The bill creates the Colorado interagency council on homelessness (council) within the governor's office. The council's powers and duties include: Facilitating and coordinating homelessness response, resources, and best practices between state and local partners; Setting statewide strategy for homelessness resolution and prevention; Developing an outreach and education campaign to understand and respond to issues related to homelessness; Increasing access to supportive resources for homeless individuals, including income benefits, food benefits, healthcare coverage, and support related to mental health and substance use; Identifying and maximizing housing resources provided by state agencies; Improving cross-system policies and procedures for state agencies and homelessness service providers; and Organizing other homelessness response measures as the council sees fit. The council is required to meet at least once a month and submit and present an annual report providing a summary of the council's activities and recommendations for legislative action to the general assembly no later than January 26 of each year. The council's membership consists of the directors, or the directors' designees, of the following state agencies: The department of local affairs; The department of education; The department of corrections; The department of health care policy and financing; The behavioral health administration; The department of human services; The department of public health and environment; and The department of public safety. The governor may appoint to the council the directors, or the directors' designees, of other state agencies or individuals to represent political subdivisions as the governor sees fit. The bill creates an advisory council to the council consisting of members who have experience working on the resolution and prevention of homelessness and with homeless individuals, including the following 11 members appointed by the governor: The director, or the director's designee, of a nonprofit organization with a mission related to homelessness; The leader of a faith-based organization that is primarily focused on homelessness resolution and prevention; A homelessness service provider primarily focused on specialized populations; The director, or the director's designee, of a philanthropic organization that supports homelessness service providers; A representative from a continuum of care organization that provides services in an urban area; A representative from a continuum of care organization that provides services in a rural area; An elected local government representative; An individual with lived experience of homelessness; An individual with lived experience navigating affordable housing and housing resources; An owner or operator of permanent supportive housing; and A housing navigator or representative from an organization that administers housing vouchers. The advisory council shall meet at least once a month, shall develop and implement a plan to receive public feedback on statewide strategy related to homelessness prevention and resolution, and shall recommend funding and policies to support homelessness prevention and resolution to the council. The bill requires the office of homeless initiatives within the division of housing in the department of local affairs to, at least once every 4 months, convene the state continuum of care organizations for the purposes of implementing state strategies and identifying best practices to prevent and reduce homelessness in Colorado. The continuum of care organizations shall consider methods and practices to: Improve the implementation of the Homeless Management Information System and data reporting; Improve the implementation of the OneHome coordinated entry system; Coordinate with regional navigation campuses to determine best practices, identify gaps, and make referrals; and Improve data reporting within the regional navigation campuses. The continuum of care organizations are required to submit and present a report to the general assembly providing a summary of the council's activities from the prior year and recommendations for implementing the methods and practices the organizations considered. The bill creates a new type of special district, a regional homelessness response district (district), which is formed by counties and municipalities to reduce and prevent homelessness. The bill details specifics of organizing and dissolving a district, submitting a district service plan, voting in district elections, and the financial and taxing powers of a district. The bill allows a county clerk and recorder to designate money collected from documentary filing fees for granting or conveying real property to be transferred to a housing agency for the purpose of developing, preserving, or acquiring affordable housing aligned with demonstrated community needs and for homeless individuals. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
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No later than January 1, 2026, the act requires the department of human services to submit an application to the United States department of agriculture food and nutrition service to implement a restaurant meals program that allows eligible supplemental nutrition assistance program recipients to purchase hot or prepared foods at participating restaurants. