COVID-19 Policy and Legislative Updates
June 10, 2020
The Policy and Legislative Advisory Network (PLAN) is committed to keeping the larger network abreast of policies, legislation, regulations, and rules being implemented across the state and nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Updates below include information through 6.10.2020 and were provided by:

Please note: This information is subject to change. In addition, some updates may be sourced from organizations that have read limits or limits on how many articles you can access in a given time period.
Local COVID-19 Policy Updates
Coronavirus In Colorado; The Numbers
According to today's data release, in Colorado there have been 227,761 people tested, 28,499 positive cases, 5,035 hospitalized, 1,573 deaths among cases (1,328 deaths due to COVID), 306 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities, 60 of 64 counties with positive cases. In Adams County we have 3,643 cases and 143 deaths. Read More from CDPHE HERE
Gov. Polis Provides Update on Colorado's Response To COVID-19, Emphasizes Importance of Staying Home With Lt. Gov. Primavera
Yesterday Gov. Polis provided an update on the state’s response to COVID-19 and highlighted the importance of staying home. The Governor was joined remotely by Lt. Governor Dianne Primavera, who like many Coloradans has been working remotely during the pandemic. The Governor also provided an update on the legislative session and thanked the Joint Budget Committee for their work on the state budget. Read More from Governor Jared Polis HERE
State Senate Finishes 2020-21 Budget, House Begins Work On School Finance
The Senate on Saturday passed the 2020-21 budget, House Bill 1360, and 29 out of the 40 “orbital” bills designed to change state law in order to balance the budget. It still needs to go through a conference committee to iron out differences between the versions each chamber passed. And with the budget out of the Senate, the House on Saturday began working on the School Finance Act, House Bill 1418. The school finance bill comes with a heavy lift: a $612 million addition to the debt owed to K-12 schools. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Here's The Nuance Behind Colorado Legislators Effort to Eliminate 9 Tax Breaks, Pump $1.6 Billion Into State Coffers
To generate money for the coronavirus-depleted state budget, Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado want to slash or change nine tax breaks to generate $1.6 billion in revenue over the next four years. House Bill 1420, introduced Monday with just days left in the 2020 lawmaking term, would revoke tax breaks included in the federal stimulus bill known as the CARES Act and the 2017 tax cuts signed by President Donald Trump, as well as slash current state tax credits for certain industries. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE
Police Reform, Coronavirus Relief And More Bills The Colorado Legislature Wants To Pass This Week
Colorado lawmakers hope to finish their annual legislative session by the end of this week, nearly three weeks after returning to the state capitol. It will mark the end of one of the most unusual sessions in recent memory. But before they can leave, lawmakers still have a number of significant bills to get through. Here are the highlights. Read More from CPR HERE
Colorado Senate Passes Sweeping Police Accountability Bill In 32-1 Vote; Bill Moves To House
The Colorado Senate on Tuesday passed in a nearly unanimous vote a police reform and accountability measure brought in the wake of the death of George Floyd and massive demonstrations across the state calling for better accountability for officers and an end to racial injustice. The vote was 32-1, with two lawmakers excused and Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, opposed to the measure. Senate Bill 217 now heads to the House for consideration. Read More from Denver 7 HERE
Colorado Democrats Hand Opponents of Vaccine Bill Opportunity To Repeal Measure At Ballot Box
After days of impassioned debate and stall tactics by Republicans, lawmakers in the state House found compromise Tuesday on Democratic legislation aimed at improving Colorado’s poor immunization rates. Rep. Kyle Mullica, a Northglenn Democrat and sponsor of the vaccine bill, offered an amendment that would add a so-called “petition clause” to his legislation. The clause means that once the legislature passes the measure, opponents would have until Sept. 12 to collect more than 124,000 signatures to put a question about whether to repeal it on the November 2022 ballot. Collecting the required signatures would block the vaccine law from going into effect at least until then. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE
State Auditor Reports Federal Payouts To Colorado Counties
Colorado counties received a collective $14.4 million in federal land payments from October 2018 through September 2019. The transfers are primarily royalties from mineral leasing through the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, at more than $7 million. But the payments are also from timber, power generation and other sources. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Colorado Oil And Gas Companies Add Billions In Value As Industry Stocks Improve
