Legislative Updates

2025 Bill Tracker: https://fastdemocracy.com/shared-bills/?sharing-bill-list-id=3gdIBEhNA0h5 

2025 Post Session Report

The 76th General Assembly officially adjourned Wednesday evening, May 7th, following a hectic final week that saw the House working through the weekend to wrap up the remainder of the calendar.

Over the course of the session, 733 bills, resolutions and memorials were introduced. As lawmakers entered the final 48 hours, 128 bills still awaited action. For those measures that did pass in the closing days, Governor Polis now has 30 days to sign, veto, or allow them to become law without his signature.
 
Throughout the session, including weekends and late nights, our State Affairs team was hard at work to advance, amend, and defeat legislation on behalf of our clients, a few of which include: 

• Receiving the Governor’s signature on HB25-1060: Electronic Fence Detection System defining this type of fence as a security system.
• The passage of HB25-1204: Colorado Indian Child Welfare Act, also known as ICWA, codifying ICWA in state statute ensuring protections for the removal and placement of Indian children including placement preferences with family and tribal members. 
• The successful passage of SB25-061: Federally Recognized Tribes & Construction of Laws clarifying that laws passed by the General Assembly do not impact the federally recognized Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the boundaries of the Southern Ute reservation. 
• Successfully amended HB25-1272: Construction Defects & Middle Market Housing 
• Passed SB25-069: Tire Chain Traction Control Device Permit creating a permit allowing the holder to install or remove tire chains or alternate traction devices on motor vehicles in a certain location 
• The successful passage of SB25-071: Prohibit Restrictions on 340B Drugs providing protections for our hospitals and safety net providers in relation to the 340B drug program 
• Providing much needed aide to our restaurants through the passage of HB25-1208: Local Governments Tip Offsets for Tipped Employees allowing local governments that have enacted a minimum wage to increase their tip offset amount as long as it does not fall below the state’s tipped minimum wage. 
• Passed HB25-1209: Marijuana Regulation Streamline making several changes to the regulation of marijuana businesses. 
• Lobbied successful carve out amendments for SB25-276: Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status 
• Accomplished the passage of SB25-266: Extending Spinal & Related Medicine Program for an additional five years. 

In addition to the bills we have kept you updated on over the past 120 days, we have provided an overview of this year’s most significant legislation below: 

Housing

Housing policy remained a top priority during the 2025 legislative session as lawmakers responded to a growing demand for affordability. This year saw a significant push to unlock new housing supply, streamline development on underutilized land, while balancing the interests of builders, consumers, and local governments. 
 
At the center of this year’s housing debate stood HB25-1272: Construction Defects & Middle Market Housing, the follow up to last year’s unsuccessful construction defects bill. After countless hours of stakeholder negotiations, this year’s bill shifted away from last year’s middle market approach to encourage the construction of condos and replaced that with a new concept, the Multifamily Construction Incentive Program. Outlined in the bill, this will be a new voluntary program that contractors may participate in to limit the grounds for which a construction defect can be claimed against participating builders. To participate in the program, builders must provide certain warranties for their project and provide a third-party inspection throughout the project. 
 
HB25-1272 competed against HB25-1261: Consumer Construction Defect Action which focused the construction defects argument on consumer protections. HB25-1261 was unsuccessful and was postponed indefinitely in committee while HB25-1272 achieved success and is awaiting the Governor’s signature. 
 
HB25-1169: Housing Development on Faith and Educational Land took a different approach to the affordable housing crisis requiring local governments to allow the construction of residential developments on properties owned by faith-based organizations, school districts or state colleges providing a streamlined administrative approval process bypassing traditional zoning and permitting hurdles. Opposition stepped out on the bill for undermining local control, a theme we saw frequently this session. Despite strong support from housing advocates, the bill died on the calendar. 
 
Along the same lines but met with less opposition was SB25-002: Regional Building Codes for Factory-Built Structures. Factory built structures refers to buildings that are assembled in a factory and then transported to a site for installation. This bill directs the State Housing Board to develop regional building codes for factory-built structures. The new regional building codes will supersede local codes and other state regulations that apply to factor-built structures. 

Energy & Environment

Policymakers advanced a wide-ranging set of energy and environmental bills aimed at accelerating decarbonization, promoting energy reliability, and expanding access to clean technology. The legislation also demonstrates a strategic interest in positioning Colorado as a leader in emerging sectors, such as data centers and nuclear energy, while maintaining its progressive clean energy standards. 
 
