Colorado LegiSource

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

Category: Legislative Process

  • When Does an Act Become a Law? It depends.

    Editor’s note: This article was originally written by Julie Pelegrin and Patti Dahlberg and posted on March 20, 2015. This version has been updated where appropriate.

    Section 19 of article V of the state constitution specifies that an act takes effect “on the date stated in the act, or, if no date is stated in the act, then on its passage.” This seems simple enough. But there are other considerations and constitutional provisions that can affect when a bill eventually becomes law. To determine the date that a bill becomes law, you will need to read the last few sections of the bill to find the appropriate “clause.”

    Effective date clauses:

    It is common practice for a bill to state that it takes effect on a specific date, which may be several weeks or months after adjournment of the legislative session. This interval of time between the date that the bill is signed into law and the specified effective date allows state agencies, local governments, courts, and citizens to learn of the new law and make any required adjustments to comply with the new law. A typical effective date clause looks like this:

    SECTION 20. Effective date. This act takes effect July 1, 2025.

    Applicability clauses:

    An applicability clause specifies that the new law will apply to certain events or transactions that occur on or after the effective date. An applicability clause can be used with either an effective date clause or a safety clause (see below). Applicability clauses are frequently used in criminal laws and other acts concerning contracts, contractual relationships, or court proceedings. The following are some common applicability sections:

    SECTION 81. Effective date – applicability. This act takes effect November 1, 2025, and applies to offenses committed on or after said date.

    Or

    SECTION 25. Applicability. This act takes effect upon passage and applies to fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2025. (Note: This applicability clause must be accompanied by a safety clause.)

    Safety Clauses and 90-day Petition Clauses:

    Section 19 of article V of the state constitution says that a bill takes effect upon passage if it doesn’t specify an effective date. But section 1 of article V of the state constitution says that the people reserve to themselves the power to approve or reject at the polls all or any portion of an act passed by the General Assembly – generally referred to as the “referendum power.” To refer an act to the ballot, a citizen must submit a petition to the Secretary of State within 90 days after the General Assembly adjourns the legislative session.

    Section 1 of article V also says that the people cannot refer an act to the ballot if the act is “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety….” To clearly identify an act that is not subject to the referendum power, the General Assembly will include in the act a safety clause:

    SECTION 17. Safety clause. The general assembly hereby finds, determines, and declares that this act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety or for appropriations for the support and maintenance of the departments of the state and state institutions.

    If an act includes a safety clause, section 11 of article IV of the state constitution determines the date of passage. This section requires that every bill be presented to the Governor for approval or veto. A bill becomes law when signed by the Governor, when the Governor fails to act on the bill within the time allowed, or, in the case of a vetoed bill, when the General Assembly overrides the Governor’s veto.

    In the vast majority of cases involving a safety clause, the date of passage is the date of the Governor’s signature. For those bills that the Governor does not sign or veto, the date of passage is the day following the final date for the Governor to act on the bill. If the Governor vetoes a bill and the General Assembly overrides the veto, the date of passage is the date on which the second house passes the veto override motion.

    The Colorado courts have held that the General Assembly is vested with the exclusive power to decide the appropriateness of using the safety clause. The question of including the safety clause in legislation is a matter of debate in the legislative process, and the courts will not review or question the General Assembly’s decision.

    If the General Assembly decides a bill is not necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, it doesn’t make sense for it to pass without a specified effective date and take effect upon passage only to have its effectiveness questioned 90 days later when a citizen turns in a petition to put the act on the ballot. To avoid this, in each bill that does not have a safety clause, the General Assembly includes a “90-day petition” clause. This clause is really a specialized type of effective date clause. The standard 90-day petition clause reads as follows:

    SECTION 33. Act subject to petition – effective date. This act takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on the day following the expiration of the ninety-day period after final adjournment of the general assembly; except that, if a referendum petition is filed pursuant to section 1 (3) of article V of the state constitution against this act or an item, section, or part of this act within such period, then the act, item, section, or part will not take effect unless approved by the people at the general election to be held in November [next general election year] and, in such case, will take effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by the governor.

    Bills usually default to the effective date specified in the 90-day petition clause, but they may have a different specified effective date, which must be later than 90 days after adjournment. In some cases, this date is many months into the future, sometimes even into the next year.

    Fun Facts About Referendums:

    • The General Assembly can refer an act or part of an act to the people by substituting a referendum clause in place of the safety clause or 90-day petition clause. The bill then becomes a “referred bill,” and it is not subject to the Governor’s veto power.
    • The procedure by which the people can refer to themselves an act or part of an act passed by the General Assembly is often called a “recision referendum” or an “initiated referendum.”
    • According to General Assembly records, the last act that was referred to the ballot by petition of the people was in 1932. The act increased the tax on oleomargarine – and it was affirmed by the voters.
    • Appropriation acts for the support and maintenance of the departments of state and state institutions are not referable either by petition of the people or by an act of the General Assembly, even if the acts do not contain the safety clause.
  • Session Deadlines Reminder: They Have Changed

    Session Deadlines Reminder: They Have Changed

    by Michael Dohr

    For a casual observer of the Colorado General Assembly, the process may seem chaotic and disorganized, and seasoned veterans of the General Assembly can attest to the chaos and uncertainty. But behind the constant hive of activity, there are rules intended to keep the General Assembly on track to sine die. Those rules include deadlines that determine when bills must be requested, introduced, heard in committee, considered on the floor, and ultimately passed. Did you know those deadlines changed in the 2024 session?

    During the 2024 session, the General Assembly adopted SJR 24-001, Changes to the Deadline Schedule. Prior to 2024, the deadlines had not changed for decades, but the way the General Assembly operates has changed, and the former deadlines became a mismatch for the current General Assembly. One of the most notable changes in the General Assembly’s operation was the introduction of SMART act hearings at which the committees of reference hear presentations from the departments and agencies that each committee oversees and from stakeholders that frequently appear before the committee.

