The Colorado legislature convenes Wednesday for the start of the 2024 regular session, as lawmakers in the House and Senate aim to make progress on a range of pressing concerns facing the state. Stay tuned as The Denver Post’s journalists provide updates from the State Capitol.
This story will be updated throughout the day.
Updated at 1:53 p.m.: The first bills were officially introduced early this afternoon, as most legislators were adjourning. This initial batch is typically selected by legislative leadership as a signifier of their priorities for the year.
in the House, given the bill number HB24-1001, is a bipartisan measure intended to boost employment opportunities in certain rural areas. Other initial House bills include one to improve access to opioid overdose antidotes for students and another that seeks to improve access to primary-care physicians.
On the Senate side, would make permanent the state’s “I Matter” program, which provides mental health care to Colorado youth. Another measure would boost funding for state law enforcement to investigate the sale of firearms to people who legally can’t purchase them.
Dozens more bills — including one allowing supervised drug use sites to open and another seeking to reform the state’s criminal justice competency system — were also introduced Wednesday, beginning their lengthy journeys through the Capitol.
Updated at 12:06 p.m.: Senate President Steve Fenberg opened the session with a plea for civility and urged his colleagues to respect the institution.
Democracy, and the world itself, is fragile, he warned. It only faces more challenges ahead, whether because of artificial intelligence, wars abroad, or the potential for “a court-declared insurrectionist — a man who fomented a violent attack on our nation’s Capitol and our democracy — once again rising to power,” Fenberg said, invoking the Colorado court case seeking to bar former President Donald Trump from the ballot here.
“We must resist the urge to be performers,” Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat, said. “We must remind ourselves that to be a caretaker of this institution, we must legislate for constituents, and not for Twitter.”
Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, underscored the need for civility and integrity — while also warning of policies he said would harm Colorado. He cited a recent of the best places to do business that dropped Colorado from No. 4 to No. 11.
“People who have called this state home for generations are tapping out because daily life is becoming increasingly unaffordable, frequently at the hands of the policies we produce in this chamber,” Lundeen said.
The two leaders also previewed policies they hoped to accomplish in the next 120 days: Lundeen singled out a goal of reining in rules allowing lawsuits against home and condo builders that he characterized as onerous and stifling much-needed construction; Fenberg cited affordable housing and a need for land-use reform, as well as health care, wildfire precautions and the environment, property taxes and more.
Updated at 11:33 a.m.: In her opening-day speech, House Speaker Julie McCluskie touted her party’s successes last year and pledged to do more — on housing, education, water and gun violence — this year.
“This session is a new opportunity for all of us,” she said, to applause from her Democratic colleagues. “Our recent experience shows that when we collaborate and listen to each other, we deliver on our progressive values and move Colorado forward.”
McCluskie, who two days ago reprimanded Democratic Rep. Elisabeth Epps for her past comments and interruptions, also dwelled on civility and respect in the chamber. The acrimony that clouded the end of November’s special session (followed by two House Democrats resigning) has fueled pessimism about the climate in the Capitol.
As she has in recent media interviews, McCluskie on Wednesday sought to quell those anxieties.
“What we see at the national level with partisan politics and personal attacks is not what we want to see in Colorado,” she said. “That’s not the Colorado spirit. We can disagree without trying to score points.”
Updated at 10:43 a.m.: The House and Senate have officially opened the session, with a choir in the House and a small band in the Senate. The leaders of both chambers will deliver scene-setting speeches later this morning.
Shortly after the proceedings began in the House, a group of pro-Palestinian protesters began yelling and waving Palestinian flags from the gallery. Some House Republicans shouted back up at them, before most GOP lawmakers left the floor because of “safety concerns,” according to a social media post. The protesters did not enter the House floor and were led out of the room peacefully.
After the protestors were led out, they continued chanting from within the Capitol building.
Original story: The 100 members of the Colorado General Assembly are returning to the Capitol for another 120 days of productive, focused legislating.
That’s the plan, at least.
The first few days are mostly pomp and circumstance: The speaker of the House and president of the Senate, both members of the majority Democrats, will give opening-day remarks this morning, seeking to set the tone and lay out their priorities for lawmakers and the public alike.
Legislators will introduce the first slate of bills in the afternoon. Often they pick those bills to go first as a way of laying out the majority caucuses’ goals for the year.
On Thursday, Gov. Jared Polis will deliver his sixth State of the State address to . And reporters will begin consuming caffeine at dangerous levels. Faced with another full plate, legislators likely will need their fair share of Diet Coke, too.
Housing and broader affordability concerns remain a top priority, along with water and climate, gun reform and property taxes, mental health and education. Lawmakers also must pass a state budget by the end of the session in May.
All of the first-week rituals and soaring rhetoric belie the extensive, and at times grueling, work that will be necessary over the next four months to achieve the goals laid out this week. That’s true every year, but there’s a palpable feeling that 2024’s session will be particularly difficult.
It’s an election year, with many lawmakers facing voters again while several others eye opportunities in other elected offices. In the months since last year’s session gaveled to a close, legislators have filed lawsuits against their leaders. The regular 2023 session ended in acrimony for House Democrats, and similar disruptions marred the November special session.
For their part, legislative leaders have sought to sooth anxieties about the emotional state of the Capitol.
McCluskie said Tuesday morning that her goal was to “lift up civility, respectful debate, in our conversations.” Her counterpart in the Senate, President Steve Fenberg, said lawmakers “need to spend more time talking to each other, building relationships, and less time yelling at each other on Twitter.”
Expect that sentiment to be reiterated during the opening speeches Wednesday. The next four months will show if those hopes are realized.
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