One hundred and some days after Colorado lawmakers convened, Monday begins the final full week of the 2025 legislative session.
Rarely do the final 10 days of the session mean a lessening of tensions or a lightening of loads. So it is this year: In a story this morning, we described some of the outstanding debates and decisions looming, including a tax reckoning that may never come and the muddy future of session-long labor and health care negotiations.
There may be some clarity on those fights in the next few days. The health care fight — over a discount drug program — will play out in the House’s Health and Human Services Committee on Monday. Two competing bills, one backed by hospitals and the other by pharmaceutical companies, will both be up for debate.
A Democrat-backed bill that would expand protections for undocumented immigrants is set to be heard in House Judiciary on Monday, too. That bill cleared the Senate last week but is likely to be the focus of a prolonged committee debate and an equally lengthy floor fight once it reaches the full House (which it’s expected to do).
In the Senate, the full chamber is scheduled to vote on House Bill 1291 as soon as Monday. The bill would require ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft to institute additional security and driver-vetting protocols. The proposal sailed through the House, and Uber is now threatening to leave the state should it pass.
The company has now taken that threat directly to users: If you opened the Uber app Monday morning, you were immediately greeted with a pop-up warning that Uber may leave Colorado. The app also provides users a form to fill out to oppose HB-1291, which is backed by a legislator who was sexually assaulted by her Lyft driver last year.
We’re well into the time of year when fully passed bills are getting signed into law on a near-daily basis. Gov. Jared Polis signed the budget bill Monday morning, for instance. So keep an eye out for some legislative finality this week and throughout the month of May.
The session ends May 7. Here’s what else is happening in the legislature this week.
Veto overrides … maybe
Last week, the Senate comfortably voted to override Polis’ veto of Senate Bill 86, which would put new regulations on social media companies. The measure now comes to the House, where it needs another two-thirds majority vote to pass, completing the override.
It’s unclear when — or if — that vote will happen. One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Andy Boesenecker, said Monday morning that supporters were still tallying the override’s support and that no decision on the vote had been made. To be clear, the decision here is to bring the vote forward or to drop it entirely — which would signal the votes aren’t there.
This is one of two veto overrides the legislature is weighing.
Before rejecting the social media bill, Polis vetoed Senate Bill 77, which would change the Colorado Open Records Act to generally give local governments more time to respond to requests. The bill’s sponsors immediately said they planned seek an override.
The Senate was scheduled to take that up last week — until the other override vote took precedence. It’s now on the calendar for Friday.
Housing votes
Speaking of the Senate: That chamber fully passed House Bill 1004 Monday. The proposal essentially would prohibit landlords from using an algorithm that, critics allege, facilitates price-fixing and hikes up rent.
The bill now goes back to the House for some procedural considerations. From there, it goes to Polis’ desk, where it faces a somewhat unclear future.
House Bill 1169 — the so-called YIGBY bill, for “Yes In My Backyard,” to allow more housing to be built on religious or educational properties — has rolled over and over on the Senate calendar. It’s still waiting on its first floor vote, well after it passed the House. Sen. Tony Exum, one of the bill’s sponsors, said last week that supporters were working to shore up votes. That bill was also technically scheduled for Monday but it was laid over once again.
Finally, the return of single-stair reform is also, also set for a first Senate vote. The bill — a similar version of which died last year — would allow for the building of five-story apartment buildings that have only one stairwell, rather than two. It’s part of the broader universe of land-use reforms embraced by some Colorado Democrats (and Polis) in recent years. Supporters argue it would make it easier to build apartments on small urban lots.
The bill already passed the House, so should it pass the Senate, it’ll go to Polis, once the bill’s sponsors reconcile changes.
Transgender rights bill
Finally, this week should be determinative for House Bill 1312, which would add new legal protections for transgender Coloradans against “deadnaming” — or referring to a person by the name they used before they transitioned — and in family court proceedings. The bill sailed through the House but immediately hit whitecaps in the Senate as prominent LGBTQ+ advocacy groups raised murky legal concerns about the proposal, throwing it into limbo.
The measure is now set for a hearing in Senate Judiciary on Wednesday. It’s expected to get amended there.
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