Legislative
Activities

The Colorado General Assembly meets every year for 120 days, with each session beginning in January and ending in May. There are 65 members of the House and 35 members of the Senate, with the Senators serving four-year terms and the Representatives serving two-year terms. To find out more information and to see in detail the entire legislative process, please click on: http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/StaffInfo/process.htm.
This will take you to the part of the General Assembly website that deals with the legislative process.

During the session each legislator is allowed to introduce five bills, although the Speaker of the House or the President of the Senate may allow a legislator to introduce a late bill. The Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate assign a bill to one or more committees for a hearing. At the hearing, proponents and opponents testify about the bill before a group of legislators. The bill may be amended, but if it passes in the committee, it goes to the entire House or Senate for votes and further amendments, if any. If the bill passes the “floor” votes it is then sent to the other chamber to begin the process again. It will be heard in another committee and go to the floor if it passes out of that other committee.

You may also want to refer to a glossary of legislative terms. For more information click on http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/StaffInfo/definitions.htm.

Members of the public are often in the Statehouse to watch the proceedings, to testify about a particular bill or to meet with their legislators. Public participation in the committee hearings is welcomed. There are some limitations and some procedures you should know before you testify. The hearings are listed in the chamber’s calendar for each day. You need to have the bill’s number and to check the calendar for when and where the bill should be heard. Please note that sometimes the location and date are changed because of the size of the group or interested parties or to accommodate the legislators’ other commitments. Read more information on how you can get involved.

If you want to receive updates on the work being done as we plan for the next legislative session and action alerts about legislation, sign up here.