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the department of transportation (department), no later than July 1, 2026, and in coordination with local governments and transit agencies, to create a transit and active transportation project inventory that identifies gaps in transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure and access on state highways and rights-of-way that are controlled and maintained by the department. No later than July 1, 2026, metropolitan planning organizations must create a transit and active transportation project inventory that identifies gaps in transit, bicycle, and pedestrian infrastructure and access within the network of regionally significant roadways and rights-of-way that are typically subject to planning and programming by the metropolitan planning organization. No later than October 31, 2026, the department and the metropolitan planning organizations must present a report to the transportation legislation review committee on the transit and active transportation project inventories (inventories) created, including an assessment of existing and potential funding sources for the projects listed in the inventories. The department and metropolitan planning organizations must update the inventories as part of the planning processes for the regional and statewide transportation plans and must use the inventories to inform those plans, other transit service plans, and transportation improvement programs. No later than July 1, 2026, the department must develop clear definitions for roadway capacity investments and state-of-good-repair investments. No later than December 31, 2025, a local government with a population of 5,000 or more that is within a metropolitan planning organization must submit to its metropolitan planning organization all planned transit, bicycle, and pedestrian projects included in any transportation, capital, or other plan. The act also allows a local government to: Adopt goals for the share of total trips within a specified geographic area completed using certain transportation methods; Submit local transportation demand management strategies to its metropolitan planning organization; and Collaborate with the department, its metropolitan planning organization, and transit agencies to identify unfinished transit, bicycle, and pedestrian projects in certain transit areas and to prioritize such projects based on each project's potential to increase transportation mode choice, project vulnerable road users, reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, and improve access to nondriving transportation options in disproportionately impacted communities. The act also clarifies that the Moffat tunnel improvement district is controlled and managed by the department of transportation rather than the department of local affairs. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the Colorado Voting Rights Act (state voting rights act) and modifies certain election-related statutes in the following areas: Tribal voting; Ensuring voter access to methods of selecting candidates for the general election; Restrictions on electioneering and election-related activity near voting locations; Election and voting notices in facilities serving individuals with disabilities; Recounts; Election-related language access; and Election-related data collection. Creation of the state voting rights act. The act creates the state voting rights act, which prohibits political subdivisions from: Engaging in voter suppression by taking any action that results in, will result in, or is intended to result in a material disparity between electors who are members of a protected race, color, or language minority group or other minority reporting group (protected class members) and other eligible electors in regard to voter participation, access to voting opportunities, or the opportunity or ability to participate in the political process; Engaging in voter dilution by enacting or employing any method of election that has the effect of, or is motivated in part by the intention of, disparately impairing the opportunity or ability of protected class members to elect the candidates of their choice or otherwise influence the outcome of elections as a result of diluting the vote of protected class members ; Implementing, imposing, or enforcing a voting qualification or another prerequisite to voting based on an individual's actual or perceived gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation; or Implementing, imposing, or enforcing an additional voting qualification or another prerequisite to voting based on an individual's confinement to a local jail, other than those eligibility qualifications that already exist. An aggrieved individual or organization (aggrieved person) may file a civil suit alleging voter suppression; voter dilution; an unlawful voting prerequisite based on gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation; or an unlawful voting prerequisite based on confinement to a local jail. The attorney general may investigate potential violations of the act and may file suit to enforce the act or may intervene in an aggrieved individual's or organization's civil suit. Except under specific circumstances, before filing suit, an aggrieved person or the attorney general must send a notification letter describing the alleged violation of the act to the political subdivision. The political subdivision is given 60 or 180 days to adopt a resolution providing for a solution to the alleged violation. Tribal voting. The act clarifies that an identification card, which need not contain a photograph, that is issued by the federal bureau of Indian affairs, Indian health service, or any other federal agency that issues identification certifying tribal membership and that includes an address in Colorado constitutes a valid identification for registration purposes and, upon request of a tribal council, requires a county to establish a drop box, rather than a drop-off location as was previously the case, within the boundaries of a federal reservation. Ensuring voter access to methods of selecting candidates for a general election. The act requires each major political party to ensure that any future alternative process by which a party may select candidates for a general election allows voters not able to attend in person to participate to the same extent as those voting in person, including requiring a process for individuals to vote that does not require in-person voting. Restrictions on electioneering and election-related activity near voting locations. The act clarifies that the restrictions on electioneering and election-related activity conducted within 100 feet of a polling location or drop-off location also apply to drop boxes. Election and voting notices in facilities serving individuals with disabilities. The act imposes a requirement on specified care facilities that provide services primarily