DENVER — With under a week to go before they adjourn this year’s legislative session, Colorado lawmakers still have a lot of work ahead of them.
Dozens of bills are still under consideration, including several controversial proposals.
“It feels like 80% of the work happens in the last two weeks,” said State Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood. “Our budget was pretty late in being finalized, and so, nothing can really move until we know how much money we're working with, or in this case, how much money we're not working with.”
Froelich is one of the primary sponsors of Senate Bill 25-161, which would reform the Regional Transportation District (RTD). The bill cleared its second-to-last vote in the Colorado House of Representatives on Thursday.
“This bill addresses all of the things that we need to do to make sure that we're increasing ridership, that helps us meet our climate goals and gets people out of their cars,” said Froelich.
She said the bill would also help Colorado meet its housing goals.
“It helps with our housing goals because we've just had so much legislation that seeks to put housing near transit. That's predicated on transit being reliable and frequent and safe,” said Froelich.
Lawmakers are also still considering Senate Bill 25-276, which would expand privacy protections for immigrants. It would also place more limits on local and state cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
"Colorado thrives when everyone, regardless of their immigration status, can live, work, and contribute without fear," said State Sen. Julie Gonzales, D-Denver, one of the bill’s primary sponsors.
Republicans say they are deeply concerned about the bill, which is on the House's agenda for Friday.
“I’m just trying to understand the immigration bill,” said House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese.
Pugliese said she wants to “make sure that law enforcement can cooperate with federal authorities on violent criminals that are not here in our country lawfully.”
Lawmakers must also consider a joint resolution challenging the constitutionality of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).
"It locked us into that fiscal policy from 1992 that is not representative of the issues that we have today in 2025,” said State Rep. Sean Camacho, D-Denver, one of the sponsors of the resolution. “And we all deserve to know whether or not that's constitutional and whether we're following the law."
Pugliese said her caucus would fight that effort.
“Protecting the Taxpayer Bill of Rights is a huge priority for my caucus, so I think we'll see big floor fights on that,” said Pugliese.
Before they adjourn, lawmakers must also consider legislation to ease the formation of labor unions (Senate Bill 25-005), change how vacant legislative seats are filled (House Bill 25-1315), and change the process for statewide ballot measures (House Bill 25-1327).
"[HB25-1327] is a great bill to add some more transparency to the ballot measure process,” said State Rep. Emily Sirota, D-Denver, one of the primary sponsors.
Critics have slammed the bill, accusing Democrats of trying to make it harder for conservatives to get measures on the ballot.
“Absolutely not,” said Sirota. “We're not doing anything to make it harder for citizen initiatives to come forward.”
On Friday, the Colorado Senate is expected to take a vote on overriding Gov. Jared Polis’ veto of Senate Bill 25-077, which would update the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). It’s unclear if there are enough votes in both chambers to override the veto.
Last week, the state Senate voted to override Polis’ veto of a social media regulation bill, but the effort failed when the House decided not to proceed with an override vote.
“The reality is that the votes were not there,” said House Majority Leader Monica Duran.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie said overriding a gubernatorial veto, which requires a two-thirds vote, is a difficult task. The last time lawmakers overrode a veto was 14 years ago.
“It is one thing to vote for a particular bill, it’s another thing to vote for a veto override,” said McCluskie. “I had members express to me very deep concerns about the position they found themselves in. I could tell that they were uncomfortable taking this vote, even if they supported the policy.”
Lawmakers will work over the weekend and are set to adjourn the legislative session on May 7.
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More work happening along the I-25 Gap, what it's for
There's more work happening along the I-25 Gap and it seems unusual.
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