A veto override in the works, ‘junk fees’ bill signed into law and more from the Colorado legislature
The Colorado Senate voted Friday to override Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of a bill aimed at regulating social media -- the first step in a maneuver that, if successful, would be the first override in the state in more than a decade.
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Colorado lawmakers advance bill allowing chain-assist vendors to set up along highways to ease winter traffic
A Colorado bill aimed at fighting winter traffic jams and preventing crashes on Interstate 70 and other highways by letting private companies set up roadside tire chain stations is advancing in the state legislature.
Senate Bill 69, backed by Sens. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, and Marc Catlin, a Montrose Republican, passed the House Finance Committee Thursday after clearing the full Senate earlier. It’s headed next to the House Appropriations Committee.
The bill would allow the Colorado Department of Transportation to issue permits to service providers that could sell, install and remove tire chains for drivers of commercial trucks and passenger vehicles.
Colorado Senate votes to override Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of social media regulation bill
The Colorado Senate voted Friday to override Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of a bill aimed at regulating social media — the first step in a maneuver that, if successful, would be the first override in the state in more than a decade.
Senators voted 29-6 to override the veto the morning after Polis issued it. Senate Bill 86, if it becomes law, would require social media companies to promptly ban users who violate their terms of service, make annual reports to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and better cooperate with law enforcement.
The House will also need to vote to override Polis’ veto for it to be successful. The bill passed the General Assembly with sweeping bipartisan support earlier in the session. Backers say it will better protect Colorado’s children by removing predators and people who use social media platforms to sell drugs and guns; opponents warn it represents a worrying intrusion on First Amendment rights and amounts to a de facto deputization of social media companies by the state.
Colorado will cover abortion for Medicaid patients, state employees as Gov. Polis signs public funding law
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed two abortion-rights bills Thursday that will permit the use of public funding to cover the procedure and provide more protection for doctors and patients from out-of-state interference.
“Colorado is making sure that we are completely protecting the right to choose,” Polis said before signing the pieces of legislation into law. “At the federal level, we’re already seeing the government overreach threatening basic freedom when it comes to the most personal and private decisions.”
“That’s not the Colorado way,” he added.
One new law, passed by the legislature as Senate Bill 183, implements Amendment 79, passed by voters in November to establish a constitutional right to abortion in Colorado. It repealed an earlier provision in the state constitution that prohibited putting public funding toward abortion; now the new law requires abortion care coverage for Medicaid patients and Child Health Plan Plus program recipients using state money. Public employees’ insurance plans will also have to cover abortion care.
Colorado Senate rejects childhood sex abuse amendment — again. Advocates hope to put it on ballot anyway.
Colorado Senate Republicans have again stopped a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at eventually opening the door to civil claims brought by victims of decades-old childhood abuse.
Every member of the GOP on Thursday voted against Senate Concurrent Resolution 2. If passed, it would have put a constitutional amendment to voters asking them to allow future lawmakers to pass laws permitting victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring forward civil claims against their past abusers and any enabling institutions.
Its placement on the ballot required two-thirds support from both the Senate and the House. In the Senate, every Democrat plus one Republican would be necessary to meet that 24-vote threshold. It failed Thursday along party lines, 23-12.
This is the second year Republicans have united to stop the amendment from proceeding.
New Colorado law aims to find “forever homes” for dogs and cats used in health research
A new Colorado law will require health-related research facilities that use dogs and cats as test subjects to try adopting out the animals before euthanizing them.
Health-Related Research Test Subjects, or Senate Bill 85, was signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday.
“From now on, dogs and cats that are subjects to scientific research in Colorado will be valued for their service and given the opportunity to find a forever home,” Polis said in a statement.
The law requires facilities “to offer a dog or cat to an animal shelter or a pet animal rescue for the purpose of adoption before euthanizing the animal,” or to find them homes through an internal adoption program.
Uber says it may pull out of Colorado if ride-hailing safety bill passes
Rideshare giant Uber has dusted off a familiar threat in its bid to defeat an effort in the Colorado legislature to tighten oversight of ride-hailing drivers and increase riders’ safety.
If the bill were to pass, a company spokesperson said, it would put “the future of Uber in Colorado in jeopardy.” In a follow-up statement sent Wednesday, Uber further warned that it may “cease operations” in the state if the bill passes.
Uber made the initial threat in a statement to The Denver Post last week after House Bill 1291 passed the state House on an overwhelming 59-6 vote. The measure is backed by Rep. Jenny Willford, a lawmaker who said she was sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver last year.
The bill would require companies to conduct background checks on their drivers, both when a driver begins working for the company and then at least every six months after.
