General Assembly User Guide

First Things First

This page is meant to function as a primer on the fundamentals of the Colorado General Assembly. I go into more depth on certain subjects in different pages on the site and through the article. 

First of all, the Colorado General Assembly is not Congress. This is probably the #1 misconception about the General Assembly. Congress is located in Washington D.C. and is comprised of elected members from all 50 states. The General Assembly is composed of only Coloradoans, 100 to be precise, and begins in January and stops in May, lasting 120 days. 

Our State lawmaking body is the General Assembly, our National lawmaking body is Congress.

What Is The General Assembly?

Our state lawmaking happens at the Capitol, located at 200 East Colfax Ave. Denver CO, 80203. Here's what it looks like from the west side (Lincoln St. is seen in the lower left).

Inside the building are the two chambers, the Senate and the House, the Governor's office, the offices of all 100 elected members, many committee hearing rooms, the old Colorado Supreme Court chamber, and some other bits and pieces. 'General Assembly' is the term used to collectively refer to this assembly of lawmakers. 

The Lawmakers

Colorado is divided into many political districts. There are 7 Congressional districts, 65 state House districts, and 35 state Senate districts. These districts overlap each other, but only one member for each category can be elected from each. Every Coloradoan lives in a specific spot represented by 1 state Representative, 1 state Senator, and 1 Congressional Representative. You can find out which districts you live in by clicking here. Colorado has 2 Congressional Senators, but they have no districts because the entire state votes for them.

Every 10 years the district lines are redrawn in accordance with the latest Census information and are hotly contested by the parties. Many district lines are drawn to essentially guarantee a member of a specific party winning. These are called 'safe seats'. Classic safe seats are in Denver going to Democrats; Republicans usually take the rural areas in the east and far west, and Colorado Springs. 

Candidates that win elections become part of the Legislative Branch of our government which is bicameral (two chambers, House and Senate). They are known as legislators, members, or by their respected titles of Representative or Senator.

Representatives

Colorado has 65 state Representative making up the House. Once elected, a Representative has a 2 year term before they must run for their seat again. They have a 4 term limit, meaning they can only be elected 4 times, which equates to 8 years in the House. Resulting from the 2012 elections, Colorado has 37 Democratic Representatives (19 men, 18 women) and 28 Republican Representatives (18 men, 10 women). 

First time members of the General Assembly usually enter by getting elected to the House, as opposed to the Senate. Among many reasons for this, it's easier to manage because the district is geographically smaller and good for freshman to establish community ties. House seats are also more available because of relatively quick turnover rates. 

The House is led by the strongest member of the party in the majority, known as the Speaker of the House. They have much control over the agenda of legislation and the pace of floor action. They decide what bills go to what committees. Several other positions exist, like the whip, majority/minority leader, assistant leaders, speaker pro tem (to fill in when the Speaker is busy/absent), and caucus chairs.  

Chambers of the Colorado House of Representatives

In the above photo of the House, note the 65 desks facing the speaker's podium. The large black rectangle on the wall (center left) is the voting boards that illuminates, displaying each member's vote on the current measure. The photo was taken from the gallery where anyone can come watch the action of the House.

Senators

Colorado has 35 state Senators making up the Senate. Once elected, they have a 4 year term before they must run for their seat again. They have a 2 term limit, meaning they can only be elected twice, which equates to 8 years in the Senate. Senate seat elections are staggered so that not all Senators run for election every 4 years. Half of the seats are on the election cycle of 2004, 2008, 2012, etc, and the other half are on the cycle of 2006, 2010, 2014 etc. After the 2012 elections, Colorado has 20 Democratic Senators (8 men, 12 women) and 15 Republican Senators (13 men, 2 women). 

Most Senators served time in the House before transitioning over. To do that, they simply choose to run in their Senate district instead of their House district. Senate districts are much larger than House ones, requiring the candidate to have solid name recognition and reputation (or just being a party favorite in that region). 

