My Legislation
Listed below are the the details of details & summaries regarding all 36 bills I passed and signed by the Governor in the 2024 and 2023 legislative sessions, organized by issue. To keep the most up to date with the status of my bills, please check out my General Assembly website.
Committee Assignments
Year Around Committees:
House Finance Committee - Vice Chair
Finance is the foundation of the state. The House Finance Committee generally considers matters related to a broad range of public finance proposals including legislation that affects the state's revenue and tax structure. I am honored to serve as the Vice Chair of such a vital committee that serves an essential role to our legislature.
House Energy & Environment
The House Energy & Environment Committee generally considers matters concerning energy and environment. In addition, the committee also has legislative oversight responsibility for divisions of the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Public Health and Environment, the Public Utilities Commission, and the Colorado Energy Office.
Aerospace and Defense Caucus Co-Chair
The Caucus consists of state legislators who advocates for the massive impact that the space and defense industries have on the state's economy within the state.
Interim Committees
Child Welfare System Study Committee
Child Welfare is an area that deeply impacts so many Coloradans lives in direct and meaningful ways. This interim committee will be taking a holistic look at Colorado's child welfare system to address the major factors facing the system to better serve the state's children and families. The responsibility of examining a system that is designed to promote the well-being of our most vulnerable community members is one I do not take lightly.
American Indian Affairs Committee- Member
This is a newly founded committee. I was one of the legislators involved in spearheading the creation of this committee to foster better relations between the State of Colorado and Native Coloradans.
Serving as Vice Chair on the Finance Committee
2024
Legislation
Listed below are details & summaries regarding all 17 bills I spearheaded and signed by the Governor in the 2024 legislative session, organized by issue.
Courts and Judiciary
During this session, I passed 2 bills to support workers and organizations in the criminal justice system.
HB24-1291: Licensed Legal Paraprofessionals
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅| Sponsors: Representative English, Representative Joseph, Senator Roberts, Senator Gardner
Summary: This bill approved the licensure of legal paraprofessionals to represent clients and perform certain legal services related to domestic matters. This bill ensures access to justice for indigent families. To read more, click here.
HB24-1286: Equal Justice Fund Authority
Session : 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅| Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Lindsay, Senator Roberts, Senator Priola
Summary: This bill creates the equal justice fund authority as a special purpose authority to administer the equal justice fund for the purpose of providing monetary support to local organizations that provide legal representation and legal advice to low-income individuals. The bill requires certain court filings to incur an additional $20 filing fee that must be annually deposited into the equal justice fund. The bill prohibits a judge from requiring indigent parties to pay the docket fee for a civil action. To read more, click here.
Children and Domestic Matters
I passed 6 bills that focused on ensuring that children have access to the childcare and resources they need.
HB24-1009: Bilingual Childcare Licensing Resources
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅| Sponsors: Representative McLachlan, Representative Joseph, Senator Ginal, Senator Rich
Summary: The bill creates the bilingual licensing unit within the the Department of Early Childhood, which requires the Department to offer services in prevalent languages (i.e., Spanish) for those wishing to work in childcare services. To read more, see here
HB24-1170: Rights for Youth Division of Youth Services Facilities
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Ortiz, Senator Gonzalez, Senator Michaelson Jenet
Summary: This bill establishes a detailed bill of rights for incarcerated youths with special provisions for to protect and promote the rights of LGBTQ+ Youths. To read more, see here.
HB24-1031: Accessibility for Persons in Child Welfare Matters
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Bradley, Senator Kirkmeyer, Senator Michaelson Jenet
Summary: This bill concerns measures to increase language access to persons involved in the child welfare system. To read more, see here.
SB24-113: Safer Youth Sports
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Wilford, Senator Exum, Senator Coleman
Summary: The bill mandates that nonprofit and for-profit youth sports organizations adhere to certain requirements, in order to protect children and youth from child abuse in sports.To read more, see here.
SB24-200: Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Child Welfare
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Bacon, Senator Coleman, Senator Michaelson Jenet
Summary: The bill mandates the Department of Human Services to annually update its equity, diversity, and inclusion report, addressing data challenges and training progress in child welfare, strengthen DEI training. To read more, see here.