Prominent Colorado LGBTQ+ groups hedge on support for transgender rights bill
In early April, the political director of a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group urged state lawmakers to support legislation that would extend new legal protections to transgender Coloradans.
House Bill 1312, One Colorado’s Jax Gonzalez testified, was a show of solidarity for transgender people amid a “coordinated and escalating set of attacks” nationwide. The bill, they said, represented “one piece of an ongoing conversation about how we respond.”
“Not just with policy,” Gonzalez said, “but with principle.”
A little more than two weeks later, that support took a turn. Gonzalez told the bill’s supporters last week that One Colorado was hedging and would seek changes to the proposal, an advocate said. The group told The Denver Post that it had legal concerns and that it wanted to ensure the bill didn’t jeopardize “existing protections.”
Colorado bill would give new data centers big tax exemptions, but critics question if that’s necessary — or right
A bipartisan proposal intended to draw data centers to Colorado by offering massive 20-year tax breaks has faced a litany of criticisms stemming from the centers’ environmental impact — and questions about whether state incentives are necessary to attract an already-booming industry.
Senate Bill 280 would create a certification system that would grant tax incentives to data center builders if they meet certain benchmarks for investment and water and energy efficiency.
The Data Center Development and Grid Modernization Program would both draw lucrative development to the state and ensure that the additional energy use wouldn’t affect other electric customers, its sponsors said last week during the bill’s first committee hearing. They also noted that it would establish guardrails to minimize environmental impacts.
“Welcome to the future,” sponsor Sen. Paul Lundeen, an El Paso County Republican, said
Colorado Senate passes immigrant protection bill aimed at limiting enforcement actions in state
The Colorado Senate advanced a bill Monday that would expand protections for undocumented immigrants and limit where federal officials can enforce immigration law in the state.
If Senate Bill 276 becomes law, it would prohibit federal immigration authorities from entering non-public parts of detention facilities without a warrant; limit access to public child care centers, schools and health care facilities; expand the state’s prohibition on the disclosure of personal identifying information or immigration status; and prohibit the delay of an inmate’s release from custody because of an immigration detainer.
The measure would also prohibit other states from sending their National Guard units or other military units into Colorado without the governor’s approval or federal orders.
New Colorado ‘junk fees’ law signed by Polis will prohibit common apartment charges, require transparency
Colorado landlords will soon be prohibited from charging fees for pest control and common-area maintenance under a new pricing transparency law signed into law Monday by Gov. Jared Polis.
The new law, which passed the legislature as House Bill 1090, bans several fees common in rental housing, and it also generally requires companies to show the total price of the product or service they’re selling. That includes the price of the product and any mandatory charges and fees included. The total price must also be shown as one complete number in companies’ advertisements.
“I continue to think back to (an earlier legislative) hearing, and my constituents who came out to talk about the abuses they were experiencing in their apartment complexes — and the good that this bill is going to do for them,” Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, said Monday. She sponsored the bill with fellow Democrats Rep. Naquetta Ricks and Sens. Mike Weissman and Lisa Cutter. “This is a really important step forward for the state of Colorado to say ‘No more.’ ”
Colorado’s first-in-the-nation sperm donor rules just took effect. Now lawmakers may roll some back.
Three months after Colorado’s first-of-its-kind sperm donor regulations went into effect, state lawmakers are weighing whether to unwind some of those requirements amid concerns that the new rules have chilled donations for would-be parents who need them.
But the proposal, House Bill 1259, is opposed by the former legislator who sponsored the regulatory law back in 2022, as well as by a coalition of people conceived with donated sperm and eggs. They have accused the bill’s supporters of seeking to deregulate a multibillion-dollar industry that, they contend, needs tight oversight.
The bill — which also would explicitly enshrine protections for in vitro fertilization, or IVF, in state law — comes at a time of upheaval and broad anxiety about the state of reproductive health care in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning national abortion protections. It has pit advocates — and one large industry player — who want to make fertility treatment as accessible as possible against a community of people who say they’re living reminders of why regulation is vital.
Immigration bill, childhood sexual abuse amendment and veto override up in Colorado legislature this week
With just over two weeks to go in the 120-day Colorado legislative session, lawmakers are looking to push forward proposals that would increase protections for undocumented immigrants, study a statewide universal health care system and, possibly, result in the first veto override of Gov. Jared Polis’ tenure.
On Monday, the Senate is planning to take a formal vote on Senate Bill 276, a proposal to expand protections for undocumented immigrants and limit where federal authorities can operate in the state. Assuming it passes in the Democrat-controlled chamber, it will still need to pass a House committee vote and full floor votes in the second chamber before it goes to Polis for consideration.
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