Colorado LegiSource

An informational and educational resource for the Colorado General Assembly by the Office of Legislative Legal Services.

Month: December 2011

  • Can another member add my name as a sponsor on his or her bill without my permission?

    No. Your name will not go onto any bill unless the OLLS has received your permission to be added as a joint prime sponsor, an additional sponsor, or as the opposite house prime sponsor. The procedure for getting your permission is called “sponsor verification.” If the sponsor of a bill or a lobbyist tells the OLLS that you will sponsor the bill, you will most likely receive a call, an e-mail, or a personal visit form a member of the OLLS staff stating that the Office is trying to “verify” you as a sponsor on Member A’s bill. You are then free to say yes or no. Or, after you tell Member A or the lobbyist that you will be a sponsor on the bill, you can call or email the OLLS verifying that you will be a sponsor. After we confirm your sponsorship with Member A, we will add your name to the bill.

    You may ask to see a copy of the bill before you agree to become a sponsor. The OLLS will then get permission from Member A to give you a copy. If you still can’t decide whether to become a sponsor, you should probably talk directly with Member A.

  • To Prime or to Joint Prime

    by Patti Dahlberg

    Every introduced bill has at least one prime sponsor, but many bills introduced in the  Colorado General Assembly have joint prime (or co-prime) sponsors. There are many good reasons to either add a joint prime sponsor to a bill or to be added as a joint prime sponsor to a bill.

    In fact, there are enough good reasons for joint prime sponsorship that both the House and Senate changed their respective rules a few years ago to allow a legislator to sign on as a joint prime sponsor without first getting Leadership’s approval . . . so long as the bill does not need delayed bill approval. (more…)

  • OLLS Implementing Drafting Changes to Improve the Use of Present Tense, Active Voice, and Authority Verbs

    by Thomas Morris

    Open your statute book to any statutory section and you’re likely to find a sentence something like the following: “The fine shall be imposed by the court and shall be in the amount of one hundred dollars.” While it is in English, some may not consider it “plain” English. Starting with the bills drafted for the 2012 legislative session, the OLLS will focus more on using active voice and present tense and on correctly using authority verbs when drafting bills. (more…)

  • How can I find executive branch agency rules?

    Rules adopted by executive branch agencies, boards, and commissions can be found through the Secretary of State’s website. The Secretary of State maintains the Code of Colorado Regulations (CCR), which contains all executive branch rules adopted over the years. The link to the website is: http://www.sos.state.co.us/CCR/Welcome.do

    From that page, you can start a search for a rule. One way is to search by agency name. A link on this page directs you to a detailed listing of state agencies, from the Board of Accountancy to the Division of Youth Corrections. Use these links to delve deeper into the rules of the agency you’re interested in until you find the subject that you are looking for.

    You can also start on the site linked to above and use the “search” button on the top left of the page. On that page, you can search using keywords or using the CCR number for the rule if you happen to know it. A typical cite to a rule is in this format: 1 CCR 1101-5. It doesn’t really help to use the agency’s internal rule numbering system because this database relies on the CCR number.

    Another way to find agency rules is to go directly to the website of the agency you’re interested in. You may have to dig a while, but you can often — though not always — find a version of the agency’s rules on its own website. Often, these are in pdf form. In other instances, you will be linked back to the Secretary of State’s website for the CCR version of the rules.

  • How many days does it take to pass a bill?

    Section 22 of Article V of the Colorado constitution says that “no bill shall become a law except by a vote of the majority of all members elected to each house taken on two separate days in each house…” The requirement that a majority of all members of each house must vote for a bill on two separate days means that bills cannot be heard on second and third reading on the same day. A bill can be introduced, read on first reading, heard in committee, and then passed on second reading in the same (busy) day. This means it takes a minimum of two days for a bill to pass either the House or the Senate.

    This two-day minimum per house means that the minimum number of days for a bill to pass is three. A bill could be introduced in the House of Representatives on Day 1, and then sent to committee and to the floor for second reading later that day. However, the state constitution requires that third reading take place on Day 2. After the bill has passed the House, it may be introduced and sent to committee and then on to second reading in the Senate on Day 2. Final passage of the bill by the Senate on third reading and consideration of concurrence or appointment of a conference committee, if necessary, would have to wait until Day 3.