SB24-202: Assignment of Child Support Foster Youth
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Epps, Senator Fields
Summary: The bill eliminates the requirement for a court order to impose fees on parents who are going through the child welfare system. To read more, see here.
Fiscal Policy and Taxes
This session I passed 2 bills pertaining to taxes, a key issue to the finances of my constituency.
HB24-1142: Reduce Income Tax Social Security Benefits
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Holtorf, Senator Winter, Senator Pelton
Summary: The bill expands the current income tax subtraction for social security benefits. Current law allows any individual who is 65 years of age or older at the close of a taxable year to subtract the total amount of social security benefits that the individual received from the individual's federal taxable income, to the extent those benefits were included in federal taxable income, when determining the individual's state taxable income. The bill expands this subtraction to an individual who is 55 years of age or older but less than 65 years of age and whose adjusted gross income for the applicable tax year is less than or equal to $75,000 if filing individually or $95,000 if filing jointly. The bill requires the department of revenue to collect information necessary to measure the effectiveness of the income tax subtraction. To read more, see here.
HB24-1240: AmeriCorps Education Award Tax Subtraction
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Weinberg, Senator Rich, Senator Exum
Summary: The bill creates an income tax subtraction for the next 3 income tax years between 2026 to 2033 for the amount of any Segal AmeriCorps Education Award received by a taxpayer for service in the AmeriCorps national service program. To read more, see here.
Ensuring Healthy Communities
These are 2 bills that will promote our access to healthcare and a sustainable environment.
HB24-1449: Environmental Sustainability Circular Economy
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Lindsay, Senator Cutter, Senator Priola
Summary: the Bill repealed and replaced existing waste management programs, and created the Colorado Circular Communities Enterprise to provide grants and technical assistance to those organizations working in the circular economy industry, along with establishing a statewide voluntary sustainability program. To read more, see here.
HB24-1115: Prescription Drug Label Accessibility
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Young, Senator Fenberg
Summary: The bill requires pharmacies to provide patients who have difficulty seeing or reading standard printed labels with a method to access to prescription drug label information. Pharmacies must, upon request, provide patients and a patient’s caretaker with:
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an electronic label that transmits information to an external accessible device;
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a prescription drug label in braille or large print;
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a prescription drug reader; or
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any other means identified as a best practice by the U.S. Access Board. To read more, see here.
Elections and Good Governance
These bills relate to structural aspects of our state government - maintaining the integrity of out our election system and ensuring the efficacy of our leadership.
HB24-1147: Candidate Election Deepfake Disclosures
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Titone, Senator Hansen, Senator Buckner
Summary: The bill creates a statutory scheme to regulate the use of deepfakes produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in communications about candidates for elective office.
To read more, see here.
HB24-1118: Authority of Attorney General to Operate District Attorney's Office
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Marshall, Senator Roberts, Senator Gardner
Summary: This bill gives the Attorney General (AG) the authority to manage and operate a district attorney's office in specific circumstances. To read more, see here.
SB24-216: Standards for Decisions Regarding Library Resources
Session: 2024 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Hamrick, Senator Cutter, Senator Michaelson Jenet
Summary: The bill mandates public library boards to create and publicly post policies for acquiring, retaining, and potentially removing materials, prohibiting removal based on the author's demographics or partisan disapproval, and protecting library staff from retaliation for adhering to these policies, while requiring removal requests to come from local patrons and be treated as open records.
To read more, see here.
2023 Legislation
Listed below are details & summaries regarding all 19 bills I spearheaded and signed by the Governor in the 2023 legislative session, organized by issue.
Increasing Access to Justice
During this session, I passed three bills that will help those in the criminal justice system and those facing charges.
HB23-1033: Alternate Defense Counsel Contracts
Session: 2023 | Status: PASSED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Sharbini, Representative Joseph, Senator Gonzales
Summary: Current law directs the office of alternate defense counsel to contract with attorneys and investigators to provide legal representation to clients who are indigent. The bill directs the office of alternate defense counsel to also contract with other persons who are necessary to provide legal services to persons who are indigent. The bill requires that the legal services provided by attorneys and other persons must be commensurate with the legal services that persons who are not indigent receive.
