{"id":40707,"date":"2022-05-10T16:53:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T22:53:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-stall-tactics-in-colorado-house-threaten-dozens-of-bills-as-term-nears-close\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:57:10","slug":"republican-stall-tactics-in-colorado-house-threaten-dozens-of-bills-as-term-nears-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/republican-stall-tactics-in-colorado-house-threaten-dozens-of-bills-as-term-nears-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican stall tactics in Colorado House threaten dozens of bills as term nears close"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lawmakers
Lawmakers meet in the Colorado House of Representatives on May 1, 2019. (Jesse Paul\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Democrats in the Colorado legislature are facing the prospect that dozens of bills could die on the calendar when the 2022 lawmaking term adjourns Wednesday night as Republicans in the state House deploy stall tactics in an attempt to run out the clock.<\/p>\n

State representatives were still at their desks on the House floor when the sun came up on Tuesday morning after debating legislation for nearly 24-hours straight. The daunting situation came into view through bleary eyes: Democrats could try to work nonstop until 11:59:59 p.m. on Wednesday and jam in as much work as possible and still end with a long to-do list if the GOP doesn\u2019t back down.<\/p>\n

Bills stuck in the long queue include many that are bipartisan and uncontroversial, including measures that would change Colorado\u2019s unemployment system, increase penalties for fentanyl users and dealers, and spend millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid, including as part of efforts to address climate change. The federal money must be spent by a specific deadline, adding pressure to the backlog.<\/p>\n

Additionally, House Bill 1390, the school finance act, still needs one more vote in the House. The measure, which funds K-12 education in Colorado, is something lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass.<\/p>\n

One-hundred ninety nine bills \u2013 or roughly 20% of all the bills introduced at the Capitol this year \u2013 were still pending in the legislature as of Tuesday morning, according to nonpartisan staff.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, said the thought of the School Finance Act languishing gives him a panic attack. \u201cOur fate is with them,\u201d he said of the House.<\/p>\n

Some are frustrated that the end of the 2022 legislative session, which is already typically filled with anxiety and tension, is unfolding the way it is. The General Assembly spent the first three months of its 120-day term with a mostly light workload. Then the Democratic majority in the House decided not to work over the weekend despite the chamber\u2019s jam-packed calendar and the ticking clock.<\/p>\n

Then, on Monday, House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar, a Pueblo Democrat, was participating remotely. She is typically in charge of managing the calendar and negotiating with Republicans to keep work moving.<\/p>\n

Huddled in a tiny room in the Capitol late Monday trying, House Republicans were debating their next move and how to wield their power. The caucus was split between trying to win concessions from Democrats and continuing their filibuster through Wednesday night to see how much legislation they could snuff out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI might suggest that we look at this from the day and the week after,\u201d state Rep. Ron Hanks, R-Fremont County, told his caucus. \u201cHow much could we have killed and how much could we tell the entire state \u2018We left 50 bills on the table because we fought this\u2019? I just want to say this: If anybody wants to fight, I will make myself available.\u201d<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, R-Loveland, said he would keep negotiating but that he wanted Democrats to be willing to give up more in exchange for the stall tactics to stop. Small changes to legislation Republicans find objectionable, he signaled, will not be enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just getting to order off the kids\u2019 menu,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019d be nice to know that we can actually get into some of the entr\u00e9es.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats agreed to make some changes to their bills early Tuesday, but it was unclear if they were enough to break the logjam.<\/p>\n

In a moment of schadenfreude Monday night, the Colorado Senate, where legislation has been moving at a normal pace, couldn\u2019t help but laugh at the situation unfolding in the House.<\/p>\n

Colorado Senate President Steve Fenberg jokingly read a fake, one-word message from the lower chamber: \u201cHelp!\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the jest, Fenberg \u2013 who also said that his \u201cthoughts and prayers are with\u201d the House \u2013 said he realizes the situation in the House poses a real threat to the Democrats\u2019 agenda. Democrats could push for a special legislative session to be called if enough priority bills die on the calendar, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there are a significant amount of big priority bills that don\u2019t get across the finish line, I think that would be a very reasonable thing to start discussing,\u201d he said. \u201cI just don\u2019t think we\u2019re there yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fenberg added: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to allow the \u2018Lord of the Flies\u2019 caucus (House Republicans) to keep us from passing a couple of incredibly important bills for Coloradans.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing story that will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

change unemployment system, increase penalties for fentanyl crimes, spend federal coronavirus aid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[394,233,28,29,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-coloradosun-com","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84733,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40707\/revisions\/84733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40707"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}