Good unemployment news and improving prospects for crude oil supplies added billions of dollars in value to Colorado oil companies in recent days. The stock value of publicly traded oil and gas producers based in Colorado jumped more than $2.8 billion in trading Friday and Monday. Include the shares of Colorado’s two biggest oil and gas producers, Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) and Noble Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: NBL), both based in the Houston area, and the collective stock value rose $11.9 billion. Read More from Denver Business Journal HERE
Families Hold Vigil For Inmates Inside Colorado's Largest Prison, Home To The State's Biggest Coronavirus Outbreak
While Colorado’s total coronavirus cases have declined in recent weeks, outbreaks inside Colorado’s prisons and jails have continued to grow. In the Sterling Correctional Facility, 561 inmates have tested positive for the virus. That’s up by 120 from late last month, but the prison reports only two additional positives in its latest round of testing. Read More from CPR HERE
Denver Expands Free COVID-19 Testing Sites For June
Denver will offer free COVID-19 testing at five additional locations during the month of June, which were identified by the city’s Racial Equity Council as benefiting underserved communities. The council provides guidance for ensuring access to healthcare in communities of color and for health equity. Its members include the Center for African American Health, Denver Indian Health and Family Services, and Open Door Ministries, among others. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Defund The Police; What It Means For Denver And Who Supports It
Calls to defund the police now echo inside Denver City Council chambers as several members say they support changing the makeup of the city’s police department and the responsibilities it’s assigned. The notion under serious consideration in Denver is more nuanced than the name suggests. It would shift some duties away from the city’s police officers to specialists, shrinking parts of the department. While other city officials are less certain or enthusiastic about the movement, they still express an open mind toward systemic change within the Denver Police Department. Read More from The Denver Post HERE  
In The First Colorado Senate Primary Debate, Romanoff Attacks Hickenlooper While Hickenlooper Attacks Garnder
John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff met for their first one-on-one debate just as ballots for the U.S. Senate primary filtered out to mailboxes in Colorado. Hickenlooper, the establishment favorite, promised to fix “government dysfunction in Washington” and at times seemed to be debating Sen. Cory Gardner, the incumbent Republican. Meanwhile, Romanoff staked out a progressive call for “bold structural change” and sharply criticized Hickenlooper throughout the confrontation. The winner of the June 30 primary will face Gardner in November. Read More from CPR HERE
National COVID-19 Policy Updates
Election 2020 Update - The Winners We Know From Tuesday Night
It was a very, very late night on Tuesday, and we still don’t know who won some of the competitive races. That’s in part because of widespread problems with long lines for voters who wanted to — or had to — vote in-person, and the windfall of absentee ballots that election workers had to process (more on that in the article). But we do have some winners, and the entire Campaign Pro team has a recap of the night here. Read More from Politico HERE
Why Russia Will Keep Poking America's Racial Wounds
The 2020 election will bring more Russian-backed online disinformation campaigns aiming to exploit American protests over police brutality and systemic racism in order to foment division and distrust, experts predict. There’s nothing new about Russia’s tactics — its intelligence agencies have been using disinformation to cynically aggravate U.S. racial tensions all the way back to the Cold War era. But we can’t resolve this problem with cyber countermeasures and informational defenses. It will require actually tackling the root problem of racial injustice itself. Read More from Axios HERE
Virus Cases Surpassed 2 Million In The U.S., And Are Increasing In 21 States Amid Efforts To Reopen
The United States surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to a New York Times database, which showed that the outbreak is continuing to spread, with cases rising in 21 states as governments ease restrictions and Americans try to return to their routines. Read More from The New York Times HERE
Coronavirus Vaccine Candidates' Pivotal U.S. Testing to Start This Summer
The federal government plans to fund and conduct the decisive studies of three experimental coronavirus vaccines starting this summer. These phase 3 trials are expected to involve tens of thousands of subjects at dozens of sites around the U.S. Meant to determine a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, they would mark the final stage of testing. Read More from The Wall Street Journal HERE
