colorado is one of the few remaining states that still have a caucus process and those took place around the state (and online) on Tuesday night. With local precinct caucuses now the in the books attention will turn to county assemblies, which will take place in the next few weeks, and state assembly next month. Candidates need to achieve at least 30 percent support at each in order to have their name appear on the June primary ballot. Alternatively (or additionally) candidates can also collect enough signatures by March 15 to secure a spot on the primary ballot. Yep, it’s a lot, and this is just to get on the primary ballot. 
 
While we are on the topic of the upcoming Primary election, this week included a new lawsuit filed by a group of Colorado Republicans that seeks to prevent unaffiliated voters from participating in the June Primary. Controversial conservative attorney John Eastman, who authored infamous memos about how Donald Trump could subvert democracy and overturn the 2020 election, is the lead attorney on the case. Unaffiliated voters are by far the largest voting bloc in the state and voters passed the ballot measure allowing them to participate in primary elections in 2016. 
 
Colorado also made national news on Tuesday, but not in a good way. President Biden delivered the State of the Union address and our most controversial member of Congress was there to make a foolish ruckus. Towards the end of the speech, and at a particularly somber moment, Congresswoman Lauren Bobert decided it would be a good idea to stand up and yell out alongside Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. It wasn’t the first time, and probably won’t be the last time, that a member of the House would make an outburst like that, but it certainly is not a good look. 
 
Enough with the sideshows though, let’s get back to legislative news from the week. Several controversial bills went down this week. On Monday it was House Bill 1138, which sought to reduce employees driving to work. After hours of witness testimony and debate, the sponsor attempted to water down the bill so it could pass. However, business groups still said it went too far and environmental activists now didn’t think it went far enough. Ultimately, only the bill sponsor voted in favor of moving the bill forward and the bill died on a 1-9 vote. An alternative bill on the same topic, House Bill 1026, already moved out of its first committee and is pending in House Appropriations. 
 
On Tuesday, it was Senate Bill 136, which sought to reform special districts, that met the same fate. After heavy opposition from developers and those involved with special districts, the bill went down with again only the bill sponsor voting in favor. On Wednesday, it was a Republican bill, Senate Bill 41, which would have required cash bail for certain offenses, that went down on a party-line vote. 
 
This week also saw a trio of Republican bills on the topic of vaccines that went down. On Wednesday it was House Bill 1144, about naturally acquired immunity to COVID. On Thursday it was House Bill 1200 about employee exemptions and House Bill 1201about standards for immunization requirements. Each bill was voted down on a party-line vote. 
 
Finally, late at night on Thursday the most dramatic of this week’s indefinite postponements happened on Senate Bill 131. This was a proposal that would drastically change how the use of pesticides are regulated in the state. The most controversial component of the bill was language that would allow local governments to create their own set of regulations. Testimony took more than seven hours and when testimony was done it was apparent that the bill sponsors didn’t have the votes they needed to push the bill out of committee. Intense negotiations then occurred in the hall with stakeholders on both sides and tensions were running high when the committee resumed deliberation after the break. The bill sponsors chose to offer a strike below amendment that was not agreed to by both sides, so when it came time for the vote the bill failed by a huge margin, with only the sponsor voting in favor. Thus, the effort to drastically overhaul pesticide regulation came to a dramatic end.  
 
However, it wasn’t all controversial bills going down this week. Bipartisanship on good policy is not completely dead and House Bill 1041 is a good example from this week. The bill will prevent doxxing of health care workers and other employees. Previously, the bill passed the House with a 52-10 vote and on Friday the bill passed the Senate with a 23-9 vote. The bill now heads to Governor Polis for his signature. A little bit of good news to end the week!