Colorado LegiSource

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

Author: olls

  • What are the non-partisan legislative service agencies?

    There are four non-partisan legislative service agencies:

    The Office of Legislative Legal Services
    The Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) is the non-partisan, in-house counsel for the Colorado General Assembly. The OLLS writes laws, produces statutes, reviews administrative rules, comments on initiated measures, and serves as a resource of legislative information for the public. Attorneys from the OLLS draft bills and amendments for legislators and provide legal counsel to the General Assembly as a body as well as to individual members with regard to legislative matters, such as open records act requests. The OLLS publications team edits, proofreads, and prepares the Colorado Revised Statutes and the Colorado Session Laws for publication each year.

    Legislative Council Staff
    The Legislative Council Staff (LCS) are the permanent research staff of the Colorado General Assembly, providing public policy research at the request of members. The LCS provides staff for most committees of the General Assembly, including interim committees, by scheduling and assisting with meetings and preparing meeting summaries, minutes, and reports. The LCS also includes economists who provide revenue and economic forecasting and fiscal analysts who write the fiscal notes for the bills. Prior to each general election, the LCS publishes the blue book that explains the initiatives that appear on the statewide ballots. In addition, the LCS operates the legislative library, develops and maintains the software and hardware for the computer system for the General Assembly and the legislative staff, and assists members in responding to constituent questions and requests.

    Joint Budget Committee Staff
    The General Assembly’s permanent fiscal and budget review agency, the Joint Budget Committee Staff (JBC Staff), writes the annual appropriations bill – called the Long Bill – for the operations of state government. The Joint Budget Committee Staff is charged with analyzing the management, operations, programs, and fiscal needs of the departments of state government and making recommendations to the members of the Joint Budget Committee as they build the state’s budget. The JBC Staff also assists the Joint Budget Committee in holding hearings during the interim and during the legislative session and in reviewing the executive budget requests for each state agency and institution. During the legislative session, the JBC staff prepares fiscal analyses and amendments, when necessary, for bills that are assigned to the House or Senate Appropriations committee and staffs the Appropriations Committees.

    State Auditor’s Office
    The State Auditor’s Office (SAO) seeks to hold state government agencies accountable through performance, financial, and information technology audits of all state departments, colleges, and universities. Audits focus on reducing costs; increasing efficiency; improving the quality of services; ensuring the accuracy and integrity of financial information; and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the state’s critical computer systems and taxpayer data. The SAO’s Local Government Audit Division tracks about 4,000 Colorado local governments for compliance with the local government audit law, which requires submission of an annual independent financial audit. The SAO staff submits its audit reports to the Legislative Audit Committee at regular meetings and assists in preparing legislation when requested by the Committee as the result of an audit report.

  • What is the difference between the session laws and the statutes?

    In short: The session laws reproduce each individual bill, as it passed, during a particular session. The statutes give you the Colorado Revised Statutes — the permanent, statutory law of the state — organized by subject matter title, article, part, and section.

    The session laws are the annual official compilation of legislation that is passed by both houses of the Colorado General Assembly and either signed by the Governor or allowed by the Governor to become law without his or her signature during a regular or special legislative session. Each year, the Office of Legislative Legal Services publishes the session laws for that year’s regular legislative session. If the General Assembly meets in special session, the Office will publish a separate set of session laws for each special session.

    The compilation of each legislative session’s laws includes bills that amend the Colorado Revised Statutes; appropriations bills that provide funding for various state agencies, institutions, and programs; and concurrent resolutions that propose amendments to the state constitution for voter approval. The session laws also include resolutions that express the will of one or both houses on a particular matter and memorials that honor a person who served in some public capacity and has passed away.

    If you want to find the full text of a bill — with the strike type and small caps — as the bill finally passed the legislature, or if you want to find out who sponsored a particular bill, you should look in the session laws for the legislative session in which the bill passed. The session laws are organized by chapter; each chapter is a separate bill. You will find a subject-matter index to each year’s session laws and a table of all the bills that passed during that session, organized by bill number, at the back of the final volume of session laws for the year you’re interested in.

    However, if you’re looking for the statutory law on a particular topic or you’re trying to find a particular section of statute, you should look in the Colorado Revised Statutes (sometimes referred to as the “red books”). This publication will show you the current, effective, statutory law of the state, including annotations of any Colorado or federal case that has interpreted the statutes.

  • When Can a Local Government Override State Law? Home Rule Cities in Colorado

    by Richard Sweetman

    Although the General Assembly exercises supreme authority over matters of statewide concern, a home rule municipality’s authority may be superior to that of the General Assembly with respect to local matters.

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  • Do I have to have an opposite house prime sponsor when my bill is introduced?

    No, you don’t need an opposite house prime sponsor when your bill is introduced.  You must, however, have an opposite house prime sponsor before your bill can pass on third reading in the house in which you serve.  So, before your bill is heard on third reading, talk with a member of the opposite house about being the second-house prime sponsor on your bill.  Once someone agrees, talk to the Chief Clerk of the House if you’re a representative, or to the Secretary of the Senate if you’re a senator, about the form you need to fill out.  After you turn the form in to the front desk of the house in which you serve, the front-desk staff will make sure that the opposite house prime sponsor’s name appears on the reengrossed version of your bill when it is introduced in the second house.