To read more, see here.
Rep. Sharbini and I presenting HB23-1033 to the House Judiciary Committee.
HB23-1086: Due Process Asset Forfeiture Act
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative DeGraaf, Representative Joseph, Senator Baisley, Senator Winter
Summary: The bill requires that a report related to a seizure and forfeiture includes the estimated value and new equity of the property and information on the outcome of the forfeiture proceeding.
HB23-1280: Colorado Access To Justice Commission
Session : 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Soper, Senator Roberts, Senator Gardner
Summary: The bill codifies the Colorado Access to Justice Commission. The governor, legislative leadership, supreme court of Colorado, and Colorado legal organizations are to appoint the 17- to 20-member commission. Additionally, the Colorado supreme court justice liaison, the executive director of Colorado legal services, the executive director of the legal aid foundation of Colorado, and a representative of the Colorado attorney general serve as ex officio nonvoting members of the commission. The bill directs the commission to make recommendations regarding legislative and regulatory changes that could help improve access to justice for all Coloradans.
Governor Polis signing HB23-1280 into law.
Keeping Children in School
I passed 2 bills that focused on keeping children in school, especially those with disabilities.
HB23-1168: Legal Representation And Students With Disabilities
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅| Sponsors: Representative Sharbini, Representative Joseph, Senator Winter
Summary: The bill requires the department of education to enter into a service agreement with a nonprofit organization to create and maintain a list of attorneys qualified to represent a parent in a due process complaint filed by an education provider concerning issues disputed in a state complaint in which the parent prevailed. The service agreement is for 5 years.The bill requires the department to include information on attorney appointments in the procedural safeguard notice and in materials distributed to parents describing due process complaint procedures.
Lt. Governor Primavera signing HB23-1168 into law.
HB23-1291: Procedures For Expulsion Hearing Officers
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Gonzales-Gutierrez, Senator Winter, Senator Fields
Summary: The bill clarifies the school expulsion hearing process and provides more regulation and training for hearing officers. With this bill, a school district has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that a student violated state law and the school district's policy. School districts are also required to provide all records that the school district intends to use as supporting evidence for expulsion or denial of admission to the student or the student's parent, guardian, or legal custodian at least 2 business days in which school is in session prior to the hearing. Additionally, hearing officers are required to consider specific factors in determining findings of fact and recommendations at the conclusion of a hearing.The bill requires the board of education of each school district to adopt a policy that states a student must not be expelled or denied admission unless the school district considers whether alternative remedies are appropriate and whether excluding the student from school is necessary to preserve the learning environment.
Rep. Gonzales-Gutierrez and I with testifiers for
HB23-1291 after the House Education Committee hearing.
Housing and Renters Protection
Housing is a major issue impacting Coloradans. During the session, I passed two bills to protect those facing eviction and help provide more middle income housing.
HB23-1120: Eviction Protections For Residential Tenants
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Ortiz, Senator Fields, Senator Winter
Summary: The bill requires a landlord and residential tenant to participate in mandatory mediation prior to commencing an eviction action if the residential tenant receives supplemental security income, federal social security disability insurance, or cash assistance through the Colorado works program, barring certain exceptions. Failure to comply with mandatory mediation is an affirmative defense.
Rep. Ortiz and I with testifiers for HB23-1120 after the
House Judiciary Committee Hearing.
SB23-035: Middle-income Housing Authority Act
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Bridges, Senator Moreno, Representative Herod, Representative Joseph
Summary: Under current law, the Middle-income Housing Authority has the power to make and enter into contracts or agreements with public or private entities to facilitate public-private partnerships. The bill clarifies this power of the authority to enter into public-private partnerships.
Protecting Us & Our Environment
This session, I worked to pass legislation that would protect our communities from wildfires and strengthen our commitment to combating climate change.
