An informational and educational resource for the Colorado General Assembly by the Office of Legislative Legal Services.
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…)
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.
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.
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…)
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.
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.
by Patti Dahlberg
For most people, December means holidays, lots of food, and maybe a little snow here and there. For Colorado state legislators, the “D” in December marks the beginning of the many legislative deadlines driving us into and through the next legislative session. It all starts at the beginning of the month with that very important December 1 bill request deadline. (more…)
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.
by Chuck Brackney and Bart Miller
You may first encounter the Colorado Open Records Act, or CORA (section 24-72-200.1, et seq., C.R.S.), as an unfamiliar e-mail in your inbox. The message may come from someone you’ve never met or even heard of, and it may contain a rather startling request for copies of “all e-mails sent or received by Representative Smith, as well as all telephone records, for the period January 1 to May 1, 2012.” Believe it or not, all of these records of communications are potentially subject to release in response to an open records request. (more…)
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.