Highlights from the Legislature on Thursday.
— A legislative committee decided to support a plan for multistate presidential primaries after getting assurances Colorado could still hold caucuses. The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted to support the proposal (House Resolution 1006) with an amendment stipulating that Colorado could hold caucuses on primary day instead of an election. A commission led by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker has endorsed holding four regional primaries after the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
— The House Education Committee approved a bill that would require publishers to disclose the price of college textbooks, the history of substantive revisions to the textbooks, and the estimated time the publisher intends to keep the textbooks on the market. The College Textbook Affordability Act (Senate Bill 73) would also require publishers of a bundled textbook package, such as CDs, remote controls and other devices to offer the option of purchasing the textbook and each of the individual products separately. It now goes to the full House for debate.
— The Senate gave final approval to a measure (House Bill 1160) that requires rural electric cooperatives and municipal owned utilities to give credit to homeowners who generate their own renewable power. The net-metering bill applies to providers with 5,000 or more customers. It now heads back to the House again because of changes made by the Senate.
— The Senate gave final approval to creating a commission to identify gaps in services for those with autism spectrum disorders (Senate Bill 163). It now heads to the House.
— The Senate Health & Human Services Committee backed an update of the state’s tuberculosis control statutes that public health officials said reflects the way the disease is now treated. The measure (House Bill 1199) gets rid of references to asylums and allows the state’s chief medical officer to work with county health officials to track the disease.
