X-02-1-Review Period for Proposed State Legislation

WHEREAS: Colorado legislators may introduce as many as five bills during each legislative session, not including legislation that makes appropriations or bills that are recommend by committees that meet between legislative sessions, which results in well over 500 bills being proposed during a legislative session; and WHEREAS: In addition to the aforementioned opportunities for new legislation, legislators may receive approval from the legislative leadership to introduce “Late Bills” at any time during the session; and WHEREAS: Legislation can at times be pushed through both houses and committees without sufficient review by the public due to the large of amount of legislation being proposed; and WHEREAS: The current deadlines for proposed legislation do not provide legislators with sufficient amount of time to review and receive input from their constituents regarding all proposed legislation; and WHEREAS: “Late Bill” status significantly limits the amount of review and discussion that can occur on a bill when introduced at the last minute; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that CLUB 20 encourages the Colorado General Assembly to amend house-senate and/or joint house/senate rules to require that all regular session bills and/or titles be submitted 30 days prior to the first day of the session so that legislators may review and receive input from their constituents. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CLUB 20 encourages the General Assembly to further limit the number of bills allowed “Late Bill” status to only those matters that could not have been anticipated prior to the beginning of the session and that must be acted on prior to the next legislative session. Adopted September 6, 2002