Breast-feeding bill gets an OK
The Senate on Tuesday amended and gave preliminary approval to Senate Bill 167, which offers breaks to women who are breast-feeding at the workplace.
The bill, sponsored by Lakewood Democrat Sen. Deanna Hanna, requires employers that already allow for breaks to let women time their breaks in such a way that fits their milk-production cycle. It does not mandate nursing breaks for employees of companies that don’t already allow workers to take breaks.
And though it does not require that space be provided for nursing, it does encourage employers to provide space, if available.
The bill “is empowering the women who did not know they could ask for this accommodation,” Hanna said.
Some Republicans opposed Hanna’s bill, attacking it as an onerous mandate on private business.
More fighting over school funds
The House on Tuesday extended a battle over where to find funding to make payments toward a legal settlement to repair and build schools in the state’s poorest districts.
The House rejected a Senate amendment to a mid-year emergency appropriations bill that called for transferring $20 million out of the State Education Fund to make a payment toward the legal settlement. That fund was created after voters passed Amendment 23 in 2000 and is used to cover costs related to the mandated spending increases for education.
“Those crazy senators,” said Rep. Tom Plant, D-Nederland, describing the Senate amendment. Plant, chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said funding for the legal settlement will be decided in the coming weeks.
The House voted 48-15 to reject the Senate amendment and to send the matter to a conference committee.
Panel cuts public-safety request
The Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday adopted a staff recommendation to provide $359,593 for personnel and $10,991 for operating expenses to state public-safety officials, who had requested $1 million.
The State Department of Public Safety wanted the money to replace federal funding they expected to lose.
But the JBC staff concluded that public-safety officials have failed to address two key questions: Who is in charge and what has the agency done to protect Colorado’s most critical infrastructure?
The staff report concludes: “The Department of Public Safety was not ready at budget deadline and is not now ready with recommendations as to how the state should respond to the threat of terrorism.”
Vote delayed on tobacco bill
A House panel on Tuesday postponed a vote on an effort to make it illegal to sell spray-paint cans, tobacco pipes and tobacco-rolling papers to minors.
House Bill 1248 would make such sales a petty offense punishable by a fine not to exceed $200.
“So no more pipes for Father’s Day?” asked Rep. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs.
“Or other bad things,” replied the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver.
In other action
The House voted 52-11 to give final approval to the Colorado Ski Safety Act, House Bill 1250, which raises the fines from $300 to $1,000 for ducking ropes at ski resorts, leaving the scene of a collision, and skiing or snowboarding while intoxicated.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
The state auditor presented a report that calls for improving security protocols and disaster-recovery planning at the state agency in charge of birth and death certificates.
The audit of the Department of Public Health and Environment’s Vital Records Section called for ensuring that computer passwords are routinely changed and for creating a written plan for protecting data.