    From 2014 to 2019, the SMART act hearings were held in December before a new session would begin. Since 2020, the SMART act hearings have been held during the first two weeks of session. The result was the General Assembly was usually not hearing bills when SMART act hearings were conducted. But according to the old deadlines, three-fifths of the bills were supposed to be introduced by the seventh day of session. That meant there were a lot of introduced bills, but no committees to hear them. It also meant that a lot of bills received introduction deadline extensions. SJR 24-001 aimed to change that.

    SJR 24-001 changed the deadlines for when bills needed to be introduced. Each session, each member may introduce five bills unless granted additional bills. The five bills are designated as 1 prefile bill, 2 early bills, and 2 regular bills. This chart shows how the introduction deadlines changed.

     Old DeadlineNew Deadline
    Prefile BillDay 1Day 1
    Senate 2 Early BillsDay 3Day 10
    House 2 Early BillsDay 7Day 17
    Senate 2 Regular BillsDay 17Day 24
    House 2 Regular BillsDay 22Day 31

    The changes resulted in spreading out the introduction of early and regular bills to four consecutive Fridays with all the bills introduced within the first month of session. The previous deadline schedule was more compact with all the bills introduced within almost the first three weeks and had some deadlines within the same week. The change in the deadlines in 2024 gave members and Office of Legislative Legal Service attorneys more time to work on the bills before introduction, which resulted in more bills being introduced within the deadlines and fewer deadline extensions being granted.

    With later introduction deadlines, the deadlines for committees to hear bills and for bills to be considered on the floor had to change as well. For example, the deadline for committees to hear bills in the first house, other than the appropriations committee, was extended 15 days. Correspondingly, the time for each house to pass its bills on the floor was extended by 16 days.

    With all the changes, you may wonder if any of the deadlines stayed the same. Some did. The deadlines for submitting bill requests and the deadlines related to the introduction, consideration, and passage of the long bill did not change. The deadline to request and introduce resolutions and memorials also remained the same. The bill to fund public schools also still must be passed by the 101st legislative day.

    With fewer individual deadline extensions needed in 2024, it appears SJR 24-001 resulted in a bit of a smoother session. We will see in the coming sessions whether the deadline changes result in a more serene 120 days of legislative activity.

    Click here for the deadline schedule for the 2025 Colorado General Assembly.

  • What’s So Special About a Special Session?

    Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on May 10, 2012, and has been updated with information pertaining to the upcoming special session commencing August 26, 2024.

    The Governor issued an executive order calling the General Assembly into a legislative special session. At this point, many legislators and other people may be wondering what, exactly, is a special session and how does it work?

    The most obvious things that are different about a special legislative session are:

    1. The General Assembly is in session even though the regular, 120-day legislative session has ended, and they can remain in session as long as they choose to do so; and
    2. The General Assembly is limited to addressing only certain subjects while meeting in special session.

    Governor’s Authority: Article IV, section 9 of the Colorado constitution authorizes the Governor to convene the General Assembly “on extraordinary occasions” by a proclamation, known as “the call,” that specifies the purposes for which the General Assembly is to convene. The only business the General Assembly may transact during the special session is the business the Governor specifically identifies in the call. The Governor decides what is an extraordinary occasion and sets the agenda of issues that the General Assembly may consider. The Governor’s call also sets the date and time at which the special session must begin.

    The Governor’s call for the Second Extraordinary Session of the Seventy-Fourth General Assembly directs the General Assembly to convene in special session at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 26, 2024. It designates that the General Assembly consider  legislative action and funding for the following: “Concerning property taxes starting with the property tax year commencing on January 1, 2025.”

    Agenda Items: The Governor sets the agenda items, but the Colorado Supreme Court has held that he cannot prescribe the specific form of legislation; he cannot describe the agenda items so narrowly that the General Assembly is forced, in the words of the Court, “to do the bidding of the governor, or not act at all.” The General Assembly decides whether to enact legislation to address the agenda items and, if enacted, how the legislation will address the agenda items.

    It is the advice of the Office of Legislative Legal Services that the question of whether a bill or resolution fits within the agenda items is a substantive, not a procedural, question and cannot be decided by a ruling of the chair of a committee or by a ruling of the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Similar to deciding whether a bill is constitutional, the Senate and the House of Representatives decide whether a bill fits within the agenda items when they vote on the bill or resolution.

    Timing: Although the General Assembly must convene on the date and time specified in the call, the General Assembly need not pass, nor even consider, any legislation while in special session, and the General Assembly decides how long the session will last. The Governor may not set a date by which the General Assembly must adjourn.

    General Assembly’s Authority: During a special session, the General Assembly retains its full plenary authority, other than being limited to considering only the agenda items. The General Assembly may convene and, after establishing the presence of a quorum, immediately adjourn. The General Assembly may consider but refuse to pass any legislation during a special session, or it may pass one or more bills that address one or more of the agenda items on the Governor’s call. The Governor has no authority to either force the General Assembly to stay in session or force the General Assembly to adjourn.

    Rules and Procedure: Although the agenda is limited, a special session operates under the same constitutional requirements and legislative rules, other than the deadline schedule, that apply during a regular session:

    • Each bill must have a single subject;
    • Each introduced bill must be assigned to a committee and receive consideration and a vote on the merits; and
    • The vote on second reading and the vote on third reading must occur on different calendar days, so it still takes at least three days to pass a bill.

    All of the legislative rules with regard to committees and the operations of the Senate and the House that apply in a regular legislative session also apply in a special legislation session. If you have additional questions about how the General Assembly operates during a special session, please consult the special session FAQ memo available on the Office of Legislative Legal Services website

  • What’s So Special About a Special Session?

    Editor’s note: This article was originally posted on May 10, 2012, and has been updated with information pertaining to the upcoming special session commencing November 17, 2023.