The Senate is lead by the strongest member of the party in the majority, known as the President of the Senate. This role is analogous to the Speaker of the House; the President controls the flow of legislation and the agenda for each day. They assign bills to committees and can significantly quicken, or delay, the schedule of a bill. Just like in the House, there are a host of supporting positions for other members.

Chambers of the Colorado Senate

I'll need to find a better picture, but the above is a view of the Senate from the gallery. Notice the 35 desks facing the President's podium in the center. Since votes are done by voice in the Senate, there is no mechanism for displaying which members voted in what ways for measures being considered.

Bills, Bills, Bills

Every session many hundreds of bills are introduced in the House and Senate. Bills are essentially ideas that change current law. They might repeal (delete) an existing law. They might amend (alter) current law. They might create new laws. They might shift existing funds around different departments or change the funding mechanisms of certain provisions, both require a bill to do.

Bills are as varied as your imagination allows, likely on topics you've never heard of nor considered. For example, this year there is a bill requiring a veterinarian to certify that a livestock animal is suffering before it can be euthanized. There is a bill to exempt the 'cottage food industry', people canning and selling their own goods, from certain food safety regulations. There is a bill shifting the administrative coroner's standards and training board from the Department of Public Health and Environment to the Department of Public Safety. There is a bill requiring professionals in elder care to report suspected abuse and exploitation of seniors.

For each idea in a bill there is a special interest, or stakeholder, behind it. Sometimes there are transparent stakeholders with a transparent agenda : a bill to license the practice of a profession would be proposed by those professionals for the purpose of validating their business. Sometimes, the true motive of a bill isn't obvious at first, such as last year's coal mine methane proposal. At face value the bill appears to be an effort to open up new sources of clean energy. Digging in, you soon discover that some businesses stand to make a lot of money if the bill is passed. The people or groups behind each bill usually show up in committee to testify in support of it, so there really is no mystery or grand conspiracy to be had. This bill represents that notion extremely well.

Groups that want certain legislation passed (more frequently, certain legislation killed) are represented by lobbyists. You probably associate lobbyists with 'dirty politics' or the circumvention of democracy at large. To a limited extent that's true. My own thoughts on lobbyists can be found here. Briefly though, lobbyists are an essential ingredient of the lawmaking process. Without them not much would be done, and what little could be accomplished would be done very inefficiently. 

The Process

The basic process of lawmaking in Colorado. Note that bills can die at any stage but the first readings into a chamber.

1. A bill is introduced in its chamber of origin (either the House or the Senate).

Bills are labelled in accordance with the order of their introduction. Take HB13-1025 for example. "HB" means House Bill. "13" means the year 2013. 1025 means it's the 25th bill of the year to be introduced. House Bills are always four digits and start with 1. So, SB11-019 is a bill originating in the Senate in the year 2011, and the 19th of the year to be introduced.

All bills need at least two legislators to proceed, one from each chamber. They are known as the bill's sponsors. A bill may originate from either chamber, though it must eventually pass through both. 

Important notes:

1. Bills must be single-subject. They cannot deal with multiple subjects.
2. All bills have a number, title, and brief summary.
3. If a bill will affect state finances, a special Fiscal Note is included that shows just how it will do so.
4. Bills are translated from loose ideas to strict legal language by a team at legislative services, but nice layman summaries of them are also included.
5. Every bill must be heard in committee.
6. Bills are far likelier to die than succeed. They are killed by being PI'ed (postponed indefinitely), and that can happen in nearly every step of the following process. The Governor too may veto a bill.

2. The bill heads to committee. 

There are about a dozen committees of reference in each chamber, and a dozen interim (in between session) and joint committees. Each bill is assigned by either the Speaker or the President to at least 1 committee hearing from each chamber, usually pertaining to the subject matter of the bill. If there is a bill dealing with water, it would likely hit the Agricultural, Livestock & Natural Resource committee. If the water bill dealt with who owns the water, it might also go to the Judiciary committee. If this water bill affected state revenue (taxes) it would likely go to the Finance committee as well. This is also an extremely political decision that leadership makes. If they want the bill killed quickly, they will send it to a committee they know will be unsympathetic towards it. Conversely, bills they want to pass will go to friendly committees. 

