Colorado LegiSource

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

Month: December 2014

  • A Holiday Message

    Holiday Collage 2HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE OLLS!

    Holiday 5

  • The Publications Bill: A Little Bill with a Big Job

    by Nate Carr

    Each year a small, one-page bill works its way through the legislative process. It’s typically at the front of the legislative bill line, so to speak, and frequently has the honor of gracing the Governor’s desk before many of the other bills have even been heard in the first committee. This bill doesn’t trigger front-page headlines; it rarely, if ever, even makes the news. Why then, does this seemingly insignificant little bill get pushed through the legislative process so quickly?

    Well, this little bill has a big job – enacting the compilation of the state’s laws known as the Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.). Each year the Committee on Legal Services, the legislative committee responsible for overseeing the publication and printing of the Colorado Revised Statutes, sponsors this bill. It is formally titled as a bill Concerning the enactment of Colorado Revised Statutes [Year] as the positive and statutory law of the state of Colorado; however, it is commonly referred to as the “publications bill.” The publications bill enacts the official printed version of the C.R.S. as the positive and statutory law of the State of Colorado. But why is it necessary to enact the C.R.S. annually?

    2012 Colorado Revised Statutes/Photo by Ashley Zimmerman
    2012 Colorado Revised Statutes/Photo by Ashley Zimmerman

    The answer to that question requires some background information. Once the General Assembly adopts a bill, the enrolling room and the Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) prepare the bill in Act form for presentation to the Governor. Bills that the Governor signs, or that he does not veto, become law and are known as Acts. In the months following the adjournment of each legislative session, the OLLS staff, under the direction of the Revisor of Statutes, incorporates the newly enacted laws into the body of law published in the preceding year’s C.R.S. In addition, staff makes revision changes to correct nonsubstantive grammatical or punctuation errors, harmonizes conflicting bills, and adds voter-approved statutory changes. The Revisor also ensures that the C.R.S. are properly constructed, annotated, and indexed. The authority and guidelines that the Revisor follows to prepare the C.R.S. are located in articles 4 and 5 of title 2 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. Once the publications process is complete, the OLLS sends the data with the new, updated body of law to the state’s official contract printer who prints and distributes the updated sets of Colorado Revised Statutes.

    At the legislative session following the printing of the C.R.S., the General Assembly and the Governor move quickly to pass the publications bill. The bill does not change substantive law and may not be used as a vehicle to repeal or otherwise amend legislation enacted by a prior General Assembly or to amend a bill being considered during the same legislative session. Passage of the publications bill usually occurs within a few weeks after the start of the legislative session. Once enacted, the updated C.R.S., as printed by the state’s official contract printer, is deemed to have been properly collated, edited, revised, and constructed. The text of the newly updated C.R.S. becomes legal, irrefutable evidence of the state’s statutory law in a court of law. Without passage of the publications bill, provisions of the published C.R.S. are merely prima facie evidence of the statutory law that may be contradicted or rebutted by other evidence.

    Back to the question, why is it necessary to enact the C.R.S. annually? Enactment of the publications bill ensures that there is one, comprehensive body of primary statutory law for the state of Colorado on which courts and the public may rely. Without passage of the publications bill, all other bills would need to amend not only the last enacted version of the C.R.S., but also the Session Laws for each subsequent year in which a bill amends the same section of law. Eventually, it would become virtually impossible to know or understand what the statutory law of the state actually is. The publications bill may be a little bill, but it achieves a giant result!

  • Bill requests submitted? Then it’s time to decide the bill introduction order

    by Patti Dahlberg

    According to Joint Rule 24(b)(1)(A), each session a legislator is allowed five bill requests. These five requests are in addition to any appropriation, committee-approved, or sunset bills that a legislator may choose to carry. Seems simple, doesn’t it? Not so fast. To keep these five bill requests, a legislator’s requests must also meet specific bill introduction deadlines.

    Bill introduction deadlines:
    A legislator may forfeit a bill request if the bill does not meet specific introduction deadlines.* Before each session starts, a legislator must decide which one of his or her bill requests will be a prefile bill, which two will meet the early bill deadlines, and which two will meet the regular bill deadlines.

    1 plus 2 plus 2The prefile deadline is five days before session starts and usually falls on the Friday before the convening date of session. This year the prefile deadline is Friday, January 2, 2015. Each legislator must have one bill delivered to the front desk of the House or the Senate by this date or risk forfeiting a bill request.

    The remaining House and Senate early and regular bill introduction deadlines vary by chamber and are listed below:

    2015 Bill Intro deadlines

    Bill order
    A legislator’s “bill order” is the order in which his or her bills are introduced. Joint Rule 23 (a) indicates that a legislator should choose his or her prefile bill and two early bills from the three requests made by the December bill request deadline. But the rule also allows a legislator to choose a bill request submitted after the December request deadline to meet the early bill introduction deadlines.

    A legislator’s early bill requests are usually the first three bills the legislator introduces, because a bill submitted by the earliest request deadline is more likely to be further along in the drafting process than a bill request that’s submitted later. But sometimes an early bill request might be more complicated than expected. In this case, the legislator may choose a relatively simple “regular” bill request (i.e., a request submitted after the December deadline) to be one of his or her early bills; then the legislator has more time to work on the more complicated early bill request.

    The Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) encourages legislators to designate their prefile bill and early introduction bills (i.e., the bill order) as soon as possible so that the bill drafters can prioritize these bills to meet the early introduction deadlines. If the OLLS does not have a legislator’s bill order on record, they will contact the legislator for this information and will continue contacting the legislator until they get the information.