    The Governor recently issued an executive order calling the General Assembly into a legislative special session. At this point, many legislators and other people may be wondering what, exactly, is a special session and how does it work?

    The most obvious things that are different about a special legislative session are:

    1. The General Assembly is in session even though the regular, 120-day legislative session has ended, and they can remain in session as long as they choose to do so; and
    2. The General Assembly is limited to addressing only certain subjects while meeting in special session.

    Governor’s Authority: Article IV, section 9 of the Colorado constitution authorizes the Governor to convene the General Assembly “on extraordinary occasions” by a proclamation, known as “the call,” that specifies the purposes for which the General Assembly is to convene. The only business the General Assembly may transact during the special session is the business the Governor specifically identifies in the call. The Governor decides what is an extraordinary occasion and sets the agenda of issues that the General Assembly may consider. The Governor’s call also sets the date and time at which the special session must begin.

    The Governor’s recent call and subsequent amendments to the call, direct the General Assembly to convene in special session at 9:00 a.m. on November 17, 2023. The Governor has identified several issues that the General Assembly may consider, mostly related to addressing the effects of Colorado’s rising home values and corresponding increases in property tax bills to provide relief to those affected by the steep rise in in the cost of living:

    • Concerning a property tax relief package to reduce Coloradans’ property tax burden in 2023;
    • Concerning the fiscal impact of the tax relief package on the interests of schools and local governments that are funded with property tax potentially utilizing reserves, TABOR surplus, and general fund;
    • Concerning necessary administrative changes attributed to the tax relief package only for 2023;
    • Concerning TABOR refund mechanisms only for the 2022-2023 fiscal year;
    • Concerning rental assistance only during the 2023-2024 fiscal year;
    • Concerning adjustments to the Earned Income Tax Credit only for the 2023 tax year, utilizing resources available from the 2022-2023 fiscal year;
    • Concerning the creation of a process to review and make recommendations on long-term-property relief; and
    • Concerning the nutrition of over 300,000 food-insecure Colorado children during the summer months by establishing departmental authority to authorize the Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer program in Colorado beginning in summer 2024.

    Agenda Items: The Governor sets the agenda items, but the Colorado Supreme Court has held that he cannot prescribe the specific form of legislation; he cannot describe the agenda items so narrowly that the General Assembly is forced, in the words of the Court, “to do the bidding of the governor, or not act at all.” The General Assembly decides whether to enact legislation to address the agenda items and, if enacted, how the legislation will address the agenda items.

    It is the advice of the Office of Legislative Legal Services that the question of whether a bill or resolution fits within the agenda items is a substantive, not a procedural, question and cannot be decided by a ruling of the chair of a committee or by a ruling of the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Similar to deciding whether a bill is constitutional, the Senate and the House of Representatives decide whether a bill fits within the agenda items when they vote on the bill or resolution.

    Timing: Although the General Assembly must convene on the date and time specified in the call, the General Assembly need not pass, nor even consider, any legislation while in special session, and the General Assembly decides how long the session will last. The Governor may not set a date by which the General Assembly must adjourn.

    General Assembly’s Authority: During a special session, the General Assembly retains its full plenary authority, other than being limited to considering only the agenda items. The General Assembly may convene and, after establishing the presence of a quorum, immediately adjourn. The General Assembly may consider but refuse to pass any legislation during a special session, or it may pass one or more bills that address one or more of the agenda items on the Governor’s call. The Governor has no authority to either force the General Assembly to stay in session or force the General Assembly to adjourn.

    Rules and Procedure: Although the agenda is limited, a special session operates under the same constitutional requirements and legislative rules, other than the deadline schedule, that apply during a regular session:

    • Each bill must have a single subject;
    • Each introduced bill must be assigned to a committee and receive consideration and a vote on the merits; and
    • The vote on second reading and the vote on third reading must occur on different calendar days, so it still takes at least three days to pass a bill.

    All of the legislative rules with regard to committees and the operations of the Senate and the House that apply in a regular legislative session also apply in a special legislation session. If you have additional questions about how the General Assembly operates during a special session, please consult the special session FAQ memo available on the Office of Legislative Legal Services website

  • Amendment Clerks: Who Are They and What Do They Do?

    by Faith Marcovecchio

    It’s Friday morning, and the Committee of the Whole is hearing the second reading of bills. As you glance at the next bill up, you realize you need an amendment. Quick—to the amendment clerk!

    But what is the amendment clerk?

    You’ll find this helpful person at the front of each chamber, at a small desk to the left of the dais. The amendment clerk is a nonpartisan staff member who can, in consultation with the drafter of the bill, draft quick, nonsubstantial amendments for members during second or third readings.

    In Colorado, the amendment clerk is an employee of the Office of Legislative Legal Services and can be either an attorney or a legislative editor who has other drafting and editing responsibilities. In other states, the position is similarly filled by an attorney from the state legislature’s drafting office, but amendment clerking is that attorney’s primary responsibility during session, not something he or she does in addition to drafting bills. And then there are states where floor amendments are drafted exclusively by the bill’s drafter—there is no amendment clerk at all.

    The Office of Legislative Legal Services took over staffing the amendment clerk desk in 1999. Previous to that, part-time House and Senate staff filled this role. However, it made sense for year-round staffers who were already drafting and editing legislation to also sit in this hot seat because of their understanding of the Colorado Revised Statutes and the General Assembly’s procedures, drafting style, and software.

    The amendment clerk desk can be a hive of activity during debate of complex or controversial bills, with legislators and staff vying for the amendment clerk’s time to draft member amendments, contact bill drafters, prepare Committee of the Whole amendments, or contact an attorney to clarify rules. It may be necessary, at times, for the amendment clerk to prioritize requests from legislators. For example, during second reading, the amendment clerk must prepare second reading amendments before Committee of the Whole amendments.

