Sen. Mike Foote

Consumer protection - violations based on recklessness - increased penalties for certain violations - calculation of damage awards. The act: Adds "recklessly" as a culpable mental state for certain violations of the "Colorado Consumer Protection Act"; Increases the potential penalty for a violation brought by the attorney general or a district attorney from $2,000 to $20,000 per violation and from $10,000 to $50,000 per violation if committed against an elderly person; and Specifies the calculation of potential damage awards in a private civil action.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Regulation of lobbyists - clarification of term "client" - heightened disclosure requirements - secretary of state to convene working group to consider upgrades to electronic filing system used by lobbyists - appropriation. The act clarifies that the term "client" used in connection with statutory provisions regulating lobbyists means the person who employs or retains the professional services of one or more lobbyists to undertake lobbying on behalf of that person. The act also clarifies that a professional lobbyist is not, for purposes of the statute, a client of either a lobbying firm or any other person that employs or retains one or more professional lobbyists to undertake lobbying on behalf of one or more clients. The act clarifies that existing provisions that require heightened disclosure when a lobbyist enters into an agreement to engage in lobbying apply when the general assembly is in regular or special session. In addition to any other disclosure, during the period that the general assembly is in regular or special session, the act also requires a professional lobbyist to notify the secretary of state (secretary) by means of the electronic filing system within 72 hours after: The lobbyist agrees to undertake lobbying in connection with new legislation, standards, rules, or rates for either a new or existing client of the lobbyist; or The lobbyist takes a new position on a new or existing bill for a new or existing client of the lobbyist. During this period, where the lobbyist agrees to undertake lobbying in connection with new or existing legislation for either a new or existing client, the disclosure required by the act includes the bill number of the legislation at issue and whether the lobbyist's client is supporting, opposing, amending, or monitoring the legislation at the time the lobbyist agrees to undertake lobbying in connection with the legislation or takes a new position. The act also states that an attorney who is a professional lobbyist may not decline to disclose his or her lobbying as such lobbying is required to be disclosed on the grounds that the lobbying is protected against disclosure as confidential matters between an attorney and a client. In connection with any requirement under existing law to disclose the identity of a client, a professional lobbyist who is a natural person and who is employed or retained by a lobbying firm or any other firm or entity may disclose the name of the lobbying firm or other person or entity by means of which, or under the name of which, a professional lobbyist does business, but to satisfy such disclosure requirement the lobbyist is also required to disclose the name of the client who employs or retains the professional services of the lobbyist, or a lobbying firm or any other person or entity that employs or retains the lobbyist, to undertake lobbying on its behalf. The act also requires the secretary to convene a working group to consider upgrades to the electronic filing system used by lobbyists to file their disclosure reports. The act specifies the mission of the working group and requirements affecting its organization and membership. The working group is required to report its conclusions to the general assembly. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates $38,160 to the department of state from the department of state cash fund for use by the information technology division. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Vendor fee rate increase - use of increased funds for affordable housing grants and loans. Beginning January 1, 2020, the act increases the vendor fee, which is an amount that a retailer is permitted to retain for its expenses incurred in collecting and remitting the state sales tax, from 3% to 4%, subject to a $1,000 monthly cap. This limit applies regardless of the number of the retailer's locations, and a vendor with multiple locations is required to register all locations under one account with the department of revenue. The state treasurer is annually required to credit an amount equal to the increase in sales taxes attributable to the vendor fee changes, minus a specified amount, to the housing development grant fund, which the division of housing in the department of local affairs (division) uses to make grants and loans to improve, preserve, or expand the supply of affordable housing in the state. The division is required to annually award at least 1/3 of this money for affordable housing projects for households whose annual income is less than or equal to 30% of the area median income. The increase in sales taxes attributable to the vendor fee changes that result from the act are excluded from the definition of "state sales tax increment revenue" for purposes of the "Colorado Regional Tourism Act" so that the increase is payable to the state and not an applicable financing entity. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Professional review committees - knowledge of reporting data - requirement to update information - rules - original source documents - committee membership - requirement to notify medical and nursing board - continuation under sunset law. The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies' sunset review and report on the functions of professional review committees as follows: Repeals references to the committee on anticompetitive conduct because the committee no longer exists and replaces the term "utilization and quality control peer review organization" with "quality improvement organization" to be consistent with federal law; Clarifies that governing boards reporting data, and the data reported, to the division of professions and occupations in the department of regulatory agencies or a regulatory board may be known to staff of the division; Requires governing boards to annually update their information with the division; and Requires the division to promulgate rules to determine the information a governing board is required to report and to establish a process to remove governing boards from the registry. The act also: Defines "original source document", exempts such documents from the definition of "records", and specifies when the documents may be subject to subpoena, discovery, or use in a civil action; Encourages each professional review committee of a hospital to appoint a consumer to serve on the committee; and Repeals language requiring, in certain situations, a professional review committee for individuals licensed under the "Colorado Medical Practice Act" or the "Nurse Practice Act" to notify the medical board or nursing board, as applicable. The automatic termination date of the functions of professional review committees is extended until September 1, 2030, pursuant to the provisions of the sunset law. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Adoption assistance program - department of human services - appropriation. The act repeals and reenacts provisions of the state's adoption assistance program (adoption program) that provides cash subsidies and other noncash benefits to families who adopt eligible children and youth who might not otherwise be adopted in order to update the adoption program. The department of human services (state department) supervises the administration of the adoption program by county departments of human or social services (county departments). The act outlines eligibility for the adoption program and the available benefits. Determination of the type and amount of benefits to be provided through the adoption program must take into consideration the circumstances of the adopting family and the needs of the eligible child or youth being adopted. Specific benefits for an adoption made through the adoption program are detailed in a written adoption assistance agreement (agreement). The terms of an agreement are negotiated among all parties involved. The agreement must be reviewed at least every 3 years but may be reviewed sooner at the request of the adoptive parents or the county department. The adoptive parents may appeal any decision made pursuant to the provisions of the adoption program with a hearing before an administrative law judge. The act outlines the conditions under which adoption program subsidies may be suspended or terminated and under which the agreement may be terminated. The state department is required to keep data on the adoption program to help evaluate the adoption program's ongoing effectiveness in providing stability to families involved in the adoption of eligible children and youth. As appropriate, the state department, a county department, or a nonprofit child placement agency is required to provide prospective adoptive families, at the time the family is matched, with information on the various benefits available through the adoption program. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, the act appropriates: $42,143 from the general fund to the department of human services for information technology services relating to the TRAILS system, and anticipates the receipt of $18,061 in federal funds; and $60,204 from reappropriated funds to the office of the governor, to provide information technology services to the department of human services.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

The bill establishes requirements for the creation of a healthcare provider lien. A healthcare provider lien is a lien related to charges for medical care provided to a person injured by the negligence or wrongful act of another person, which is asserted against money the injured person may receive from a personal injury claim or uninsured motorist claim. A healthcare provider or healthcare provider's assignee creating a lien must advise the injured person of their options for payment, including the use of benefits from an insurance plan or other payer of benefits, before or at the time of creating the lien. Before a person signs an agreement creating a healthcare provider lien, the healthcare provider or its assignee is required to disclose to the injured party that the healthcare provider is not a health insurer or payer of benefits, that unlike a health insurer or payer of benefits the lienholder is entitled to receive the full amount of the lien even if the injured party is not fully compensated from a settlement or judgment, that the lienholder is not required to contribute to the injured party's legal fees or costs, that the lienholder's compensation is based on the difference between the total amount of the medical bills and the negotiated amount, and of any business interests between the lienholder and the injured party's legal counsel or healthcare providers. The lienholder is required to provide notice to the injured party of the amounts billed under the lien as they are accrued, to the extent practicable, and to provide a final itemized statement that includes a summary of treatment provided, the amounts billed, and the total amount due and owing. The lien amount cannot include any additional amounts over the amount of the charges for services provided, billed at the provider's usual and customary rates. Except in the event of fraud by the injured party, the lienholder may only assign to a collection agency or debt collector an amount equal to the total amount actually paid to healthcare providers. A healthcare provider may assign a lien to another person or entity. The fact of the assignment, its terms, and the amount paid by the assignee is not discoverable or admissible as evidence in any third-party or first-party action, except in an action under the "Uniform Consumer Credit Code". The provisions of the bill do not apply to hospital liens. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More

Effective January 1, 2024, the bill prohibits a retail food establishment from distributing an expanded polystyrene product for use as a container for off-premises ready-to-eat food in the state. The executive director of the department of public health and environment or the executive director's designee may, through the attorney general, seek injunctive relief against a retail food establishment that violates the prohibition.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More