All bills that deal with an appropriation (state money set aside for specific purposes) must go to the Appropriations Committee. That committee is notorious for killing legislation because of the especially high partisan nature of dealing with limited state resources. Because of a complex mixture of constitutional amendments, bills that propose a new expenditure of money are very unlikely to succeed unless they come with a new way to generate that money not through taxation. More on that can be found here.

Committees are made up of several members of each chamber. Some committees have members from both, they are called joint committees. A committee is run by the Chair who is a member of the majority party in that chamber. They control the pace of that committee- how much time each bill is allotted for debate, silencing members talking out of turn, being influential as to where the bill heads next (whether it dies or move to another committee), etc. More on the committee structure here.

3. The bill, if approved, goes back for Second Readings.

If a bill makes it out of the first round of committees successfully, it will go back to its chamber of origin for a second reading to all members (known better as the Committee of the Whole). There, that chamber adjourns into an informal body for debate on the bill. This is an exciting time! Members will fiercely contest a bill they disagree with, others will heroically champion it. Some might propose further amendments to it, but if the majority party isn't endorsing those changes nothing is likely be altered. Concluding second reading is a voice vote from all members on the bill. As you can imagine, voice votes are not precise. Each member literally yells 'yay' or 'nay' when asked, and the louder camp is supposedly the majority opinion. The Speaker (House) or President (Senate) has the final say. If the bill survives it goes on to Third Readings the next day. 

4. The bill is voted on in Third Readings.

At least 24 hours must pass between the second and third readings. This is to safeguard against hasty decisions but also to allow time for the bill to be delayed as necessary, in case the sponsor still needs to secure votes from fellow members. Similarly, if there is a bill the Speaker doesn't like but isn't sure there are the votes needed to kill it, they can delay until there are. In the House votes are cast electronically and displayed on giant scoreboards. In the Senate votes are cast by voice. 

5. To The Next Chamber, Reconciliation, and the Governor 

If the first chamber approves the bill it will then be sent to the next chamber and scheduled accordingly. The bill will then follow the same process through committees, to the Whole, then to third reading. If the second chamber amends the bill, and the first chamber doesn't approve those amendments, a special committee of reconciliation between the two will be held to iron out the differences. If an agreement cannot be reached the bill be will sent back through committees and starts over again. If an agreement is reached then the bill is sent to the Governor's desk for signing into law, or to be vetoed. A veto can be overridden by sufficiently large support from both chambers. 

6. About Amendments

A bill may be amended during committee hearings, during the Committee of the Whole (second reading) or even uncommonly during third reading. Amendments are changes to the bill proposed by either the sponsor or other members. Sometimes a member hates the entirety of the bill and wishes to dismember it with a nasty amendment. Sometimes a member will only support the bill if an amendment is added which satisfies their agenda. Amendments can be proposed by committee members of the committee the bill is being heard in, or by any member during the second reading. Amendments must be voted on and are added with a majority of the vote. 

It's common for second reading amendments to try and undo amendments that were passed in the previous committee.

If they are being polite, a member proposing an amendment will discuss it first with the bill's sponsor. "Hey, I'm thinking of changes to the funding mechanism to your adoption bill, what do you think?". Sometimes you'll witness high drama when, during second readings, an opponent of the bill will launch a surprise attack with an amendment. If the bill is being heard in an unfriendly environment (a minority bill that made it to second reading in a majority controlled chamber) it's very possible that an amendment could be added that hijacks it. In that case, the sponsor might ask for their bill to be laid over (delayed) or to even be postponed indefinitely (killed). The authority to lay over a bill rests in the hands of the Speaker or President.