HB23-1075: Wildfire Evacuation And Clearance Time Modeling
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Snyder, Representative Joseph, Senator Exum
Summary: The bill requires the Office of Emergency Management to study the efficacy and feasibility of local or inter-jurisdictional emergency management agencies with jurisdiction in a wildfire risk area to integrate evacuation and clearance time modeling into the emergency management plans that such an agency is required to adopt for its area. The report must be completed on or before December 1, 2023, and the office must report the findings of the study to specific committees of the general assembly during the 2024 legislative session.
HB23-1134: Require Electric Options In Home Warranties
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Kipp, Senator Cutter
Summary: The bill requires that, on and after January 1, 2024, every home warranty service contract that provides coverage for the replacement of any of certain gas-fueled appliances must include certain terms.
Presenting HB23-1134 to the House Energy & Environment Committee
These terms allow the homeowner to replace the gas-fueled appliance with a similar device of the homeowner's choosing that operates on electricity rather than gas. A home warranty service contract may require a homeowner to pay any additional cost to replace a gas-fueled appliance with an appliance that has a retail cost that exceeds the cost of replacing the gas-fueled appliance with another gas-fueled appliance under the terms of the home warranty service contract.
HB23-1242: Water Conservation In Oil And Gas Operations
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Boesenecker, Representative Joseph, Senator Cutter, Senator Priola
Summary: The bill requires an oil and gas operator in the state, on or before January 1 , 2024, and quarterly thereafter, to report information to the Colorado oil and gas conservation commission regarding the operator's use of water entering, utilized at, or exiting each of the operator's oil and gas locations, including information on the recycling and reuse of produced water. The bill requires a statewide reduction in fresh water usage and a corresponding increase in recycled water usage in oil and gas operations. The bill creates the Colorado Produced Water Consortium in the Department of Natural Resources to make recommendations to state agencies and the general assembly regarding the recycling and reuse of produced water, develop guidance documents to promote best practices for in-field recycling and reuse of produced water, and analyze and report on existing produced water infrastructure, storage, and treatment facilities; the volume of produced water in different oil and gas basins available for recycling and reuse; and additional infrastructure, storage, and technology needed to achieve different levels of recycling and reuse of produced water throughout the state.
Rep. Boesnecker and I presenting HB23-1242 to the House Energy & Environment Committee.
HB23-1272: Tax Policy that Advance Decarbonization
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Weissman, Representative Joseph, Senate President Fenberg, Senator Cutter
Summary: This bill extends tax credits for the purchase or lease of electric vehicles. The bill also creates tax credits for industrial facilities to implement greenhouse gas emissions reduction improvements, for expenditures made in connection with geothermal energy projects, for production of geothermal electricity generation and for the deployment of heat pump technology. In addition to vehicle sales, the bill creates tax credits for retail sales of electric bicycles and for construction of sustainable aviation fuel production facilities. The bill also creates a temporary specific ownership tax rate reduction on a portion of the sale of electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks and temporarily decreases the severance tax credit for oil and gas production, requiring the revenue that is attributable to the decrease be deposited in the Decarbonization Tax Credits Administration cash fund, and creates the Decarbonization Tax Credits Administration cash fund cash fund.
HB23-1273: Creation Of Wildfire Resilient Homes Grant Program
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Snyder, Representative Joseph, Senator Roberts
Summary: The bill creates the Wildfire Resilient Homes Grant Program within the Division of Fire Prevention and Control. The program allows homeowners to apply to receive a grant for retrofitting or improving a house or other structure on the homeowner's property with strategies and technologies for structure hardening in order to make the house or structure more resilient to the risk of wildfire.
SB23-191: Colorado Department Of Public Health And Environment Organics Diversion Study
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Cutter, Representative Joseph, Representative Kipp
Summary: The bill requires the Department of Public Health and Environment to study the impacts, benefits, and feasibility of requiring diversion of organic materials from landfills. The organics diversion study must accomplish certain tasks. It must incorporate and utilize data contained in the statewide organics management plan and other existing Colorado studies and research from other states, explore how to leverage existing organics diversion pilot projects in Colorado to inform implementation of broader organics diversion projects across the state and evaluate the environmental benefits of diversion of organic materials from landfills. The study is also required to outline and recommend policies and regulations that would enable diversion of organic materials from landfills, assess informational resources necessary to enable diversion of organic materials from landfills, and identify opportunities for end-market development of organic materials diverted from landfills.
