Welcome to the third (and short) week of Colorado’s 2025 legislative session. A handful of early bills will appear in the House of Representatives in the coming days as lawmakers settle for more marathon oversight hearings and the first contentious committee hearing of the year.
Hearing that is for Senate Bill 5which would eliminate a unique provision of Colorado law. It requires unions to approve a second election (after the initial vote that formally establishes the union) before workers can negotiate with employers over a key part of their union contract. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 2 p.m. before the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee at the Capitol.
The bill is a priority for labor groups and Democratic lawmakers, and most Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have already expressed support. But it is opposed by business groups and by Gov. Jared Polis, who has said he is skeptical of the proposal and wants lawmakers and unions to negotiate with groups like the Colorado Chambers of Commerce and Denver Metro.
Supporters expect the bill to pass its first vote in the Senate on Tuesday, which will then send the measure to the Senate.
The House of Representatives and Senate calendars are generally reliable, although they also tend to shift for various reasons. It’s always a good idea to double check calendar online. That’s also possible tune in online for legislative hearings or watch livestreams of the work in the House and Senate on the Colorado Canal.
Here’s what else is happening this week:
A parade of oversight hearings
The first few weeks of each legislative term are usually dominated by SMART action hearings – essentially government oversight meetings, in which government agencies make presentations to committees and face some criticism or prodding from lawmakers.
That process began after the session began and continues this week. On Tuesday, the Legislature’s joint health committees will hold SMART Act hearings for the Behavioral Health Administration and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, among other health-related agencies.
The same committee will hear Wednesday from the Department of Human Services and the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing — which oversees Medicaid.
That will likely be interesting, given concerns about Medicaid cuts amid the state budget crisis and the new Trump administration. Both Tuesday and Wednesday’s hearings will begin once the House and Senate complete floor work, which will likely be mid-morning.
The Legislature’s education committees will hold oversight hearings Thursday for the departments of education, higher education and early childhood. The Joint Committees on Military and State Affairs will also hold hearings on Thursday before the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and the State Department.
Work on the first floor
The House has four bills that will receive their second reading this week. As a reminder, a bill must first pass at least one committee and then pass two votes in the upper chamber before moving to the other chamber and starting the process again. The vote in the first chamber, called second reading, is a voting vote.
Those first four bills include a measure to approve the use of a psilocybin drug, among three other health-related laws. They are all scheduled for a vote in the House of Representatives Tuesday; if they are delayed, they will likely be pushed to later in the week.
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