    With so many people tugging at the amendment clerk’s sleeve, there are several things legislators can do to get what they need from the amendment clerk in a timely fashion. If at all possible, members should contact the drafter of bill before the bill is on second reading to request and discuss the amendment. When making an amendment request on the floor during debate, members should provide as much time as possible for the drafter of the bill and the amendment clerk to prepare the amendment to ensure that the language and law are accurate. If there isn’t enough time, members may need to request a short recess while the amendment is being prepared. Another option to allow for the proper time to draft floor amendments, especially when multiple floor amendments are in play, is to ask the Majority Leader to lay the bill over until later in the day’s calendar or a later date.

    Beyond drafting short amendments, amendment clerks can assist members in several other ways. Need to speak to your drafter about a more complex amendment to a bill? The amendment clerk can quickly connect you to the attorney in question. Need a copy of one your bills? The clerk can print one for you. Wondering about particular language in existing statute or legislative rule? The clerk has the full Colorado Revised Statutes and legislative rules on hand and can look up what you need, provided it’s not too extensive. And throughout the proceedings, the amendment clerk is communicating what is happening on the floor in e-mails to the Office of Legislative Legal Services, Legislative Council Staff, and the Joint Budget Committee to help staff members from those agencies assist legislators in the chambers.

  • Bill Sponsor Basics – an Overview

    Bill Sponsor Basics – an Overview

    by Jennifer Gilroy, Michael Dohr, and Jessica Chapman

    Editor’s note: This article was originally written by Patti Dahlberg and Jennifer Gilroy and published on December 22, 2016. The article has been edited and updated.

    Bill requests are coming in hot here at the OLLS and drafting season is well underway. That means now is probably a good time to review some of the basics of bill sponsorship.

    Bill Sponsor Basics

    Prime Sponsorship – First House. The legislator who introduces and carries a bill is called the prime sponsor of the bill. Bills cannot be introduced without a prime sponsor. Every bill must have at least one prime sponsor in each chamber (or house) before it can be heard in both chambers. In both the House and the Senate, the prime sponsor (and joint prime sponsor if there is one) is responsible for explaining the bill in committee and in debate on the House or Senate floor. A prime sponsor also typically arranges for witnesses to testify in favor of the bill in committee.

    A legislator can be the first house prime or joint prime sponsor for only five bills, unless the legislator has special permission from the committee on delayed bills (leadership) to carry more. But a legislator can agree to be the prime or joint prime sponsor of a bill in the second house on as many bills as the legislator wants.

    Prime Sponsorship – Second House. The prime sponsor in the first house (also known as the house of introduction) is responsible for asking a legislator in the second (or opposite) house to carry the bill in that house. The prime sponsor in the first house does not have to identify a second house prime sponsor before the bill is introduced in the first house, but the bill must have a second house prime sponsor before the bill can be heard on third reading in the first house.

    Before a bill can move to the second house, the second house prime sponsor must inform the House Chief Clerk or the Secretary of the Senate of that legislator’s intent to serve as the second house prime sponsor. Prime sponsors’ names in both houses are listed on the bill in bold text.

    Sponsorship and Co-sponsorship. When legislators want to show support for a bill, but not take on the responsibility of actually carrying the bill, they may sign on as sponsors or co-sponsors of the bill. If a legislator adds the legislator’s name to a bill before it is introduced, the legislator is a sponsor of the bill. If a legislator adds the legislator’s name to a bill after it is introduced, the legislator is referred to as a co-sponsor. Co-sponsors are added immediately following adoption of a bill on third reading.

    Joint Prime Sponsorship

    Joint Prime Sponsorship. When two legislators in one house want to carry a bill together, we refer to them as joint prime sponsors. A bill that has joint prime sponsors in one house may or may not have joint prime sponsors in the other house. The rules for joint prime sponsorship are similar for the House (House Rule 27A(b)) and the Senate (Senate Rule 24A(b)).

    Joint prime sponsorship counts against both legislators’ five-bill limit in the first house. Both joint prime sponsors must verify their desire to be joint prime sponsors. A legislator cannot be added as a joint prime sponsor in the first house if that legislator has already submitted five bill requests, unless that legislator has received permission from leadership. The prime sponsor in the first house must notify the House Chief Clerk or the Secretary of the Senate, as appropriate, of any changes in bill sponsorship so that the changes are reflected in subsequent versions of the bill.

    Joint prime sponsorship does not count against the five-bill limit for either legislator in the second house. Again, both joint prime sponsors must verify their desire to be joint prime sponsors.

    Joint prime sponsors are typically determined prior to the bill’s introduction. However, in limited circumstances, joint prime sponsors may be added or changed after introduction immediately after second reading but prior to adoption of the bill on third reading. The House and Senate front desk staff can help with this process.

    Bill Sponsor FAQs:

    How do I add sponsors to my bill before it is introduced?

    Before your bill is introduced you can invite other legislators to be sponsors on your bill via the Electronic Sponsorship feature in iLegislate. Electronic Sponsorship operates similarly to an Evite: You may invite legislators to sponsor your bills and you may share draft files with them. Those legislators may choose whether they want to be a sponsor on your bill. If a legislator wants to be a sponsor on your bill but is not able to indicate that through iLegislate and the bill is still in the Office of Legislative Legal Services’ (OLLS) possession, the legislator may simply notify the OLLS in person, by phone, or by email that the legislator would like to be a sponsor on another legislator’s bill. A legislator may not be added to one of your bills as a sponsor without that legislator’s permission and a legislator will not be added to your bill without your permission. Once your bill is delivered by the OLLS to your chamber’s front desk, the OLLS cannot add any more sponsors. (In special circumstances, the House or Senate front desk staff may be able to add sponsors before a bill is printed, but you must contact your chamber’s front desk staff to see if this special circumstance exists.)

    The OLLS will deliver your prefile bill (your first bill to be introduced) directly to the House or Senate front desk because that bill must be introduced on the first day of session. The OLLS will deliver your other bills to the front desk or to you, as you direct. Do not contact the OLLS to add sponsors after your bill has been delivered to the front desk or to you. Once a bill is delivered, all sponsor additions or changes must go through House or Senate staff.