to individuals with disabilities to publicly display, in each building in which they serve clients, notices related to voting during the 30 days preceding a general or coordinated election. Recounts. Before a recount, a canvass board has been required to test at least one ballot scanner with a group of 10 test ballots marked by at least 2 canvass board members of different party affiliations. The act changes this process so that each canvass board member, other than the clerk, must separately mark their own group of 10 test ballots. The act also clarifies the duties of a canvass board and a county clerk and recorder in conducting a recount. Election-related language access. The act expands existing requirements for the creation of multilingual ballots from only applying to qualifying counties to also applying to qualifying municipalities. The county clerk and recorder for a county that meets certain requirements for the population or percentage of the voting-age population within the relevant jurisdiction who are minority language speakers and who speak English less than very well has been required to provide multilingual ballots. The act requires a municipal clerk to provide multilingual ballot access if the municipality has a population of at least 3,000 and the municipality exists partially or wholly within a county covered by the existing multilingual ballot requirements. Election-related data collection. The act requires the secretary of state to collect, maintain, and make publicly available data related to elections, including demographics, election results, and voting information. After each election, political subdivisions are required to submit election-related information to the secretary of state. The department of local affairs is also required to annually provide certain demographic information to the secretary of state. The act also changes current law from allowing a custodian of records to deny the right of inspection of certain records and information maintained by the department of revenue to requiring the denial of such inspection. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, $75,432 is appropriated from the department of state cash fund to the department of state for use by the elections division for implementation of the act. The act applies to elections and election-related activities occurring on or after January 1, 2026. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires a form issued by the state or a local government that requests that the individual completing the form disclose the individual's race or ethnicity to include, in addition to spaces for any other racial or ethnic categories required by the federal office of management and budget, a space to indicate if the individual's race or ethnicity is Middle Eastern, North African, or South Asian. The state and local governments are exempt from the act's requirements if: The demographic data collected in the form is reported by the state or a local government to the federal government; and The federal government rejects or will reject the demographic data reported by the state or a local government because it includes Middle Eastern, North African, or South Asian as a primary demographic category. When exercising the exemption, the state and local governments shall include Middle Eastern, North African, or South Asian as a demographic subcategory of the nonspecific racial category on the form. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Current law mandates insurance coverage of certain preventive health-care services (preventive services) in accordance with the recommendations of the United States preventive services task force, recommendations established by the advisory committee on immunization practices, or preventive care or screening as provided in the comprehensive guidelines supported by the health resources and services administration in the United States department of health and human services (authorities). The act requires that, in the event that any of these authorities is repealed, modified, or otherwise no longer in effect, the commissioner of insurance may adopt rules that require compliance with the recommendations and comprehensive guidelines regarding the coverage of those preventive services as the recommendations and guidelines existed in January 2025 or that comply with the recommendations of the nurse-physician advisory task force for Colorado health care (NPATCH). The act also tasks the NPATCH with making recommendations regarding updates or modifications to the current list of covered preventive health-care services. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The"Freedom From Intimidation In Elections Act" is created and prohibits any individual from intimidating, threatening, or coercing or attempting to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any individual for: Voting or attempting to vote; Urging or aiding any individual to vote or attempt to vote; Exercising any powers or duties to administer elections, including vote counting, canvassing, and election certification; or The individual's status as a past or present participant in the administration of elections. The act specifies that an individual who carries a visible firearm, imitation firearm, or toy firearm while interacting with or observing any of the specified election-related activities is presumed, in the absence of any affirmative showing to the contrary by a preponderance of the evidence, to have engaged in intimidation prohibited by the act; except that the presumption does not apply to a law enforcement officer or a uniformed security guard acting within the scope of their authority, and mere possession of a holstered firearm by such an officer or guard while interacting with or observing any of the specified election-related activities does not violate the Act. An aggrieved individual, an election official, a designated election official, the secretary of state, or the attorney general may enforce the provisions of the act. A suit brought by an election official, a designated election official, the secretary of state, or the attorney general does not preclude a contemporaneous private suit by an aggrieved individual to enforce the provisions of the act. In a suit to enforce the provisions of the act, a court may grant relief enjoining the use or carrying of firearms by a defendant beyond the existing prohibitions on using or carrying firearms in or near polling locations drop boxes and in or on the property of ceratin types of government buildings. To prevail in a suit to enforce the provisions of the act, a plaintiff is not required to prove that a defendant intended to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any individual, except to prove an attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, but a court may consider evidence of intent in determining the appropriate relief. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