    So, the answer is a minimum of three days.

  • What Is Your Purpose?

    by Ed DeCecco

    What is your purpose? It’s a big question; one that can confound even the greatest of  thinkers. And it is a question that the attorney drafting your bill might be asking you soon. (more…)

  • Bill History is Out There – All You Need To Do Is Ask

    by Julie Pelegrin

    A constituent has just brought you a great idea for a bill. It’s such a great idea that you can’t believe someone hasn’t already introduced a bill on it. You put in your bill request, you introduce your bill, and then, just before you go into the committee room for your hearing, the committee chair warns you that the last three years this bill was introduced, it went down in flames. Obviously, this would have been good information to have much earlier in the process.

    Now, this information is available to you – all you have to do is ask your bill drafter.

    The Office of Legislative Legal Services has created a database of the long title and short title of every bill introduced since the 1999 legislative session. At a legislator’s request, a bill drafter will search this database to determine whether a bill has been introduced in the last 10 years that addresses the issue of your bill request. If the drafter doesn’t find any bills that appear to be on point with your request, you may ask the drafter to search further back.

    If the drafter does identify one or more bills that address your issue, he or she will provide you a history of each identified bill:  When it was introduced, the prime bill sponsors in both houses, what committees it was assigned to, whether it passed, and, if it didn’t, the stage at which it was defeated. The drafter will also provide to you a copy of the introduced version of the bill and the version it was in when it either passed or was defeated.

    You may request additional information concerning these identified bills, such as a copy of the summary of the committee hearings at which the bill was considered, copies of any amendments that the committees considered, copies of the committee reports, and copies of the journal pages for the days on which the bill was debated on second and third reading. You can even request a CD of the recorded committee hearing or floor debate if that would be helpful, but it may take the drafter some time to obtain the recording.

    We have to mention a couple of caveats with regard to these bill history searches. The drafter will obviously do his or her best to identify the bills that address the issue you’re interested in, but we cannot guarantee that the drafter will find every bill. The database is limited in that it contains only long and short titles, and the searches are limited in that they may or may not include the correct terms. So, a drafter may miss some bills when conducting the search.

    Also, there is some degree of subjectivity involved in interpreting the search results. A drafter may identify a previous bill that addresses an issue that is similar to one you’re considering, but the drafter may decide that it is not similar enough to be helpful or that the issue was one of several included in the bill, so the bill is not actually comparable to your bill. Also, the drafter may decide that an earlier bill addressed your issue in a manner that is so different from your approach that the earlier bill is not comparable. Your best practice is to discuss the search results with your drafter, regardless of whether the drafter identifies comparable bills.

    Obviously, if your bill drafter personally knows of a bill from an earlier session that is similar to the one you’re requesting, he or she will likely discuss that bill with you prior to drafting your bill.

  • What is the procedure for requesting an audit from the Office of the State Auditor?

    Anyone may request an audit and no specific form is required. However, to ensure the Office of the State Auditor receives the request, it is recommended that you address your  request to the State Auditor or to the State Auditor and the Chair of the Legislative Audit Committee.

    Although you don’t need to use a specific form or format to submit a request for an audit, your letter requesting the audit should state the program or function that is the subject of the request and the problem or reason giving rise to the request, as well as contact information.

    When the State Auditor receives audit requests from members of the General Assembly or the Governor, the Office conducts initial research on the topic and evaluates whether the Office has the authority to audit the area of interest. The Office also considers whether a similar audit has recently been performed in the area, whether the topic is a stand-alone audit or could be incorporated into an existing audit, and the resources and expertise required for the audit, among other things. The Office then presents this information to the Legislative Audit Committee and makes a recommendation to the Committee regarding the audit request. A majority of the Committee must vote to proceed with the request before the Office undertakes the audit.

    The Office of the State Auditor receives audit requests from many other sources as well, including state employees, local government officials, special interest and advocacy groups, and private citizens. While the Office of the State Auditor considers the audit requests it receives from sources other than members of the General Assembly or the Governor, it does not present them to the Legislative Audit Committee.  The Office may use the request for a discretionary audit, initiated by the State Auditor, or include it in an existing audit, but it does not take any public action regarding these requests.