    How do I add sponsors to my bill after it is delivered for introduction?

    If you direct the OLLS drafter to deliver your bill (other than your prefile bill) to you personally and not your chamber’s front desk, the OLLS staff will give the bill to the sergeants who will then deliver it to you. If the bill is delivered to you prior to its introduction deadline you can show it to other legislators and have them sign the sponsor form attached to the bill or go through iLegislate. The bill delivered to you will include a sponsor form stapled to a heavier sheet of green paper (if you’re a Representative) or cream-colored paper (if you’re a Senator). This is called a bill back. Please do not separate the bill from the bill back and sponsor form.

    After you give the bill back (and attachments) to the front desk, the front desk staff will review the sponsor form and add the names of those legislators who have signed the form indicating their desire to be sponsors of your bill. These sponsor names will appear on the introduced version of the bill. Sponsors cannot be added to your bill after the front desk has sent it out for printing. After your bill has been introduced, however, other legislators may add their names as co-sponsors following passage of your bill on third reading.

    Feel free to contact the OLLS front office, your drafters, or the House and Senate front desks with any questions regarding bill sponsorship. You may contact the OLLS staff to inquire about sponsorship prior to your bill being delivered to the House or Senate for introduction, at (303) 866-2045 or olls.ga@coleg.gov. Once your bill has been delivered for introduction, you may contact the House or Senate front desk staff with your sponsorship questions.

  • What does it take to get a bill to the Governor?

    What does it take to get a bill to the Governor?

    by Kathy Zambrano and Anja Boyd

    You’d think that once a bill makes it through both houses and the first house concurs with second house changes, if necessary, the bill would land on the Governor’s desk in a day. But in most cases, there’s a lag time of up to five working days – oftentimes more as we move to the end of the legislative session – before an enacted bill gets presented to the Governor for action. So what really happens to a bill before it is delivered to the Governor on act paper?

    First thing to know is that, pursuant to Rule 18 of the Joint Rules of the Senate and House of Representatives, “the enrolling clerk of the originating house and the Office of Legislative Legal Services shall coordinate and work together jointly to prepare the bill as passed in final form. The Office of Legislative Legal Services shall prepare the bill in the form in which it shall appear in the session laws. . . “. So over the years, the House and Senate enrolling rooms and the OLLS have developed a process that allows for the efficient preparation of the bills on act paper and the development of the Session Laws.

    Once the enrolling room receives a bill for enrolling into an act, they verify sponsors before delivering the bill to the Publications Team in the OLLS. But before they can even do that, they typically prioritize their other work to focus on engrossing bills as they pass on second and third reading, since those bills must be made available the same day they pass on the floor, and on preparing preamended bills that are reported out of committees so that those are available to legislators and the public as soon as possible.

    Once the Publications Team receives the bill for enrolling, they begin processing the bill by checking the bill for errors that may be fixed by correction schedule[1]. Then they input the bill’s information into the bill disposition tables and the Red Book, which is a tabulation of all C.R.S. sections affected by bills passed during the legislative session. The bill disposition tables and the Red Book are mandatory parts of the Session Laws, which are prepared by the OLLS following each legislative session as required by statute. By preparing the red book entries at this point, it allows the Publications Team to determine whether new statutory sections added in the bill need to be renumbered to make room for other new statutory sections added by other bills and which provisions need to be harmonized or superseded. This is the beginning of the steps in preparation of the Colorado Revised Statutes.

    Once the Publications Team finishes with the bill, they deliver it to the subject matter team in the OLLS that is responsible for the bill to prepare an advance unofficial copy. The subject matter team reviews the bill attachments for completeness and accuracy as a courtesy to the House and Senate front desks, then they verify which version of the bill should be enrolled, check the sponsors on the bill, input any conference committee report changes that were adopted, make sure all amendments that were passed appear in the bill, and check to ensure that no current law has been dropped and that all new language appears in capital letters. If they find grammatical or punctuation errors, they include those on the correction schedule before making any corrections in the copy. If the subject matter team is enrolling a bill during the legislative session, then other session-related work often takes priority, like bill and amendment preparation, so there could be delays.

    When the unofficial copy of a bill is ready, it is delivered to the enrolling room for proofing. Yep, the bill is proofed yet again even though it has been proofed after each reading during its travels to become a final act. The enrolling room also checks sponsorship of the bill and ensures that any corrections to the bill and any conference committee report that was adopted appear in the copy. Great care is taken to ensure that the bill is correctly enrolled.

    When the enrolling room completes their proofing, they deliver the bill to the Publications Team again; the Publications Team reviews it and determines whether further grammatical or punctuation corrections need to be made. The bill is then put on act paper by the subject matter team, subject to other priorities. The act paper copy, which is the version of the bill the Governor receives for signing, is then delivered to the appropriate enrolling room.

    Now that the enrolling room has the final act copy, they prepare a fancy bill jacket that goes along with the act to the Governor’s office. But before it goes to the Governor, there are a few more stops on a bill’s journey to the Governor’s desk. First, if it’s a House bill, it goes to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Clerk for their signatures and then to the President of the Senate and the Senate Secretary for their signatures. If it’s a Senate bill, the President and Senate Secretary get to sign first. And, of course, messages are prepared to notify the body that the bill was signed by the Speaker or President, if the legislative session is still in progress.

    So then, after all of that action takes place, the enrolling room contacts the Governor’s office and makes arrangements for someone to be physically present in the Governor’s office to sign for and receive the bill.

    And now you know what really happens before a bill lands on the Governor’s desk.

     

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    [1] The correction schedule is a list of grammatical and punctuation errors that may appear in a bill, along with numbering changes required due to other bills amending the same section, which are automatically corrected when the bill is enrolled into an act.

