Colorado LegiSource

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

Category: Ask OLLS

  • After my bill is delivered to the House or the Senate, how do I add sponsors?

    After you approve your bill draft for introduction, the OLLS will deliver it to the front desk of the House or the Senate or the OLLS will deliver it to the sergeants who will give the bill to you. Please do not contact the OLLS to add sponsors after your bill has been delivered to the front desk or to you.

    Sponsors
    If the sergeants deliver the bill to you, you will receive a copy of your bill stapled to a heavier sheet of green paper (if you’re a representative) or buff paper (if you’re a senator).  This is called a “bill back”. Also attached to the bill back are a sheet of paper with the name of each senator and one with the name of each representative. If you would like a representative or senator to sign on as a sponsor for your bill, ask that person to sign the attached paper next to his or her name. When you turn the bill back in to the front desk, the staff will include each person who has signed as a sponsor of your bill before the bill is sent to the printer, and the sponsor names will appear on the introduced version of the bill. Neither the House nor the Senate can add sponsors after your bill is sent to the printer.

    Prime sponsors
    If you want to designate your second-house prime sponsor after your bill is delivered upstairs, you must sign a form that formally designates the second-house prime sponsor before your bill passes on third reading. The form is available from the Chief Clerk of the  House, for representatives, or the Secretary of the Senate, for senators. If you sign the form and turn it in to the front desk with your bill back or before your bill goes to the printer, the front desk staff will add the second-house prime sponsor immediately, and his or her name will appear on the introduced version of your bill.

    After your bill is printed and introduced, anyone who wants to sign on as a co-sponsor will have an opportunity to do so on third reading.

  • The session is about to start – how much longer do I have to request my bills?

    Your first three bill requests, which are intended to meet the early bill introduction deadlines, had to be submitted by December 1, 2011. If you submitted only three bill requests at that time, you can request two more bills. You must submit these last two bill requests to the OLLS on or before Monday, January 16, 2012, unless the General Assembly decides that it will not meet on that day, since it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. If that happens, the deadline for submitting your last two bill requests to the OLLS is Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

    If you submitted four bill requests by December 1, you can submit one more request, but if you submitted five bill requests by December 1, you cannot submit any more bill requests unless you withdraw, or kill, one of the bill requests you already have in. If you have already requested more than three bills, and you have three bills that will meet the early introduction deadlines, you can replace up to two bill requests with new bill requests so long as you submit them to the OLLS on or before Monday, January 16, 2012, or Tuesday, January 17, 2012, if the General Assembly does not meet on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

  • 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.

  • 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 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • How do I get other members to sign on as sponsors of my bill prior to introduction?

    While your bill is still in the possession of the OLLS, any other member may let the Office know that he or she wants to be a sponsor on your bill.  The member can notify the OLLS in person, by phone, or in writing, including e-mail, and we will add his or her name to your bill.  Also, there are sponsor sheets available in the OLLS front office.  If you have other members initial this sheet and you return it to the OLLS, we will also add these members as sponsors.

    Once your bill is delivered to you by the sergeant-at-arms, you may have other members sign on as sponsors by having them sign their names on the sponsor sheet inside the back cover of your bill.  The names of all members that sign this sheet will be added to the bill before it is printed.  Remember that you can’t add sponsors to a bill this way if the bill is delivered directly to the front desk.

    As you may recall, one of your bills must be introduced on the first day of session.  Since the Office must deliver this bill directly to the front desk before the legislative session starts, you can only have other members sign on as sponsors of your first bill if, before we deliver your bill to the front desk, they drop by, call, or email the OLLS or you turn in an initialed sponsor sheet.