Hello everyone,
It was budget week in the House last week and what a week it was. This is a long update so get comfortable.
On Monday and Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee heard the Long Bill (HB 1410) and the 64 orbital bills. The Committee referred all but one of those bills to the House floor. The one bill that failed was HB 1365 that would have eliminated equine therapy under the Stateโs Medicaid program and saved $363,028 in the state budget. Itโs unusual to see an orbital bill die because its death forces the state budget out of balance. The JBC will have to deal with that in conference committee after the budget moves through the Senate. Also on Tuesday, the House Democratic and Republican caucuses met separately to review the budget package.
On Wednesday, the House began Second Reading on the Long Bill around 10:00 am. Working with our law enforcement and insurance partners we were able to pass an amendment to the Long Bill on a voice vote moving $1.5 million from the Department of Corrections and $1.5 million from the Department of Public Health & Environment to increase CATPA funding by $3 million. Unfortunately, at the end of the night the amendment was stripped off by the JBC during amendments to the Committee of the Whole report. Think of an amendment to the Committee of the Whole report as a second bite at the apple.
By 7 pm, the House had debated 40 of the 73 amendments drafted when a Republican representative asked for the Long Bill to be read at length. By its name you can imagine the Long Bill is rather lengthy. This yearโs Long Bill is 661 pages long. The House Majority Leader quickly moved to lay the reading of the Long Bill over until Thursday. The Committee then moved on to the first orbital bill (HB 1348) that passed rather quickly. However, when the second orbital bill (HB 1349) was moved another Republican asked that bill to be read at length. Thankfully, this bill was only 8 pages long. After the bill was read at length, it quickly passed Second Reading. Then another Republican asked for the next bill (HB 1350) to be read at length. HB 1350 was 11 pages long. After it was read at length it too quickly passed. Guess what happened next, a Republican asked that the next bill (HB 1351, 4 pages) be read at length and after the reading it too quickly passed. The next four bills (HB 1352, 4 pages; HB 1353, 4 pages; HB 1355, 3 pages; and HB 1356, 3 pages) were requested to be read at length and after the reading quickly passed. Just after 8:30 pm the House Majority Leader moved that the committee rise and report ending Second Reading.
When the House convened on Thursday morning the reading of the Long Bill was laid over until later in the day and the House continued hearing the orbital bills on Second Reading. The House passed the remaining orbital bills on Second Reading and just after 6:30 pm the reading of the Long Bill began. Just after 11:00 pm the reading of the balance of the Long Bill was laid over until the next morning.
On Friday before restarting reading the Long Bill at length, the House honored former Governor Roy Romer by renaming the portion of I-25 from roughly Colorado Blvd to I-70 as the โGovernor Roy Romer Memorial Highway.โ The 97-year-old former governor addressed the House and talked about when he first became a state representative back in 1958. He talked about the personal relationships and bipartisan camaraderie one should build in the legislature. His story included a poker game at which he was the big winner and the help he received in collecting on the IOUs he received from lobbyists. He offered this advice to the representatives: โour view of the truth is always partial therefore we need to listen hard to the people who disagree with us.โ Given the current state of politics, that sounds like good advice.
The House restarted reading the Long Bill at length just after 9:30 am. At about 7:45 pm the reading was finally over. However, when Second Reading on the Long Bill restarted the House Majority Leader limited debate on the Long Bill to one hour. During that hour three amendments were debated and two were adopted. The first one that was adopted adds a new footnote in DNR to express legislative intent that General Fund should be used for only wolf management, and not the introduction of new wolves, and that only gifts, grants, and donations should be used to fund the introduction of new wolves. The second amendment adds $239,506 cash funds from the Unclaimed Property Trust Fund and 3.0 FTE in the Department of the Treasury. The House adjourned around 9:00 pm.
On Saturday, the House met from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm and passed the Long Bill and all the surviving orbital bills on Third Reading. The budget package now moves to the Senate where it will follow a similar process (i.e., Senate Appropriations, Second Reading, Third Reading) but should have a lot less drama.
So far, there have been 575 bills introduced โ 415 in the House and 160 in the Senate. Only 30 more days until the General Assembly is required to adjourn sine die.
Bill Skewes
Lobbyist