  • The 2022 Legislative Session Is Just Over Two Months Away

    The 2022 Legislative Session Is Just Over Two Months Away

    Where did the interim go? The 2022 Legislative Session will convene at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, but, as those who follow the legislature know, bill drafting starts long before that date. Legislators have been submitting bill requests for the upcoming session since the end of the last session, and interim committees have been meeting and working with drafters since August on committee bill requests. So much is already going on that it might be easy to forget that the first bill request deadline is Wednesday, December 1, 2021. The December deadline is for a legislator’s first three bill requests. After December 1, a legislator may submit up to only two additional bill requests and only to meet  the five bill requests allowed by rule.*

    Once a legislator has bill requests in the system, the legislator must choose one of those requests to be a “prefile” bill. The “prefile” bill must be drafted and filed with the House or the Senate for introduction by the Friday before the session convening date. For the upcoming session, the “prefile” bill filing deadline is Friday, January 7, 2022. Generally, the bill deadlines require legislators to have completed, with the help of OLLS drafters, the bulk of their bill drafting well before the first day of the legislative session.

    What all legislators need to know about requesting bills [Joint Rule 24 (b)(1)(A)]:

    • The Joint Rules allow each legislator five bill requests each session. These five bill requests are in addition to any appropriation, committee-approved, or sunset bill requests that a legislator may choose to carry. (Legislators are not required to carry five bills.)
    • To reach the five-bill request limit within the bill request deadlines, legislators must submit at least three bill requests to the OLLS by the December 1 deadline. Legislators must submit the last two requests (assuming the legislator is under the five-request limit) by January 18, 2022.
    • If a legislator submits fewer than three requests on or before the December 1 deadline, the legislator forfeits the unsubmitted bill requests that were due by that date.* (Legislators need not carry five bills.)
    • The first bill request deadline is less than a month away, and it may feel like there is still plenty of time to request those bills. But if a legislator waits until December 1 to submit the first three bill requests, the legislator will need to provide sufficient drafting information with the request so that the drafters can draft all three of the bills in a timely manner. The legislator will also need to quickly decide which of these requests will become a “prefile” bill, which needs to be filed for introduction by January 7, 2022. 

    Legislators: If you have not yet submitted a bill request, you are encouraged to submit at least one bill request as soon as possible. Bill requests may address any subject and do not need to be completely conceptualized. The bill drafter can help you figure out how to word your bill, and the bill drafting process allows for potential issues or problems to rise to the surface, making it easier for you to decide whether the idea is “workable.” If a request is no longer needed or wanted, you can withdraw and replace it with a new request, as long as that decision is communicated to the OLLS before the December 1 deadline. By submitting bill requests and draft information as quickly as possible, legislators give drafters more time to work on their bill drafts, make it easier to determine if there are duplicate bill requests, and work out any drafting kinks before the first day of session.

    Legislators can submit more than three requests by the December 1 deadline. By doing so, a legislator may have the flexibility to withdraw and replace at least one request after the December deadline without losing a request. If a legislator submits only three requests by December 1 and later withdraws one of them, the legislator forfeits the withdrawn bill request. The rules allow a legislator to submit only two bill requests after the December deadline.* If a legislator submits four bill requests by December 1 and later withdraws one, the legislator is left with three bill requests that met the early request deadline. The legislator can still submit the two requests that are allowed after the early bill request deadline — for a total of five bill requests.

    Upcoming deadlines: Too many to remember and too important to forget.  Bill request and bill introduction deadlines are listed below. Deadlines that apply only to House bills are in green, deadlines that apply only to Senate bills are in red, and deadlines that apply to both the House and Senate are in blue.  Click here for a link to House and Senate bill drafting, finalization, and introduction deadlines. The listed OLLS internal deadlines are designed to allow sufficient time for editing and review in order to provide a higher-quality work product while still assuring that each bill meets the deadline. Paper copies of these tables are available in the OLLS Front Office, Room 091 of the Capitol.

    December deadlines:*

    December 1. The last day for legislators to request their first three (or early) bill requests. After December 1, legislators are only allowed two additional bill requests (only if they are under the five-bill limit).

    Upcoming filing and introduction deadlines:*

    January 7. Deadline to file prefile bills with House and Senate front desks.
    January 14. Deadline to file Senate early bills with the Senate front desk.
    January 18. Deadline to request last two bills (regular bills) if a legislator is under the five-bill limit.
    January 18. Deadline to file House early bills with the House front desk.
    January 28. Deadline to file Senate regular bills with the Senate front desk.
    February 2. Deadline to file House regular bills with the House front desk.

    Click here for the Deadline Schedule for the 2022 Legislative Session.

    * A legislator may seek permission from the House or Senate Committee on Delayed Bills, whichever is appropriate, to submit additional bill requests or to waive a bill request deadline.

  • ARPA Part 2: The Task Forces

    by Bob Lackner

    As we covered in our last article, in SB21-137, SB21-291, and HB21-1329, the General Assembly created task forces to meet in the 2021 interim and make recommendations concerning how to spend the remaining ARPA funds. Here, we explain those task forces in more detail.

    The federal regulations construing ARPA specify in relevant part that funds may be used for programs or services that address housing insecurity, lack of affordable and workplace housing, or homelessness, including:

    1. Supportive housing or other programs or services to improve access to stable, affordable housing among unhoused individuals;
    2. The development of affordable housing; and
    3. Housing vouchers and assistance to allow individuals to relocate in neighborhoods with high levels of economic opportunity and to reduce concentrated levels of low economic opportunity.

