Colorado Legislative Strategies Updates 4.23.22

COLORADO LEGISLATIVE STRATEGIES NEWSLETTER 
April 23, 2022

​This was an action-packed week at the Capitol. It had everything going on, from wild committee hearings, to long floor debates, and even included a legislator getting arrested. Plus there was a ton of stuff going on in and around the Capitol this week. 
 
On Friday the Capitol was full of people and animals. Not only was it Earth Day and Homeschool Day at the Capitol (there were so, so many kids) but it was also the annual Denver Zoo Day at the Capitol, so the building was even more of a zoo than usual. On Thursday it was the annual Sportsman Day at the Capitol, including all the burgers, hotdogs, and rocky mountain oysters you can eat. On Wednesday it wasn’t an event at the Capitol, but right across the street in Civic Center Park was the big 420 festival and all the sights, sounds, and smells that came along with it.

​The week started off on Monday with a committee hearing that featured dueling testimony from Secretary of State Jena Griswold and firebrand Tina Peters, who is a candidate for Secretary of State and the current County Clerk for Mesa County. Peters is also under indictment for felony election offenses (among other legal troubles) and is one of the most prominent deniers of the 2020 election and good buddies with the “MyPillow guy” to boot. So it was a lively show in the House State Affairs Committee over Senate Bill 153. The bill seeks to increase internal election security measures and includes a provision to prohibit a person from serving as an election official if they have been convicted of certain crimes, which many see as a direct response to the whole Tina Peters situation. Peters claimed in her testimony the bill is a power grab and an effort to keep her from running for Secretary of State. The committee passed the bill on a party-line vote and it is now pending in Appropriations before going to the House floor for what is sure to be a must-watch debate. 
 
It’s tough to top thousands of people smoking weed in the park or a wild committee about 2020 election conspiracies, but the most salacious news of the week broke on Friday morning. Representative Matt Gray was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence on Thursday evening. Harkening back to the way the press treated President Kennedy’s affairs, it has been an open secret in the Capitol for some time now that Representative Gray is struggling with alcoholism which Speaker Garnett confirmed in the press after news of the arrest was public. It is unclear if or when Representative Gray will return to the Capitol this session. It is also unclear if this will impact the next election in any way; Representative Gray is currently running for his fourth and final term in the House for the Broomfield area district. Whatever happens, we wish him the best as he goes through this difficult time. 
 
Aside from all of the tabloid-style news from this week, there was also a lot of legislative news. On Monday, Governor Polis and legislators announced a new three-bill package that will allocate $200 million to confront the homeless crisis. The bills will draw from the remaining federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan and will fund $105 million to create a statewide grant program funding homeless services and $95 million to build two homeless recovery campuses. 
 
Governor Polis and legislators also had two additional press conferences this week. On Thursday it was about COVID readiness moving forward and Friday it was about wildfire response and recovery. All of these new legislative proposals will need to pass in the next two and a half weeks before the end of the session. 
 
When something is a priority, and especially if it isn’t too controversial, it can honestly pass in just three days. The only rule is that the second and third readings can’t happen on the same day. So day one is introduction in the first chamber, committee, and second reading; day two is third reading, introduction in the second chamber, committee, and second reading; day three is third reading and back to the first chamber to approve any changes in the second chamber, and then it’s to the Governor to be signed into law. 
 
So even though we are down to just a fortnight (two weeks) and a few days left total and probably only a baker’s dozen working days, there is still plenty of time for many bills to pass, even those that are still just being introduced. 
 
However, that process as short as three days doesn’t really apply to the big controversial bills. Those bills can eat up so much time, and with just days left can begin to create a logjam on the legislative calendar. A common saying is that the majority gets their way but the minority gets their say. That’s why the House stayed late on Friday night to get through the debate on some bills with a lot of opposition, and throughout the week threatened to come in for more work on Saturday. 
 
It was fentanyl Friday in the House as House Bill 1326 was up in Appropriations in the morning and debated on the House floor all afternoon and evening. After hours and hours of attempts to make all possession of fentanyl a felony, Speaker Garnett was successful in keeping the smallest possession a misdemeanor. Amendments were also added to sunset the felony possession section and make the felony offense eligible to “wobble” down to a misdemeanor under certain circumstances. While penalties for possession dominated the debate, the bill also includes important provisions for harm reduction and saving lives with more access to overdose reversal medication Narcan. 
 
After the long fentanyl debate, the House turned to House Bill 1287 about imposing rent control and other onerous provisions on the mobile home industry. After intense lobbying on the negative economic consequences of rent control and the potential loss of the best source of unsubsidized affordable housing from the extreme rent control provisions, that part of the bill came out but not without some fireworks (and waterworks). The bill sponsors accused the Governor of “ripping the heart out of the bill” after the Governor said he would veto such an extreme imposition of rent control. One legislator that was a proponent was even brought to tears over the prospect of losing rent control. 
 
Expect the long debates and maybe even the tears to continue as activists and proponents of controversial bills realize maybe they can’t have absolutely everything they could have even wanted. The collective bargaining fight will be interesting in the final days; the bill was expected to drop on Friday but still has not yet been introduced. That bill draft started as labor’s dream with all public sector workers included, then cities and special districts came out, then higher education came out, and now the bill will likely only target counties. But without provisions allowing strikes, some in labor might even be opposing the bill if it ever comes. 
 
Additionally, air quality legislation will continue to be a top focus of debate with the controversial air toxins bill (House Bill 1244) currently stalled in the House Appropriations Committee. Also lurking in the shadows is another controversial proposal from Representative Bernett that hasn’t been introduced yet. That proposal aims to increase public involvement and transparency in the State Implementation Plan (commonly referred to as the SIP). The sponsor held the bill close and hasn’t widely shared it but a draft was accidentally released and caused much concern that the actual outcome of the proposal would be the total shutdown of any permitted activity in the state if there was even the slight chance of cumulative impacts from said activity. 
 
Just two and a half weeks left and still a lot of legislating left - buckle up it’s going to be a wild ride to the finish. 
 
Have a good weekend, at least what’s left of it.