A kei vehicle is the smallest road-legal, 4-wheeled vehicle in Japan and is imported into the United States as a used vehicle. The act defines a kei vehicle as a motor vehicle for the purposes of the "Uniform Motor Vehicle Law" and the "Certificate of Title Act". These acts govern issuing a certificate of title, registering a motor vehicle, and the rules of the road for motor vehicles. The act authorizes a kei vehicle to operate on the roads and requires a kei vehicle to be issued a certificate of title, be registered, and obey motor vehicle traffic laws. Driving a kei vehicle on a roadway that has a speed limit greater than 55 miles per hour or on a limited-access highway is prohibited. For emissions testing, a kei vehicle is tested not using a dynamometer but using a 2-speed idle test. The vehicle must pass the emissions standards for the year it was manufactured. The department of revenue, the Colorado state patrol, and the agents or contractors of these agencies may not require a vehicle to have an inspection because it is a kei vehicle or has the design or manufacturing parameters of a kei vehicle. And a kei vehicle may not be declared not roadworthy because of its design or manufacturing parameters. Kei vehicles are included in the motor vehicle dealer and powersports vehicle dealer statutes, and this requires a person to be licensed as a dealer to sell kei vehicles at retail. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act allows a transmission developer to co-locate longitudinally high voltage transmission lines within a state highway right-of-way (right-of-way), according to a process developed by rule by the department of transportation (department). Upon the request of a transmission developer, the department is required to provide to the transmission developer the best available information on potential future state highway development projects that could impact the placement of a high voltage line within a right-of-way. If the department and a transmission developer agree that a site may be suitable for high voltage line development and preconstruction requirements are approved, the transmission developer is required to provide a constructability, access, and maintenance report that includes mitigation strategies for potential impacts of the proposed high voltage line. Beginning on January 1, 2027, a transmission developer is required to make a report with the following information available on a public-facing website within 30 days of filing for a local permit for the construction or development of high voltage lines: A description of the analysis undertaken for route selection; An evaluation of the economic impacts, engineering considerations, and reliability of the electric system; and Information demonstrating that, in assessing potential sites for the placement of high voltage lines, a transmission developer has considered or is considering development sites in the following order of priority: First, existing utility corridors; second, rights-of-way; and last, new utility corridors. A transmission developer is not required to select an existing utility corridor or a right-of-way for development of high voltage lines. A transmission developer seeking to locate a high voltage line within a right-of-way within the exterior boundaries of an Indian reservation is required to obtain the written consent of the applicable tribal government. A transmission developer is required to compensate the department for its co-location of high voltage lines in a right-of-way, either through a public-private initiative or by paying surcharges as established by the department by rule. The act also requires the Colorado electric transmission authority, through a public-private partnership and in collaboration with the department, the Colorado energy office, the Colorado public utilities commission, and other state agencies, including the division of parks and wildlife, to study state highway corridors to identify potential corridors that may be suitable for high voltage transmission line development and to publish and share with specified state agencies a report on the findings of the study. The act also aligns the definition of a real estate appraiser with federal law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act allows a currently licensed Colorado teacher seeking to add an early childhood education endorsement, early childhood special education endorsement, elementary education endorsement, or special education generalist endorsement to demonstrate professional competencies by submitting evidence of achieving sufficiently high education coursework grades on coursework aligned with relevant standards as approved by the department of education. If the applicant spots for the multiple measures pathway are not filled, the act allows currently licensed Colorado teachers who are seeking additional licensure endorsements to demonstrate professional competencies using the multiple measures pathway. The act clarifies that 4-year institutions of higher education that offer programs of off-campus instruction and that have courses included in the guaranteed transfer pathway matrix or that are part of a statewide degree transfer agreement may participate in the teacher recruitment education and preparation program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)