    HB21-1329 requires the executive committee of the legislative council (executive committee), by resolution, to create a task force to meet during the 2021 interim and issue a report with recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor on policies to create transformative change in the area of housing (Housing Task Force) using the money the state receives from the ARPA fund, which would include the money transferred into the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund.[1] Essentially, the Housing Task Force is to advise the General Assembly and the Governor on how best to spend the remaining $400 million or so now sitting in the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund that the state has received from the ARPA fund and that was not appropriated in the 2021 regular legislative session.[2]

    Similarly, SB21-137 requires the executive committee to create a task force to meet during the 2021 interim and issue a report with recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor on policies to create transformative change in the area of behavioral health (Behavioral Health Task Force) using the money the state receives from the ARPA fund.

    SB21-291 requires the executive committee, by resolution, to create a task force to meet during the 2021 interim (Economic Recovery Task Force) and issue a report with recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor on policies that use money from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to help stimulate the state’s economy, provide necessary relief for Coloradans, or address emerging economic disparities resulting from the pandemic.

    All three bills specify that their respective task forces may include nonlegislative members and create working groups to assist their work. In addition, HB21-1329 and SB21-137 direct the executive committee to hire a facilitator to guide the work of the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces. The executive committee hired Wellstone Collaborative Strategies as the facilitator.

    The executive committee has issued resolutions creating the Housing, Behavioral Health, and Economic Recovery Task Forces .[3] Both the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces consist of 16 members, ten of whom are appointed by majority and minority leadership of the General Assembly. The other six members of the respective task forces are various state officials with responsibility for setting and administering state policy on housing or behavioral health matters, as applicable. In accordance with HB21-1329 and SB21-137, the Housing and Behavioral Health Resolutions created the Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force Subpanel (Housing Subpanel) and the Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force (Behavioral Health Subpanel), respectively. Both subpanels are directed to meet during the 2021 interim to make recommendations to the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces on policies to create transformational change in the area of housing and behavioral health, as applicable, using money from the ARPA fund.

    The Housing Subpanel consists of 15 members. Five members of the Housing Subpanel are appointed by the Senate President. Six members are appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Minority Leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives are each entitled to appoint two additional members of the task force. Members appointed to the Housing Subpanel must represent various groups and stakeholders and must possess knowledge or expertise in housing issues as specified in the Housing Resolution.

    The Behavioral Health Subpanel consists of 25 members, nine of whom are to be appointed by the Senate president and eight to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The Minority Leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives are each entitled to appoint four additional members of the subpanel. As with the Housing Subpanel, members of the Behavioral Health Subpanel must represent various groups and stakeholders and must possess knowledge or expertise in behavioral health issues as specified in the Behavioral Health Resolution.

    Under the applicable resolutions, both the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces may meet up to ten times during the 2021 interim and the subpanels are required to meet up to 16 times in the 2021 interim. The Housing and Behavioral Health Subpanels are directed to make recommendations to their governing task forces for review, consideration, and approval by those bodies. Both the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces are directed to approve recommendations and the final report of each task force by a majority vote of all members of the body.

    The Economic Recovery Task Force consists of eight members, six of whom are appointed by the Majority and Minority leadership of the two chambers. The executive director of the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) and the executive director of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting (or their designees) fill out the remaining appointments to this Task Force. The resolution creating the Economic Recovery Task Force also creates the Economic Recovery and Relief Cash Fund Subpanel (Economic Recovery Subpanel) to meet during the 2021 interim to make recommendations to the Economic Recovery Task Force on policies that use money from the economic recovery and relief cash fund to help stimulate the state’s economy, provide necessary relief for Coloradans, or address emerging economic disparities resulting from the pandemic. The Economic Recovery Subpanel consists of five members, all of whom are required to be economists. Of the five appointments, the Senate President and House Speaker must jointly make two appointments, the Senate and House Minority leaders must jointly make one appointment, the Governor is to make one appointment, and the final appointment must come from OEDIT.

    The Economic Recovery Task Force and Subpanel may each meet up to four times during the 2021 interim. This task force is also directed to approve the final report of the task force by a majority vote of all members of the body.

    The Economic Recovery Resolution also directs the Economic Recovery Subpanel to analyze and synthesize data on the current state of the state’s economy, identify ongoing challenges with the state’s recovery and opportunities for larger growth in specific sectors or industries, and outline the underlying issues that are contributing to the overall economic gaps that are inhibiting recovery and growth.

    In addition, all three resolutions direct state departments and agencies with relevant information to provide assistance and information to the respective task forces and subpanels. With respect to the Housing and Behavioral Health Task Forces, staff from the legislative service agencies will provide support to the respective task forces and subpanels, except for those responsibilities delegated to the facilitators as specified in the requests for information issued for facilitation services. In the case of the Economic Recovery Task Force, the resolution directs the Legislative Council Staff Chief Economist, or his or her designee, to provide information and assistance to the Economic Recovery Subpanel in completing its duties relating to the analysis and synthesis of the state’s economic data.

    Both HB21-1329 and SB21-137 specify that the respective task forces are not subject to section 2-3-303.3, C.R.S., or Joint Rule 24A of the Joint Rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which govern the conduct of interim committees. This means these bodies will not be treated as regular interim committees and subject to the regular procedural and bill drafting requirements to which interim committees are subject.[4] Instead, both bills specify that the executive committee is to specify requirements governing members’ participation in the work of the respective task forces. Notably, all three bills also specify that the respective task forces are not to submit bill drafts as part of their recommendations.

    Both the Housing and Behavioral Health Resolutions direct the respective task forces to finalize their recommendations by January 11, 2022, and to submit their reports to the General Assembly and the Governor no later than January 21, 2022. Under the Economic Recovery Task Force resolution, the task force is required to finalize its recommendations by December 17, 2021, and to submit its recommendations to the General Assembly and the Governor by January 13, 2022.

    A different process is mandated by SB21-291 for the Economic Recovery Task Force. With respect to that body, the staff of the Joint Budget Committee will review the task force’s recommendations to ascertain whether the recommendations will result in programs requiring ongoing appropriations of state money after the federal money has been expended and to identify whether the recommendations are duplicative of any existing state programs or appropriations or duplicative of any existing federally funded state program. [5]

    It is expected that a major focus of the 2022 regular legislative session will be the drafting and consideration of legislative proposals to implement the recommendations of these task forces and subpanels in the important areas of affordable housing, behavioral health, and economic recovery.