Oil and gas operations - air quality regulation - local government authority - oil and gas conservation commission - composition - authority - financial assurance requirements - pooling - appropriation. The act prioritizes the protection of public safety, health, welfare, and the environment in the regulation of the oil and gas industry by modifying the oil and gas statutes and by clarifying, reinforcing, or establishing various aspects of local governments' regulatory authority over the surface impacts of oil and gas development. Current law specifies that local governments have so-called "House Bill 1041" powers, which are a type of land use authority over oil and gas mineral extraction areas, only if the Colorado oil and gas conservation commission (commission) has identified a specific area for designation. Sections 1 and 2 of the act repeal that limitation. Section 3 directs the air quality control commission to review its rules to consider whether to adopt more stringent rules and to adopt rules to minimize emissions of methane and other hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and oxides of nitrogen. Section 4 clarifies that local governments have land use authority to regulate the siting of oil and gas locations to minimize adverse impacts to public safety, health, welfare, and the environment and to regulate land use and surface impacts, including the ability to inspect oil and gas facilities; impose fines for leaks, spills, and emissions; and impose fees on operators or owners to cover the reasonably foreseeable direct and indirect costs of permitting and regulation and the costs of any monitoring and inspection program necessary to address the impacts of development and enforce local governmental requirements. Section 4 also allows a local government or oil and gas operator to request the director of the commission to convene a technical review board to evaluate the effect of the local government's preliminary or final determination on the operator's application. Section 5 repeals an exemption for oil and gas production from counties' authority to regulate noise. The remaining substantive sections of the act amend the "Oil and Gas Conservation Act" (Act). The legislative declaration for the Act states that it is in the public interest to "foster" the development of oil and gas resources in a manner "consistent" with the protection of public health, safety, and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources; this has been construed to impose a balancing test between fostering oil and gas development and protecting public health, safety, and welfare. Section 6 states that the public interest is to "regulate" oil and gas development to "protect" those values. Currently, the Act defines "waste" to include a diminution in the quantity of oil or gas that ultimately may be produced. Section 7 excludes from that definition the nonproduction of oil or gas as necessary to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, or wildlife resources. Section 7 also repeals the requirement that the commission take into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility with regard to actions and decisions taken to minimize adverse impacts and repeals the limitation of the term "minimize adverse impacts" to wildlife resources. The 9-member commission currently includes the executive directors of the departments of natural resources and public health and environment as ex officio members, 3 members who must have substantial experience in the oil and gas industry, and one member who must have training or experience in environmental or wildlife protection. Section 8 reduces the number of industry members to one and requires one member with training or substantial experience in wildlife protection; one member with training or substantial experience in environmental protection; one member with training or substantial experience in soil conservation or reclamation or technical expertise relevant to the issues considered by the commission; one member who is an active agricultural producer or a royalty owner; and one member with training or substantial experience in public health. This version of the commission is repealed on the earlier of July 1, 2020, or the date on which 3 specific rules promulgated by the commission have become effective. On that date, section 9, which creates a professional 5-member commission (along with the 2 ex officio executive directors), becomes effective. Section 10 requires the director of the commission to hire up to 2 deputy directors. Upon receipt of a request for a technical review, the director is required to appoint technical review board members. The Act currently specifies that the commission has exclusive authority relating to the conservation of oil or gas. Section 11 clarifies that nothing in the Act alters, impairs, or negates the authority of: The air quality control commission to regulate the air pollution associated with oil and gas operations; The water quality control commission to regulate the discharge of water pollutants from oil and gas operations; The state board of health to regulate the disposal of naturally occurring radioactive materials and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials from oil and gas operations; The solid and hazardous waste commission to regulate the disposal of hazardous waste and exploration and production waste from oil and gas operations; or A local government to regulate land use related to oil and gas operations, including specifically the siting of an oil and gas location. Currently, an operator first gets a permit from the commission to drill one or more wells within a drilling unit, which is located within a defined area, and then notifies the applicable local government of the proposed development and seeks any necessary local government approval. Section 12 requires operators to file, with the application for a permit to drill, either: Proof that the operator has already filed an application with the affected local government to approve the siting of the proposed oil and gas location and of the local government's disposition of the application; or proof that the affected local government does not regulate the siting of oil and gas locations. Section 12 also specifies that, until the commission has promulgated rules regarding 3 specific topics and the rules have become effective, the director may delay the final determination regarding a permit if the director, following a public comment period, determines that the permit requires additional analysis to ensure the protection of public health, safety, and welfare or the environment or requires additional local government or other state agency consultation. Pursuant to commission rule, an operator may submit a statewide blanket financial assurance of $60,000 for fewer than 100 wells or $100,000 for 100 or more wells. Section 12 directs the commission to adopt rules that require financial assurance sufficient to provide adequate coverage for all applicable requirements of the Act. Current law allows the commission to set numerous fees used to administer the Act and sets a $200 or $100 cap on the fees. Section 12 eliminates the caps and requires the commission to set a permit application fee in an amount sufficient to recover the commission's reasonably foreseeable direct and indirect costs in conducting the analysis necessary to assure that permitted operations will be conducted in compliance