During this legislative session, legislators introduced a total of 681 pieces of legislation, including 64 resolutions and memorials. Of that total, 550 bills passed, and 131 bills failed. The Governor has already signed 250 or so bills into law, so now he has until June 7 to sign or veto the remaining bills.
During this time, CCA Advocacy Committee followed 74 bills. We took a Strongly Support position on 5 bills, a Support position on 29 bills, a Monitor position on 32 bills, a Neutral position on 1 bill, an Oppose position on 1 bill, a Strongly Oppose position on 1 bill, and an Amend position on 1 bill. Four bills we did not take a position on mainly because we didn’t have time to review them completely and have a discussion on them at the Monday morning CCA meetings.
The major themes this session fell into five major categories: making our state more affordable by reducing the cost of housing and health care; investing in our public schools and our workforce; making Colorado safer; taking bold action to address climate change; and defending our freedoms and democracy.
On Mondays the CCA Advocacy Committee categorized the bills into different topic areas including Highest Priority Bills, Food, Housing, HOAs, Property Tax and Veterans, and Other. On May 1st, we had 5 bills in our Highest Priority Bill list, Food Bills we followed 3, Housing Bills we followed 17, HOA bills we followed 3, Property Tax we followed 6 bills, Other Bills we followed 27 of them, and 6 bills were PI/killed (Postponed Indefinitely) that we were following and 14 of our bills were signed by the Governor before the session ended.
Other activities we participated in were:
- 4 Legislative Aging Caucus
- 7 Aging Advocacy Meetings with other advocacy agencies (AARP, The Bell Policy, CU Center on Aging, Colorado Commission on Aging, The Alliance for Retired Americans) and many meetings to discuss the bills with legislators and their staff regarding strategies, amendments to the bills, and coordinating testimony.
- The Capitol Gang testified on approximately 35 bills (some bills were in both chambers so they may be counted twice)
- Jeanette Hensley made almost 600 cookies and over 8 large bags full of homemade caramel corn to give to each of the 100 Legislators, Governor’s, Lt. Governor’s, Treasurer’s, State Patrol Offices and to the Sargent at Arms thanking them from CCA for listening to us this session.
As we move into our off-session work, we will be following the bills during implementation, rulemaking, and distribution of the information regarding bills that affect Older Adults. We will begin working on bills we want for the next legislative session as well. If you have an idea for a bill, please let us know and we can help get it moving this summer.
For more information regarding bills that made it through this session, please see this article written by the Colorado Sun:
101 bills debated in the Colorado legislature in 2023 that you should know about
“More than 600 bills were debated this year in the Colorado legislature’s 120-day lawmaking term, which ended Monday. The Colorado Sun combed through the measures to pick out 101 bills that passed — and some that didn’t — that you should know about. The legislation in this list will or would have affected the lives of people across the state. Much of it is awaiting Gov. Jared Polis’ signature …” – READ MORE
Source https://coloradosun.com