     

    [1] Under the legislation, the General Assembly is also required to review recommendations for policies to create transformative change in the area of housing submitted by the Strategic Housing Working Group assembled by the Department of Local Affairs and the State Housing Board.

    [2] In particular, of the $550 million the state received from ARPA for housing purposes, for the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $98.5 million was appropriated to the Division of Housing in the Department of Local Affairs to expend on programs or services of the type and kind financed through the housing investment trust fund and the housing development grant fund to support programs or services that benefit populations, households, or geographic areas disproportionately affected by the COVID public health emergency to obtain affordable housing, focusing on housing insecurity, lack of affordable and workforce housing, and homelessness. In addition, $1.5 million was appropriated to the state judicial department for use by the eviction legal defense fund to provide legal representation to indigent tenants. Money from the ARPA fund was also used to finance other affordable-housing-related purposes.

    [3] Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council, Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force, Updated July 30, 2021 (Housing Resolution);

    Resolution of the Legislative Council, Behavioral Health Transformational Task Force, updated July 30, 2021 (Behavioral Health Resolution)

    Resolution of the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council, Economic Relief and Recovery Task Force, August 26, 2021 (Economic Recovery Resolution)

    [4] SB21-291 fails to specify whether the Economic Recovery Task Force is subject to the normal interim committee requirements but, as with the other two bills, does state that the executive committee will specify requirements for members’ participation in the body.

    [5] The Economic Recovery Resolution summarizes this requirement as follows: “JBC Staff will review the Task Force report to offer analysis on whether programs already exist that would have overlapping missions, and whether anything would likely entail ongoing General Fund obligations.”

  • ARPA Part 1: The General Assembly’s Allocation

    by Ed DeCecco

    As part of the federal “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” (ARPA), Colorado received $3,828,761,790 from the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund. That is quite a bit of money. For context, consider that, if the state received this aid in $1 bills, the stack of cash would be almost 260 miles high, or if those bills were placed end to end, they would loop the earth almost 15 times! Thankfully, Treasury Secretary Yellen didn’t pay the state in singles.

    Nor did the state receive the money unconditionally. Under ARPA, this money must be used for any of the following purposes:

    1. To respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or its negative economic impacts;
    2. To provide premium pay for essential workers;
    3. For the provision of government services to the extent of revenue lost due to COVID-19; and
    4. To make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.

    The state cannot, however, use this money for a pension payment nor to backfill revenue lost as a result of a tax cut. The federal Treasury Department issued an interim regulation that, among other things, identified a number of permissible uses under each of the broad categories above and established a methodology for determining lost revenue.

    Unlike the federal COVID relief aid the state received through the CARES Act, the General Assembly assumed responsibility over this ARPA money. And because the state need only obligate this money by the end of 2024, and spend it before the end of 2026, it was unnecessary to appropriate all of the money immediately. Instead, the 73rd General Assembly established a framework to allocate the money to several cash funds, which prioritized certain permissible uses, and appropriated a decent portion consistent with those uses.[1] Here is the allocation, with the amounts and related legislation noted:

    Most of the money was first deposited in the “American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” cash fund (ARPA fund), which included general requirements related to the money, such as reporting, that apply even after the money is transferred to and spent from any another fund (recipient fund). If the recipient fund has any other money in it, then, to avoid commingling of the funds, the state controller or department is required to create a companion fund that only has the federal funds but is otherwise legally identical.[2]

    Now, you may be thinking, “No wonder the author went to law school. He is terrible in math, as the amount transferred from the ARPA fund is significantly less than the amount transferred to it.” But that wasn’t a mistake. After the required transfers were made, $300 million was left in the ARPA fund, and that money is continuously appropriated to any department designated by the Governor for any allowable purpose under the Federal Act. In this way, the General Assembly returned the favor for Governor Polis giving it control over some of the COVID relief funds from the CARES Act.

    Still, the lion’s share of the money was transferred from the ARPA fund to other cash funds. The revenue restoration cash fund includes a portion of the money that the state can use for the provision of government services to the extent of revenue lost due to COVID-19. This money is basically for revenue backfill, and it is available for “government services,” which makes it like a baby general fund. No money was appropriated from this fund last session, although the General Assembly did apportion the money to be spent in roughly equal shares over three fiscal years. The other amount that the state thus far has available for “government services” is the $380 million that was directly deposited into Department of Transportation cash funds and allocated under SB21-260.

    The behavioral and mental health cash fund, the workers, employers, and workforce centers cash fund, and the affordable housing and home ownership cash fund were all established to focus on the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19 or its negative economic impacts, with each focusing on specific areas indicated by the fund’s name. The money in the economic recovery and relief cash fund may likewise be used for a number of purposes that fit that prong of the federal law, but the General Assembly may also appropriate the money to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. During the 2021 session, the General Assembly appropriated or transferred over a half billion dollars from these four funds,[3] which means there is still plenty left to be spent over the next few legislative sessions. And to help it spend this remainder, the General Assembly created task forces in SB21-137, SB21-291, and HB21-1329. In our next article, we’ll go over these interesting task forces in detail.

     

     

    [1] Can this allocation change in the future? You bet it can because the General Assembly’s plenary power is not limited by a statute.

    [2] So when it’s all said and done, this framework is responsible for quite a few new cash funds. Apparently the concluding message in a prior LegiSource article, https://legisource.net/2017/02/17/a-legislators-guide-to-creating-cash-funds/, did not resonate.

    [3] For a detailed explanation of how the money was spent, see pages D-8 to D-10 of the Appendix to the Joint Budget Committee Staff’s Appropriation Report Fiscal Year 2021-22, https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/fy21-22apprept.pdf.