With six days left until the Colorado legislature adjourns its regular session, lawmakers are working Friday to move bills through key votes. Several ongoing debates remain unresolved. Our reporters are providing updates on action in the Capitol.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
12:03 p.m. update: A House Republican spent the first chunk the morning blocking a five-page bill that would allow people to identify themselves as Middle Eastern, North African or South Asian on government forms.
Rep. Ken deGraaf, of Colorado Springs, said Senate Bill 50 was the “definition of racism.” He repeatedly attempted to amend it to add a list of other groups that people could identify as, to allow people to fill in whichever demographic identifier they chose and to remove demographic boxes altogether.
House leadership eventually called a recess to sort out a path forward, and the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Yara Zokaie, agreed to let debate proceed on another deGraaf amendment that would’ve effectively gutted the bill.
DeGraaf said he wanted to “focus on the content of everybody’s character rather than the color of their skin” and added that getting rid of demographic check boxes would help end systemic racism.
The amendment was then soundly defeated. Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat, said people identifying their ethnic backgrounds on government forms was not systemic racism.
“The definition of racism is with intent to harm — to use power structures, to use tools to harm people. To say you want to be seen is not harm,” she said. “And if you believe that, then I question, why does it harm you to recognize other people’s values?”
Zokaie, who is an Iranian-American from Fort Collins, said the bill was something her community has been seeking “for a very long time.”
“Being force to check a box for ‘white’ my entire life has not reflected my experience in this country,” Zokaie said. “I am going to guess that not many of you are told (you’re) from al-Qaeda, that they’re a terrorist, that they’re serving the ayatollah, that they should be taken back to Iran and raped.
“That was in the last week for me.”
The bill then passed on a party-line 42-22 vote. It now heads to Gov. Jared Polis for passage into law.
11:12 a.m. update: Amid the debate and infighting over one transgender-rights bill, the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee last night advanced another. House Bill 1309 would enshrine access to gender-affirming care in state law and prohibit health plans from denying or limiting treatment that’s deemed medically necessary.
After clearing its first Senate vote last night, the bill now needs two floor votes in the Senate in the next five days. It needs some cleanup work in the House after that before moving to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.
The HHS Committee also advanced a contentious bill related to sperm donors and in vitro fertilization. House Bill 1259 would enshrine IVF protections in state law, amid challenges to the fertility treatment in other states. But it would also undo some regulations on sperm banks that kicked into effect in January.
That’s drawn support from reproductive health advocates and a large donor clinic that argues the regulations are too burdensome. But donor-conceived people who supported the original regulations, as well as the state legislator who drafted them into law, have opposed HB-1259 as an unnecessary attempt by the sperm donor industry to deregulate itself.
Before the committee vote, the bill’s Democratic sponsors removed language from the bill criticizing the current regulations, and they restored some record-keeping provisions that HB-1259 would’ve stripped.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
House Bill 1259 passed a first voice vote in the Senate early Thursday afternoon.
10:29 a.m. update: Senate Democrats this morning decided against attempting to override a veto by Polis on a bill that would have reformed the Colorado Open Records Act.
Senate Bill 77, which Polis rejected April 17, generally would have given local governments more time to respond to records requests. It would have created separate classifications and deadlines for open records requests depending on who submitted them, including a separate process for journalists that required faster responses.
Transparency advocates opposed the bill, saying it would give the government power to decide who is and is not a journalist.
In a statement, the bill’s sponsors said that while they won’t try to override the veto, they will continue to look for ways to “find solutions that are both transparent and fair to everyone.” They added that the volume and complexity of records requests have increased in recent years and that the cost to fulfill them isn’t covered by the fees charged.
“While we believe our bill is reasonable and fair to both records requesters and those who must fulfill records requests, we also acknowledge the concerns raised by the Governor, the press, and a coalition of groups who want to ensure their access to public records is not compromised,” according to the statement from Sens. Cathy Kipp and Janice Rich and Reps. Michael Carter and Matt Soper.
Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, a Denver Democrat, moved to postpone the veto override until after the legislative session ends, effectively killing the effort.
Overriding a governor’s veto requires support from a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
This was the second potential veto override to fizzle this week. On Monday, the House abandoned an attempt to override a social media regulation bill, three days after the Senate voted to override that measure. The sponsors said they lacked enough support to reach the threshold.
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.