Source: Colorado Politics
The 2024 legislative session ended with some unfinished business for some lawmakers, a few of whom have decided to give their previously unsuccessful bills another shot. While some measures have undergone changes based on feedback from last year, others remain the same.
Here’s a look at the 2024 bills that have been brought back to the table so far:
House Bill 1040
House Bill 1040 is a near-replica of last year’s Senate Bill 039, with one key difference. Like last year’s bill, HB 1040 proposes adding nuclear energy to the state’s definition of clean energy resources, but it also carves out an exemption for nuclear energy generated by public utilities when determining property valuations.
Last year’s sponsor, Sen. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, has brought on an additional three sponsors this year, including two Democrats: Rep. Alex Valdez of Denver and Sen. Dylan Roberts of Frisco. Rep. Ty Winter, R-Trinidad, is also a sponsor of the bill.
Senate Bill 039 failed to pass through its first hearing with the Senate Committee on Transportation and Energy in 2024. This session it will appear before the other chamber first, with a hearing scheduled for the House Energy and Environment Committee.
Senate Bill 048:
Spearheaded by Sen. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City and Reps. Kyle Brown, D-Louisville and Rep. Javier Mabrey, D-Denver, this bill would require insurance providers to cover obesity and pre-diabetes treatments, including behavioral and lifestyle therapy, bariatric surgery, and weight loss medications.
The bill is a reincarnation of last session’s Diabetes Prevention & Obesity Treatment Act, sponsored by Michaelson Jenet, Brown, Mabrey, and former Sen. Joann Ginal, D-Fort Collins.
That bill faced some opposition last session due to its estimated financial impact. The bill’s fiscal note stated it would cost the state about $500 million over a three-year period. This year’s version of the bill does not yet include a fiscal note.
The bill made it through the Senate and the House Committee on Health & Human Services, but ultimately died on the calendar in the House Appropriations Committee.
Senate Bill 045
Back for its third year, Senate Bill 045 would charge the Colorado School of Public Health with analyzing draft model legislation for implementing a single-payer, not-for-profit, publicly financed and privately delivered universal health care payment system that directly compensates providers in Colorado.
Last year’s version of the bill expanded upon findings of a 2019 study that found that implementing a single-payer system would extend broader coverage to Coloradans and result in substantial cost savings.
The sponsors of the 2024 bill, Sens. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Lafayette, Janice Marchman, D-Loveland, and Reps. Karem McCormick, D-Hygiene and Andrew Boesenecker, D-Fort Collins, are all backing the legislation again this session.
The bill made it through its first chamber in both 2023 and 2024 before dying on the calendar both years.
House Bill 1031
After a similar bill failed to pass through the House amid last-minute changes in 2024, one of its sponsors has brought back a scaled-down version that will allow law enforcement officers to file a civil lawsuit if they are retaliated against for reporting misconduct by a fellow officer.
2024’s bill, sponsored by former Rep. Leslie Herod, D-Denver, Rep. Jennifer Bacon, D-Denver, and Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, originally would have required law enforcement agencies to investigate allegations of misconduct against their officers and prohibited retaliation against officers who file complaints about their colleagues’ misconduct.
After criticism from law enforcement, Herod and Bacon agreed to support an amendment that scrapped the entire bill besides its legislative declaration and required a working group to convene to discuss how to properly implement whistleblower protections and prohibit retaliation. The bill ultimately failed to pass through the House.
This year’s bill, sponsored by Bacon and Rep. Chad Clifford, D-Greenwood Village, a former Colorado Ranger, solely focuses on civil actions by law enforcement officers who are retaliated against for whistleblowing. The bill also allows an affirmative defense option for law enforcement agencies if they can prove that they would have taken the same retaliatory action against the officer for a legitimate, nonretaliatory reason, and sets a statute of limitations of two years.
House Bill 1062
House Bill 1062 is a reincarnation of 2024’s bipartisan House Bill 1162, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Armagost, R-Berthoud, and then-Rep. Marc Snyder, D-Colorado Springs.
The bill would exempt theft of firearms from the state’s sentencing structure for theft, making theft of a firearm a Class 6 felony, regardless of its value, with subsequent violations classified as separate Class 5 felonies.
Armagost is once again a sponsor on this year’s bill, along with Rep. Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, and Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, D-Pueblo.
House Bill 1162 was postponed indefinitely by the House Judiciary Committee in 2024.