HB25-1269: Building Decarbonization Measures creates the Building Decarbonization Enterprise in the Colorado Energy Office to provide technical assistance, financing, and other support for building decarbonization measures. Covered building owners will be required to pay a $400 fee to the enterprise. The bill also addresses building performance standards and directs the Air Quality Control Commission to adopt rules to develop 2040 performance standards for buildings. Upon introduction, the bill received an initial outpouring of opposition but over the course of the session the bill sponsors worked closely with opponents to refine the bill. The collaboration negotiated 19 amendments resulting in a significantly improved bill that shifted much of the opposition into neutral positions. 
 
An increased interest in nuclear technologies helped move the conversation forward on HB25-1040: Adding Nuclear Energy as a Clean Energy Resource. The bill was ran unsuccessfully over the last several sessions but gained success and the Governor’s signature this year. HB25-1040 includes nuclear energy to the definition of “clean energy” for the state’s renewable energy standards and the Rural Clean Energy Project Finance Program. 
 
HB25-1096: Automated Permits for Clean Energy Technology was introduced to require local governments to implement an automated permitting software to evaluate residential solar panel installation applications. If the software approved the permit, the local government would be unable to object to the approval. The bill received opposition for its attack on local control and was amended from a mandated penalty structure to instead open the ability for local governments to receive grants from the Automated Permit Processing for Solar Grant Program. 

Workforce Employment

This session’s workforce bills took hours of negotiation and debate. Many of these bills were shaped through months of stakeholdering with labor unions, employers, local governments, and business. Our firm worked at the intersection of these often-competing interests to help refine and balance the proposals being offered this session recognizing the practical impacts on employers.  
 
Kicking it off with one of the most controversial bills of the session, SB25-005: Worker Protection Collective Bargaining sought to repeal the requirement for a second election to unionize in Colorado and requires non-union workers to pay union fees. Labor unions and business leaders attempted to negotiate compromise language but could not come to an agreement. Heavily debated into the last 2 days of session, the bill received approval from the Senate and House but Governor Polis has announced he will be vetoing the bill. 
 
HB25-1300: Workers’ Compensation Benefits Proof of Entitlement, as introduced, allows an injured worker to choose their own healthcare provider instead of being limited to a pre-approved list of healthcare providers provided by the employer. The bill also shifted the burden of proof in a workers compensation case from the employee onto the employer. The bill was met with strong opposition from the business community leading for the burden of proof to be amended out of the bill, but opposition worked against the bill into the last week of session feeling this bill opens up abuse in the workers compensation system. Expecting a veto from Governor Polis, sponsors of the bill held it back on the last day of session to add an additional amendment pushing out the effective date. Whether this will gain a signature from the Governor is yet to be seen. 
 
The argument on wage theft continued this session in the form of HB25-1001: Enforcement Wage Hour Laws. Many will remember last year’s wage theft bill targeting the construction industry receiving a veto from Governor Polis. This year’s wage theft bill applies to all professions in the private sector, amending the definition of employer to include any individual who owns or controls at least 25% of the ownership interest of a company and increased the limit that the director of the division can adjudicate claims for nonpayment of wages while listing the penalties for engaging in wage theft. On the last Tuesday of session, sponsors added a late amendment to the bill requiring a report to the Joint Budget Committee on enforcement of wage hour laws. This last minute addition could help the bill avoid the Governor’s veto this year. 
 
In an attempt to help our struggling restaurant industry in Colorado, HB25-1208: Local Governments Tip Offsets for Tipped Employees allows local governments that have an enacted minimum wage that exceeds the state minimum wage to increase their tip offset amount as long as it does not fall below the state’s tipped minimum wage. The bill received heavy media attention prompting the the House Majority Leader to bring stakeholder groups together to come to a compromise. The bill awaits the Governor’s signature. 
 
HB25-1286: Protecting Workers from Extreme Temperatures was soundly defeated by the substantial opposition mainly represented by the business community. The bill attempted to initiate a temperature related industry and illness prevention plan establishing temperature thresholds that require action, introducing monitoring and reporting obligations and outlining penalties for noncompliance. The requirements laid out in the bill overlapped with OSSHA requirements and put undue burden on industries across the state particularly impacting small businesses.

Education

HB25-1320: School Finance Act sets FY25-26 funding levels for Colorado’s 178 school districts and makes changes to the implementation of the new school finance formula adopted in HB24-1448 expanding the phase-in period for the new formula from 6 to 7 years. While addressing this year’s budget deficit, the Joint Budget Committee very notably refused to touch the budget stabilization factor and kept full funding for K-12. 
 