with all applicable requirements of the Act. Current law gives the commission the authority to regulate oil and gas operations so as to prevent and mitigate "significant" adverse environmental impacts to the extent necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare, taking into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility. Section 12 requires the commission to protect and minimize adverse impacts to public health, safety, and welfare, the environment, and wildlife resources and protect against adverse environmental impacts on any air, water, soil, or biological resource resulting from oil and gas operations. Section 12 also requires the commission to adopt rules that require alternate location analyses for oil and gas facilities that are proposed to be located near populated areas and that evaluate and address the cumulative impacts of oil and gas development. Finally, section 12 directs the commission to promulgate rules to: Ensure proper wellbore integrity of all oil and gas production wells, including the use of nondestructive testing of weld joints and requiring certification of several categories of oil and gas workers; Allow public disclosure of flowline information and to evaluate and determine when a deactivated flowline must be inspected before being reactivated; and Evaluate and determine when inactive, temporarily abandoned, and shut-in wells must be inspected before being put into production or used for injection. Section 13 modifies the commission's administrative procedures, including by taking into account determinations made by administrative law judges. Current law authorizes "forced" or "statutory" pooling, a process by which "any interested person", typically an operator who has at least one lease or royalty interest, may apply to the commission for an order to pool oil and gas resources located within a particularly identified drilling unit. After giving notice to interested parties and holding a hearing, the commission can adopt a pooling order to require an owner of oil and gas resources within the drilling unit who has not consented to the application (nonconsenting owner) to allow the operator to produce the oil and gas within the drilling unit notwithstanding the owner's lack of consent. Section 14 requires that the owners of more than 45% of the mineral interests to be pooled must have joined in the application for a pooling order and that the application include either: Proof that the applicant has already filed an application with the affected local government to approve the siting of the proposed oil and gas facilities and of the local government's disposition of the application; or proof that the affected local government does not regulate the siting of oil and gas facilities. Section 14 also specifies that the operator cannot use the surface owned by a nonconsenting owner without permission from the nonconsenting owner. Current law also sets the royalty that a nonconsenting owner is entitled to receive at 12.5% of the full royalty rate until the consenting owners have been fully reimbursed (out of the remaining 87.5% of the nonconsenting owner's royalty) for their costs. Section 14 raises a nonconsenting owner's royalty rate during this pay-back period from 12.5% to 13% for gas and 16% for oil and makes corresponding reductions of the portions of the nonconsenting owner's royalty from which the consenting owners' costs are paid. Current law requires the commission to ensure that the 2-year average of the unobligated portion of the oil and gas conservation and environmental response fund does not exceed $6 million and that there is an adequate balance in the environmental response account in the fund to address environmental response needs. Section 15 directs the commission to ensure that the unobligated portion of the fund does not exceed 50% of total appropriations from the fund for the upcoming fiscal year and that there is an adequate balance in the account to support the operations of the commission and to address environmental response needs. Section 16 specifies that for permit-specific conditions for wildlife habitat protection, the commission is required to consult with and obtain consent from a surface owner only if the permit-specific conditions directly impact the affected surface owner's property or use of that property. Section 17 amends preemption law by specifying that both state agencies and local governments have authority to regulate oil and gas operations and establishes that local government requirements may be more protective or stricter than state requirements. Section 18 appropriates $851,010 to the department of natural resources to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Open records - peace officer internal investigation file. The act makes an internal investigation file (file) of a peace officer for in-uniform or on-duty conduct that involves a member of the public subject to an open records request. The act requires some information to be redacted and allows other information to be redacted before complying with the open records request. The act allows the custodian of the file to first provide a summary of the file to the requester and then allows the requester access to the file after the requester has reviewed the summary. Under the act, a custodian of a file in which there is an ongoing criminal case can deny inspection of the file. The file becomes open for inspection after all the charges are dismissed or the defendant is sentenced. The act allows a person who has been denied access to any information in a completed internal affairs investigation file to file an application in court to show cause why the withheld or redacted information should not be made available to the applicant. If the court determines, based on its independent judgment, applying de novo review, that any portion or portions of the completed internal affairs investigation file were improperly withheld, the court shall order the custodian to provide the applicant with a copy of those portions that were improperly withheld. The act applies to files of internal investigations that were started after April 12, 2019. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More

Sex offenses - sexual contact definitions. The act adds the following conduct to the definition of sexual contact for the purposes of defining sex crimes: The knowing emission or ejaculation of seminal fluid onto any body part of the victim or the clothing covering any body part of the victim; and Knowingly causing semen, blood, urine, feces, or a bodily substance to contact any body part of the victim or the clothing covering any body part of the victim if that contact is for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More