This update provides a one-stop-shop for key updates and news around policy and legislation that impacts the Rocky Mountain Partnership’s shared goals.
State Legislative Session Updates
Below you will find any updates related to state legislation impacting RMP’s shared goals.
By the Numbers
| 307
Total Bills Introduced |
54
Bills in the RMP Tracker |
4
Of These Bills Moving to the Next Chamber |
New Bills We Are Keeping An Eye On
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Bills Being Heard in Committee This Week
These are bills that legislators are taking a deeper dive into, making amendments to, hearing from the public about, and figuring out if they should be sent back to the larger group to vote on.
Monday, February 61:30 PM
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Tuesday, February 7Upon Adjournment
1:30 PM
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Wednesday, February 8Upon Adjournment
1:30 PM
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Thursday, February 9Upon Adjournment
1:30 PM
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Click the button below to learn how you can listen in and/or participate in these hearings.
Bills Out of Committee and Headed to the Floor
These are bills that a committee of legislators said should go back to the larger group to discuss and vote on.
Monday, February 6
10:00 AM
- SB23-046: Average Weekly Wage Paid Leave Benefits
- HB23-1064: Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact
Bills That Passed Their First Chamber
To send a bill to the Governor to sign into law, bills have to be heard in and pass both the House and the Senate. The bills below have passed either the Senate or the House and are headed to the other chamber.
- SB23-048: Non-tenured Track Faculty
- SB23-051: Conforming Workforce Development Statutes
- HB23-1001: Expanding Assistance For Educator Programs
- HB23-1006: Employer Notice Of Income Tax Credits
Keep an Eye on State Legislation Using RMP’s Legislative Tracker
Over 300 bills have been introduced since the kickoff of the state legislative session.
As in past years, the RMP Backbone Team is keeping an eye on legislation impacting the network’s shared goals through our state legislative tracker. Relevant legislation will be lifted to RMP’s leadership tables to determine where education and awareness is needed to support decision makers.
Check out some of the bills introduced so far impacting these areas below.
Click the button to view RMP’s state legislative tracker in a new window.
Additional News and Updates Updates
Below you will find additional news and updates impacting RMP’s shared goals.
Goal 2: Employers improve how they hire, retain, and promote diverse talent
Colorado may end the ultimate age-discriminating work question: How old are you? |
Health care workers continue to leave workforce, leaving critical shortages |
| Senate Bill 58, also known as the Job Application Fairness Act, is straightforward: remove any part of a job application asking about age. There are exceptions, including occupations with age limits — commercial pilots, for example, must be under 65, per federal law.
The bill joins others introduced in recent years attempting to address workplace equity for Coloradans of all genders, backgrounds and abilities. It also comes at a time when the state really needs more workers and adults nearing retirement age or beyond it are seen as an underutilized workforce. |
Nearly 334,000 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other clinicians left the workforce in 2021 due to retirement, burnout and pandemic-related stressors, according to a new report.
Among physician specialties, the biggest declines were seen within internal medicine, family practice and emergency medicine fields. |
| Learn More | Learn More |
Goal 3: Increase availability and accessibility of attainable housing
New Colorado bills want to limit fees, rent increases and evictions |
| A half-dozen bills have or will soon be introduced in the state House that proponents say will better protect renters and save them money. The measures seek to tackle rising rent, prohibit certain provisions in lease agreements, and limit fees charged by landlords and the circumstances that allow for evictions.
Lawmakers and supporters of the bills say the effort is a direct result of the impact of the pandemic on housing security, which required hundreds of millions of dollars in rental aid and other government intervention to stabilize. The pandemic’s economic disruption led to widespread concerns about mass evictions, bringing broader attention to what advocates say has long been a simmering crisis for low-income Coloradans and proof that government intervention can stave off displacement. |
| Learn More |
Goal 4: Distribute funds to reduce the impact of the opioid crisis
Bill would fix oversight in Colorado fentanyl law by expanding protections for users who call 911 |
A new study could give a boost to buprenorphine prescribing by telemedicine |
| A bill introduced in the Colorado House late Thursday would expand a state law that provides immunity to drug users who try to save someone from overdosing.
It would expand those immunity protections, available under the state’s Good Samaritan law, to users who report an overdose of other illicit substances but were found to have shared drugs, and the measure would also provide an additional legal defense to some accused low-level dealers. |
The share of overdose deaths involving buprenorphine didn’t rise amid eased pandemic telemedicine prescribing rules, a new study from the CDC and the National Institutes of Health found.
Why it matters: Most people with opioid use disorder go untreated, and public health officials see virtual prescribing of buprenorphine as one of their most valuable tools to combat the opioid epidemic because it can expand treatment access. |
| Learn More | Learn More |