Helping Children and Families
Child support and custody were major focuses of mine during the 2023 session.
HB23-1027: Parent And Child Family Time
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Weissman, Senator Winter
Summary: The bill defines "family time", changes the term "visitation" to "family time" in various places in statute, creates new requirements for determinations in dependency and neglect court proceedings, and requires the task force on high-quality family time to commission and evaluate a state study.
Myself and the mothers who came out to testify for HB23-1027 to the House Judiciary Committee.
HB23-1157: Uniform Unregulated Child Custody Transfer Act
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Representative Joseph, Representative Weinberg, Senator Exum, Senator Gardner
Summary: The bill prohibits transferring custody of a child by means other than a legal adoption or guardianship proceeding, a judicial award of custody, other judicial or tribal action, or Colorado's safe haven law; and soliciting or advertising to transfer custody of or locate a child in a manner that violates the requirements of the act or to facilitate such a transfer.
The bill requires child placement agencies facilitating the adoption to provide prospective adoptive parents with general information about adopting children with health or behavioral issues, specific information on the physical and psychological health of the prospective adoptee, and guidance and instruction on dealing with the potential challenges that may arise in raising the adoptee. The bill also requires the agencies provide information on accessing certain post-placement and post-adoption financial assistance and supportive services to the adoptee and parent to help preserve the adoption.
SB23-173: Colorado Child Support Commission Recommendations
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Felds, Senator Liston, Representative Bradley, Representative Joseph
Summary: The bill enacts recommendations from the state Child Support Commission.
After SB23-173 passed unanimously in the Public & Behavioral Health & Human Services Committee
Improving Quality of Life for All Coloradans
There are three bills that I passed that focus on worker benefits, gun safety, and healthcare
SB23-017: Additional Uses Paid Sick Leave
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Winter, Representative Willford, Representative Joseph
Summary: The bill expands the use of paid sick leave. It allows an employee to use accrued paid sick leave when the employee needs to care for a family member whose school or place of care has been closed due to inclement weather, loss of power, loss of heating, loss of water, or other unexpected occurrence or event that results in the closure of the family member's school or place of care.
Sick leave can be used to grieve, attend funeral services or a memorial, or deal with financial and legal matters that arise after the death of a family member.
The bill also expands sick leave to cover the evacuation of the employee's place of residence due to inclement weather, loss of power, loss of heating, loss of water, or other unexpected occurrence or event that results in the need to evacuate the employee's residence.
Rep. Willford and I presenting SB23-017 to the House Committee on Business Affairs & Labor
SB23-279: Unserialized Firearms And Firearm Components
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Fields, Senator Hansen, Representative Boesenecker, Representative Joseph
Summary: This bill prohibits knowingly possessing or transporting an unfinished firearm frame or receiver, unless it has been imprinted with a serial number as required by federal law.
Under this bill, a person cannot knowingly sell, offer to sell, or transfer a firearm or frame or receiver of a firearm that is not imprinted with a serial number. Finally, the bill prohibits manufacturing or causing to be manufactured a firearm, or frame or receiver of a firearm; unless the manufacturer is a federally licensed firearm manufacturer.
Governor Polis signing SB23-279 into law.
SB23-288: Coverage for Doula Services
Session: 2023 | Status: SIGNED ✅ | Sponsors: Senator Rhonda Fields, Senator Janet Buckner, Representative English, Representative Joseph
Summary: The bill requires the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to initiate a stakeholder process to promote the expansion and utilization of doula services for pregnant and postpartum medicaid recipients. The bill requires the department to seek federal authorization for medicaid providers to provide doula services for pregnant and postpartum people.
The bill creates a doula scholarship program to provide financial support to eligible individuals to pursue doula training and certification. To be eligible for a scholarship, individuals must agree to enroll as a doula provider and provide doula services to recipients.
Lt. Governor Primavera signing HB23-1168 into law.