    * A legislator can ask for permission from the Committee on Delayed Bills to put in additional bill requests or to waive a specific bill introduction deadline to a different date.

    designate bill order

  • After the Bills Pass: The Importance of Legislative Oversight

    by Patti Dahlberg

    “Legislative oversight” generally refers to a legislature’s review and evaluation of selected activities, services, and operations and the general performance of the executive branch of government. The legislature exercises Oversight definitionthis oversight to ensure that the executive branch administers new and existing programs efficiently, effectively, and in a manner consistent with legislative intent. Oversight has long been the focus of certain legislative statutory committees and has also become a required part of the hearings and work of the standing committees of reference.

    According to a National Conference of State Legislatures article on the Separation of Powers – Legislative Oversight:

      • “Legislative oversight takes many forms. Most often, legislative standing committees are responsible for continuous review of the work of the state agencies in their subject areas. Legislatures also have created special committees or staff agencies designed specifically to evaluate agency operation and performance. In addition, legislatures may review (and sometimes, veto) the rules and regulations developed by executive agencies to implement law.”

    In Colorado, ongoing legislative oversight of state agencies occurs through the following methods:

    Committee on Legal Services – review of administrative rules – §24-4-103, C.R.S.
    The legislature’s review of administrative rules is one way in which the General Assembly exercises legislative oversight of the executive branch. A “rule” is a formal written statement of law that a state agency adopts to carry out statutory policies and administer programs. The General Assembly’s role in the rule-making process is in authorizing an agency to make rules and then reviewing and, if necessary, invalidating rules that are not within the agency’s statutory authority or that conflict with state law. The Committee on Legal Services exercises some of the General Assembly’s rulemaking oversight responsibilities by tracking legislation that requires the adoption of rules and notifying sponsors when required or authorized rules have been adopted and by annually introducing a bill that extends rules that are within the agencies’ statutory authority and allows rules to expire that are outside the agencies’ authority or that conflict with law. For more information on the rule review function of the legislature see “Legislative Oversight of State Agency Rule-making”.

    Joint Budget Committee – fiscal oversight of state budget and finances – §2-3-201, C.R.S.
    The Joint Budget Committee (JBC) is charged with analyzing the management, operations, programs, and fiscal needs of the departments of state government as part of creating a balanced budget, which the state Constitution requires. The Governor reviews the executive-branch budget requests, sets priorities for funding, and sends the executive-branch budget request to the JBC for consideration. The JBC reviews the Governor’s proposed budget and holds public hearings with each state agency and institution to discuss priorities and answer questions. Based on the information gathered in these hearings and other information provided by the JBC staff, the JBC drafts the annual general appropriations bill, which is introduced during the second half of each legislative session.

    Legislative Audit Committee – review of agency performance – §2-3-101, C.R.S.
    The Legislative Audit Committee (LAC) assists in overseeing state government by reviewing the audits that the State Auditor performs of all departments, institutions, and agencies of state government and of other public Auditagencies, as well as reviewing other reports the State Auditor may prepare. In addition, the LAC reviews a number of annual performance audits required by §2-7-204, C.R.S., and conducted by the State Auditor’s office. According to Wikipedia, “an independent examination of a program, function, operation or the management systems and procedures of a governmental or non-profit entity to assess whether the entity is achieving economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the employment of available resources.” Based on recommendations from the State Auditor, the LAC may introduce legislation to create or clarify statutes identified in the audit reports.

    Legislative oversight of principal departments – §2-7-101, C.R.S.
    Section 2-7-101, C.R.S., better known as the SMART Act,* requires each legislative joint committee of reference to conduct hearings with assigned executive-branch departments regarding each department’s performance plans, regulatory agendas, budget requests, and associated legislative agendas – before each session. The goal of these hearings is for legislators to get a better sense of what is going on in the executive branch by asking questions, making sure that the departments are implementing laws as expected, and learning about departments’ legislative agendas before the legislative session starts. The appropriate joint committee of reference is notified when a department does not complete state auditor recommendations in a timely manner and when a department does not adopt legislatively required or authorized rules. The JBC will also use the departments’ performance plans to help prioritize departments’ requests for new funding. For more information regarding the SMART Act, see “So you think you’re so SMART?”

    Sunset Review Process – review of regulatory agencies and functions – §§2-3-1203 and 24-34-104, C.R.S.
    A number of entities, functions, boards, and advisory committees within state government are scheduled to terminate each year due to statutory repeal or “sunset” provisions. Under the sunset process, the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) regularly reviews the functions of each state regulatory agency, division, or board, and each advisory committee, before its termination date, to determine whether the agency, division, board, or advisory committee should continue performing its functions with or without modifications. DORA issues a report to the General Assembly that a committee of reference reviews during the legislative session in a public hearing, which can include testimony from the program’s administrators and interested members of the public. The General Assembly must act by bill to continue the functions provided by an agency, division, board, or advisory committee. If the General Assembly does not act, the agency, division, or board goes into a one-year wind up period. If the General Assembly does not pass a bill to continue an advisory committee, the committee is repealed on the scheduled sunset date. For additional information regarding the sunset review process in Colorado see “The Sunset Process: Legislative Review of Regulatory Agencies and Functions” and “Sunset Reviews Conducted by Standing Committees”.

    * State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act