Under the Dome – Week 2

Highlights of the Week

On Monday, January 16th the Colorado General Assembly observed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday after commemorating the holiday on the floor in both chambers last Friday. Tuesday, Governor Polis presented his State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly. Due to the weather on Tuesday evening through the day on Wednesday, the legislature was closed on Wednesday.

SMART Act hearings continued this week with Joint Transportation and Local Government, Joint
Judiciary, Joint Finance, and Joint State, Veterans, and Military Affairs. Similarly, the Joint Budget
Committee continued their work, moving forward with consideration of supplemental requests, starting
the work of approving supplementals for the current 2022-23 budget year.

Additional bills were introduced this week, bringing the total bills this legislative session to 159. Of
note, HB23-1071 Licensed Psychologist Prescriptive Authority, a bi-partisan bill that would allow
psychologists with additional education and training to prescribe psychotropic medication,
garnered media attention with its introduction. This week, HB23-1091 Continuation Of Child Care
Contribution Tax Credit, was introduced with support from early childhood education and childcare
advocates.

The majority caucuses have introduced a number of bills relating to employee protections and benefits.
For example, SB23-058 Job Application Fairness Act prohibits employers from inquiring about a
prospective employee’s age, date of birth, and dates of attendance at or date of graduation from an
educational institution on an employment application. Others relate to expanding or making
modifications to existing programs like SB23-046 Average Weekly Wage Paid Leave Benefits and SB23-
017 Additional Uses Paid Sick Leave.

Next week committees of reference will begin hearing bills. SB23-016, Greenhouse Gas Emission
Reduction Measures, a multi-pronged approach to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is scheduled to be
heard in Senate Transportation and Energy on Wednesday. On Friday the Interim Committee on School
Finance, the committee tasked with considering changes to the School Finance Formula, how the state
funds public education across the state, will meet for consideration of a bill draft regarding special
education.

The vacancy committee for HD12 has been scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 28th.