by Colleen Enos (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

While continuing to grapple with Colorado’s $1.2 billion dollar shortfall, the state will be losing $250 million in pandemic-related federal funding for healthcare from the American Rescue Plan Act. The federal government is implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative. Coloradoans may believe that our Democrat-led state legislature will surely cut back on bills with a fiscal impact, but that would be an incorrect assumption; they just tweak the fiscal note.

SB25-183, Coverage for Pregnancy Related Services, would be more appropriately named “Taxpayer-funded Abortion Coverage.” This bill adds abortion coverage to Colorado’s state Medicaid insurance. However, due to the federal prohibition on funding abortions, Colorado must pay for it all themselves. The result will be an increase in Medicaid costs. Nevertheless, the fiscal note for this bill shows that Colorado saves money, Speaker Julie McCluskie points out,  due to “averted births.” This is an astounding way to characterize saving money with the obvious justification that a dead baby is cheaper than a live one.

Bills relating to public schools were a mixed bag. SB25-143, Extend Prohibition on School Facial Recognition, was an important bill that balances using facial recognition on school grounds in threatening situations with privacy concerns. Meanwhile, SB25-063, Library Resource Decision Standards, which asks schools to put a transparent policy in place for removing school library materials, continues the controversy over problematic content in school libraries. SB25-063 does not give clear guidance on how to address obscenity and only allows parents or guardians of students attending the school to file a material review request. All Colorado taxpayers, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, or any citizen, are required to pay for schools through their taxes but are not allowed to submit material review requests.

The legislature has spent an inordinate amount of time on gun control bills designed to curtail Coloradoans’ Second Amendment rights. HB25-1133, Requirements for Sale of Firearms Ammunition, which prohibits the sale of ammunition to someone under 21 years of age, and HB25-1238, Gun Show Requirements, which adds burdensome regulations on gun show promoters, have both wound their way through the Senate and the House and will be on the way to the governor’s desk. SB25-003, Semiautomatic Firearms and Rapid-Fire Devices, is the pièce de résistance for gun control proponents. As the third bill introduced in the Senate this session, garnering 35 amendments in the process out of 81 offered, SB25-003 has morphed into a monstrosity of requirements to jump through to access our Second Amendment rights. It finished passing both Houses last Friday and will undoubtedly be on the governor’s desk soon.

Things are speeding up as the session wears on, so please join me in keeping your eyes and ears open for any upcoming bills that would threaten homeschool freedoms, parental rights, or religious liberty in Colorado. Additionally, consider testifying on a bill in a committee hearing that you care about — you can even do it remotely.

To review currently introduced bills, go here.

In Him,

Colleen Enos, CHEC Director of Government Relations

About the Author: Colleen Enos

Colleen is a homeschooling mom of eight who just completed schooling her last two children. Her children range in age from 19 to 35 years old. She has been married to her husband, Mark, for 38 years, and they are now grandparents to four and expecting another grandbaby very soon. She has been a speech and debate coach for 17 years, pouring her time, effort, and energy into preparing the next generation to speak truth into our culture. Colleen serves homeschool families as the CHEC Director of Government Relations and is working hard to safeguard homeschool freedom through her work with the legislature. You can reach Colleen at colleen@chec.org.