A year after bruising fight, attempt to protect police whistleblowers in Colorado is back in legislature
Colorado lawmakers are again seeking to provide more protections for police officers who report misconduct within their own agencies, taking a more compartmentalized approach nearly a year after a first attempt sparked resistance from a wide swath of law enforcement officials.
This time around, Democratic Reps. Jennifer Bacon and Chad Clifford spent months in negotiations and meetings with Colorado’s police chiefs, rank-and-file officers and county sheriffs across multiple working groups. The result is a whistleblower-protection measure, House Bill 1031, that is the first of what may become a four-bill package of overlapping law enforcement reforms that sprang from those negotiations and last year’s unsuccessful effort.
A second measure, House Bill 1136, would address concerns surrounding the state’s database of licensed law enforcement officers. Two more bills — one regulating the use of police body-worn cameras and another that’s been referred to as a “police officer’s bill of rights” — have not yet been introduced. Bacon said they may not come this year at all if their scope can’t be hammered out — another nod to the weight given to negotiations with the law enforcement lobby.
“Visitation is rehabilitation”: Lawmakers push to recognize right to visit for prison inmates in Colorado
Colorado lawmakers are trying to make it a right — rather than a privilege — for inmates in the state’s prisons to receive visitation while incarcerated.
Now, inmates in Colorado’s 19 state-run prisons can have their visitation privilege revoked if they violate the Department of Corrections‘ rules, which can include infractions like failing to work. House Bill 1013, if passed, would specify that visitation can be limited only when necessary for routine operations or safety.
The bill cleared its first hurdle on a party-line vote Wednesday, with support from the majority Democrats. It does not have formal opposition, but the Department of Corrections has raised concerns about the possibility of more inmate lawsuits and says the bill needs more specificity about when visitation could be revoked over matters of safety.
Colorado lawmakers look to stamp out surprise bills from publicly owned ambulances
Allison Adams ran into bad luck twice when visiting Denver last August: first, when she broke her leg stepping off a curb, and then when a publicly owned ambulance responded to her call.
If a private company had owned the ambulance, Adams would have had protection from so-called surprise bills under Colorado law. But the law includes an exception for ambulances owned by cities, counties and special districts, which can bill patients for whatever their insurance didn’t pay, a practice known as balance-billing.
A bill in the state legislature would give patients who end up in publicly owned ambulances the same protection as others who need emergency medical care.
Colorado lawmakers eye church-owned land for new housing in latest land-use reform pitch
Less than a year after Colorado lawmakers passed a suite of land-use reforms in a bid to solve the state’s housing crisis, several are now backing a bill to further expand development rights — this time on land owned by churches and other religious organizations.
House Bill 1169 is part of a national movement known as YIGBY — or “Yes in God’s Backyard,” itself an offshoot of a broader pro-development coalition. The bill, which was introduced Tuesday, would generally allow religious groups and educational institutions to build housing on their properties, regardless of how the land is zoned.
Organizations would be required only to pass a local administrative review to ensure their plans meet code and other municipal requirements — instead of facing a vote by local officials to change zoning.
Citing “zero trust,” lawmakers deny CBI request for money to clear DNA testing backlog
A set of Colorado senators are demanding extra oversight of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation before approving a spending request for it to dig out of a 500-day backlog of uncompleted sexual assault exams and questionable DNA tests.
The agency asked for more time to spend money authorized by lawmakers last year to retest DNA samples affected by alleged data manipulation by former CBI analyst Yvonne “Missy” Woods. But members of the powerful joint budget committee rejected the request when the Department of Public Safety, which houses CBI, shared a “thin” and “appallingly bad” plan for how it would address those compromised results and the staggering wait time for sexual assault exam results, Sen. Jeff Bridges, chair of committee, said Tuesday.
“We were simply not willing to hand over cash to an agency that has proven, time and again, to have a track record of failing to deliver justice to the people of Colorado,” Bridges told members of the Democratic majority in a meeting about upcoming spending requests.
Colorado bill would bar drugmakers from limiting discount program that subsidizes safety-net hospitals
A bill in the Colorado legislature would get rid of drugmakers’ limitations on a program that helps fund safety-net hospitals and clinics through discounts on medication.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers argue the program has grown beyond its intent, however, and raises the cost of health care to subsidize hospitals that may not need the help.
The federal 340B Drug Pricing Program allows certain hospitals and clinics to buy medications given to outpatients at a discount, then bill patients and insurers the full price — keeping the difference.
For example, if a patient needs a drug that an insurance company normally pays $10,000 for, but the hospital purchases it for $6,000, the medical facility can keep the remaining $4,000.
Colorado hospital reimbursement rates face new limits under lawmakers’ proposal to cut costs
Colorado lawmakers are preparing a bill that would cap urban hospitals’ reimbursement rates for state employees and small businesses — a plan backed by cash-strapped health centers and legislators but opposed in principle by Colorado’s hospital trade group.
The legislation, unveiled to reporters by Democratic lawmakers Tuesday, is expected to be introduced later this week. According to details from Gov. Jared Polis’ office, the bill proposes capping larger hospitals’ reimbursements at 150% to 165% of what Medicare pays for the same care. Doing so could save the state and small businesses money on employees’ health plans.
The proposed caps would amount to about half of what hospitals currently charge private insurers, including for state employees’ plans.
Senate gears up for big floor fight over gun limits — the first of the session — in the Colorado legislature this week
The first big floor fight of the legislative session could erupt as soon as Friday if lawmakers hold to their scheduled debate over sweeping new limits on what kind of guns can be sold in Colorado.
The state Senate is scheduled to take up Senate Bill 3 that day for its second reading — the most free-flowing step in the three-step process of a bill passing a legislative chamber, and the first involving the entire chamber.
The bill proposes to ban the sale or purchase of semiautomatic firearms that accept detachable magazines. It’s the latest entry in a long-running fight to target high-powered guns referred to as assault weapons.
Facing “hostile” national abortion landscape, Colorado Democrats plan bills to strengthen state laws
Colorado lawmakers this week plan to introduce a pair of bills that would further strengthen state laws around abortion access — aimed both at building off recent ballot box success in the state and guarding against potential federal action.
The proposals, which sponsors plan to file Wednesday, come as proponents see renewed threats to reproductive health care from the federal government, including the White House and U.S. Supreme Court. At the same time, several conservative states are seeking to lock down abortion access, including care provided by doctors elsewhere.
“Bringing these efforts forward right now is a ray of hope in a pretty bleak landscape for abortion access and gender-affirming care across the country,” said Kiera Hatton, the organizing political director for Cobalt Action, an abortion-rights advocacy group, about the new legislation.
When wolves kill livestock, should Colorado grant ranchers anonymity for compensation claims?
Colorado lawmakers will consider blocking from public record the names of ranchers seeking compensation from the state for livestock killed by wolves and other wild animals after multiple livestock owners said they feared harassment.
The bipartisan legislation, Senate Bill 38, would make the names, addresses and contact information confidential and not subject to the Colorado Open Records Act.
Ranchers in areas with active wolves have been nervous about filing the paperwork for compensation for killed and injured livestock because they worry that people will show up on their properties to look for the charismatic predators or to threaten their operations, said Sen. Dylan Roberts, a bill sponsor. The Frisco Democrat’s district includes the territory wolves have roamed since 2021.
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