HB25-1135: Communication Devices in Schools is a bipartisan bill that will require school district and the Charter School institute to adopt and implement a policy concerning cell phone use during the school day. Under the bill, these policies cannot prohibit students from possessing or using a cell phone if it is necessary for compliance with disability standards, special education programs, or to monitor a medical condition.

Healthcare 
 
Healthcare legislation was among the most contentious and closely watched policy areas of the 2025 session. Many of the measures drew significant debate drawing sharp lines between providers, insurers, and patient advocates with intense negotiations taking place across the healthcare community. Despite the controversy, several high-impact bills advanced, thanks to engagement and compromise. 
 
Together, SB25-071: Prohibit Restrictions on 340B Drugs & SB25-124: Reducing Costs of Health Care for Patients formed the centerpiece of what became the most contentious and highest lobbied policy battle of the legislative session. A debate that continued into the last day of session, SB25-071 focused on protecting the federal 340B drug discount program from restrictive practices by pharmaceutical manufacturers, a priority for hospitals and safety-net providers while SB25-124 places new requirements on the use of profits from the 340B Drug Pricing Program and adds new reporting provisions. SB25-071 will be moving to the Governor’s desk for his signature, but SB25-124 was unable to make it past the finish line on the final day of session. 

 
SB25-045: Health-Care Payment System Analysis requires the Colorado School of Public Health in the University of Colorado to create a report on model legislation for a universal single-payer health care system. The same bill ran unsuccessfully over the past several sessions but found success this year after shifting the funding to rely on gifts, grants, and donations instead of relying on general fund dollars. Opponents remain critical on the idea of universal health care pointing to issues other countries face with the system, particularly access to timely care. The report on model legislation will be presented to the General Assembly by December 31^st, 2026. 
 
Similarly, two additional bills that were defeated last session made it across the finish line this year. HB25-152: Health-Care Practitioner Identification Requirements requires certain medical practitioners to communicate information about their state-issued qualifications to patients and SB25-166: Health-Care Workplace Violence Incentive Payments requires quality incentive payments to hospitals to include performance metrics related to workplace violence. Through refined bill language and stronger stakeholder alignment sponsors were able to overcome past hurdles and secure the Governor’s signature on both bills.  

Other Notable Bills: 
 
Beyond the issues of housing, healthcare, energy, workforce, and education the 2025 legislative session featured a number of significant bills that addressed advancing technologies, civil rights, and constitutional questions.
 
Activity taking place at the federal level prompted state lawmakers to introduced SB25-276: Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status limiting cooperation between local and federal authorities, offering new legal relief options for non-citizens, restricting federal immigration enforcement in schools, hospitals, and childcare centers. The latest change to the bill came in a contentious provision allowing individuals to seek to vacate a guilty plea in certain criminal cases if they were not properly advised of the consequences. The bill is awaiting the Governor’s signature. 
 
This year’s budget faced a $1.2B deficit with Democrats and Republicans arguing differing opinions as to what caused the deficit. Republicans blame overspending and mismanagement of the budget while Democrats placed the blame on the inability to retain additional revenue under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). Democrat legislators attempted to take advantage of the deficit introducing a House Joint Resolution, HJR25-1023: Require General Assembly TABOR constitutionality Lawsuit. The resolution sought to challenge the constitutionality of TABOR despite several failed attempts to remove it in past ballot measures. The bill died on the calendar but is likely not the last attempt to rid Colorado of TABOR. 
 
Last year, a first in the nation Artificial Intelligence consumer protections bill, SB24-205, was passed in the final week of the legislative session. The 2024 bill was broadly viewed from both the tech industry and consumer advocates as rushed, confusing, and unworkable. Upon urging from the Governor and the Attorney General, sponsors of last year’s bill attempted to negotiate a “fix bill” which was introduced as SB25-318: Artificial Intelligence Consumer Protections. While the introduced bill moved in the right direction, the bill remained problematic and with only a few days remaining in session, advocates persisted in their request to push out the implementation date of the original bill to January 2027 to allow additional time to continue to work on fixes to the bill. Frustrations surrounding SB25-318 led to it being postponed indefinitely in committee leaving no solution or extension on the table. An attempt to amend the January 2027 extension into another technology related bill (SB25-322) on the second to last night of session was unsuccessful. Advocates now shifted their sights on rulemaking or a possible special session to receive this extension. 

Looking Ahead

We appreciate your partnership this session and we look forward to continuing to be a resource, advocate, and partner to you during the interim & into the 2026 session.