  • Verifiable Oddities in Colorado’s History — Microphone Scandal Rocks Colorado

    Governor Teller Ammons
    Governor Teller Ammons

    by Ashley Zimmerman

    Somehow, somewhere, in Colorado in 1937, the governor’s office appeared to have a mole problem.  The names of judicial and political appointees were being published in the Denver Post before the appointees had even been notified. Teller Ammons, the colorful and somewhat profane governor of the state, was upset and confused. Who could possibly be leaking his information to the press? (more…)

  • Can I ever introduce more than 5 bills?

    As you’re probably aware, Joint Rule 24 (b) (1) (A) allows a member of the General Assembly to introduce only five bills during a regular session of the legislature.  However, there are many circumstances under which you may be able to introduce more than just five bills.

    If you sponsor one or more interim committee bills, they will not count against the limit.  And, you can sponsor an interim committee bill even if you don’t actually serve on the interim committee.  But the bill must be approved by the Legislative Council before it can be introduced.  See Joint Rule 24 (b) (1) (D).

    Bills for appropriations and bills introduced by the audit committee, the joint budget committee, the capital development committee, the legislative council, the executive committee, the committee on legal services, the legislative emergency preparedness, response, and recovery committee, or the commission on uniform state laws also do not count against the bill limit.

    Also, each year certain committees of reference participate in the sunset review process.  Through this process, a committee reviews reports from the department of regulatory agencies concerning the continuation or repeal of state programs and advisory committees and the committee reviews certain statutory reporting requirements.  The committee then introduces bills to either continue or repeal the programs, advisory committees, or reporting requirements, and these bills do not count against the five-bill limit.

    Finally, you may seek permission for extra bills from the Committee on Delayed Bills for the house in which you serve.  In the House of Representatives, the Committee on Delayed Bills consists of the Speaker of the House and the majority and minority leaders.  In the Senate, it’s the President of the Senate and the majority and minority leaders.  To introduce more than five bills, you will need the signature of two of the three members of your delayed-bill committee.

  • From Free Speech to Immigration to Privacy — Supreme Courts Interpret Rights of State Legislatures

    by Michael Dohr

    Are you interested in the U.S. Constitution’s limits on the General Assembly’s authority or how the Colorado Supreme Court interprets our statutes?  For the last ten years, I have presented a program that covers the previous year’s cases from the U.S. and Colorado Supreme Courts focusing mostly on those themes.  Here are some of the highlights from this year; information on the complete program is at the end of this article. (more…)

  • Why is the title of a bill so important?

    The title of a bill provides notice to the public as to the contents of the bill.  Article V, section 21 of the State Constitution requires that a bill contain only one subject and that the subject be “clearly expressed in its title…”.  The title must also state the purpose of the bill.  This means the title must accurately reflect the substance of the bill without being so broad as to violate the Constitution’s single subject requirement.

    The bill title not only tells the public what’s in the bill, but it controls the amendments that may be added to the bill as it goes through the legislative process.  Because the title expresses the single subject and purpose of the bill, an amendment that would add a subject or language that is broader than the title would arguably add a second subject to the bill in violation of the single-subject requirement.  For this reason, the chairperson of the committee in which the amendment is offered may rule the amendment out of order.

    If a bill is introduced with a broad title, a legislator may offer an amendment to narrow the title so that it is more specific as to the provisions in the bill.  A legislator may also try to narrow a bill title in order to control the amendments that can be offered to the bill. Remember, however, that another legislator can offer an amendment at any time to broaden the title back to its introduced form.  So, tightening a title after a bill is introduced, with the goal of limiting the possible amendments, is unlikely to be successful, because another member may amend the title back to the introduced version to allow for his or her substantive amendment.

    A legislator may also try to amend a title to make it broader than the introduced version.  While there’s no actual rule that says a legislator cannot broaden an introduced title, by custom and practice these amendments are generally not allowed.  Logically, if the introduced bill title is a single subject, the effect of broadening it would be to allow for one or more additional subjects — a clear violation of the constitutional single-subject requirement.

  • Does the General Assembly have a set policy regarding public records and e-mail?

    Yes. In addition to the statutory requirements of the Colorado Open Records Act, the General Assembly has adopted specific policies related to public records and e-mail. These policies are available on the General Assembly’s website at the “Open Records Policy & Requests” link near the top of the left side of the page, and are attached here. The policies address issues such as how a person may submit an open records requests, how a person may have access to inspect public records, and what types of documents are considered public records. The policies also provide recommendations to legislators for classifying e-mails for retention or deletion. You may follow these recommendations or you may establish in writing your own system for classifying e-mails.

  • What is the OLLS’ role in the ballot initiative process?

    When a citizen proposes a ballot initiative, he or she must first submit it to the Legislative Council Staff (LCS). At that point, staff from both the OLLS and LCS review the measure and write a memo asking technical questions and substantive questions about the meaning of the initiative. The staff and the proponent then participate in a review-and-comment hearing, which is open to the public, at which they discuss the memo and allow the proponent to explain his or her initiative on the record. After the hearing, the proponent can submit the initiative to the Secretary of State’s office, or the proponent may make changes to the initiative and resubmit it to the LCS for another review and hearing.

    Although we review the proposed initiatives and may raise issues for the proponents to consider, the OLLS has no statutory authority to draft initiative measures for the proponents nor to edit, approve, or reject any initiated proposals.

    Sometimes legislators participate in the initiative process as proponents or as consultants to proponents. Because of the conflict of interest issues involved in having drafters prepare initiative language for legislators, the Committee on Legal Services has adopted a policy that a member of the General Assembly should not ask the OLLS staff to provide drafting assistance for an initiated measure. The OLLS does draft bills and concurrent resolutions that are introduced into the legislative process and that the General Assembly may ultimately refer to the voters.