Senate GOP Shifts On Police Reform
Senate Republicans are signaling a sharp shift on police reform, raising the chances that federal legislation could actually clear Congress and reach President Trump’s desk. Just a week ago, it seemed likely that a legislative package would pass the House but run into a dam in the Senate, where Republicans seemed more focused on retaining their majority and bolstering an economy tanked by the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the dark political clouds hovering over the White House and the Senate’s GOP majority coupled with a dramatic swing in polling showing a majority of Americans believe African Americans are the victims of excessive force by police have changed the political winds. Read More from The Hill HERE
How The Coronavirus Compares With 100 Years of Deadly Events
Only the worst disasters completely upend normal patterns of death, overshadowing, if only briefly, everyday causes like cancer, heart disease and car accidents. Here’s how the devastation brought by the pandemic in 25 cities and regions compares with historical events. Read More from The New York Times HERE
States Are Wrestling On Their Own With How To Expand Testing, With Little Federal Guidance
The wide range of approaches across the country comes as the federal government has offered little guidance on the best way to test a broad swath of the population, leaving state public health officials to wrestle on their own with difficult questions about how to measure the spread of the virus and make decisions about reopening their economies. Read More from The Washington Post HERE
COVID-19 HHS Supplemental Funding
HHS has announced another round of funding that will help providers respond to COVID-19. The agency has disbursed $250 million, provided by Congress in the CARES Act, to go to providers to help expand telehealth services, train staff, procure supplies and personal protective equipment PPE and better coordinate their overall response. Read More from HHS HERE
More Painful Than 2008 And Pandemic Layoffs Slow
It’s official, we’re in a recession, and this one is going to be harder to dig out of than the 2008 financial crisis.The most recent jobs report, which unexpectedly showed the economy gained 2.5 million jobs last month, signals that the economic rebound has begun. However, the unemployment rate is still at 13.3 percent, the highest since the 1930s, and economic growth is considerably lower than what it would’ve been without a pandemic. In other news, the pace of layoffs slowed down in April after the initial rounds of coronavirus shutdowns. Read More from Politico HERE
The Federal Reserve Offered A Grim Outlook For The Econ
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and near zero on Wednesday as the central bank projected a slow economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession. In their first economic projections this year, Fed officials indicated that they expected the unemployment rate to end 2020 at 9.3 percent and remain elevated for years, coming in at 5.5 percent in 2022. Output is expected to be 6.5 percent lower at the end of this year than it was in the final quarter of 2019. Read More from The New York Times HERE
Fed Officials Project No Rate Increases Through 2022
Federal Reserve officials projected no plans to raise interest rates through 2022 and said they were committed to providing more support to the economy following shutdowns to contain the coronavirus. Officials made one change to their policy stance on Wednesday by announcing they would maintain their recent pace of purchases of Treasury and mortgage securities, effectively ending gradual, weekly reductions. They will buy at least $80 billion in Treasurys and $40 billion in mortgage securities, net of maturing bonds, a month. Read More from The Wall Street Journal HERE
Pandemic Challenges Highlight The Importance Of The New Era of Smarter Food Saafety
The FDA has issued a new piece, “Pandemic Challenges Highlight the Importance of the New Era of Smarter Food Safety.” and bylined by Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response. Plans for the New Era initiative were put on hold in order to prioritize the agency's COVID-19 response. The FDA will release the blueprint in the coming weeks, outlining plans over the next decade to create a more digital, traceable, and safer food system. Read More from the FDA HERE
The FDA Provides New Web-Based Resource, Testing Supply Substitution Strategies
The file contains information to help support labs performing authorized COVID-19 tests and an interactive ability that includes validated supply alternatives that labs can use to continue performing testing when there are supply issues. This information is not intended to alter any already issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a COVID-19 diagnostic test. Read More from the FDA HERE
WHO Clarifies Comments On Asymptomatic Spread Of Coronavirus
The World Health Organization tried on Tuesday to clear up confusing comments about how often people can spread the coronavirus when they do not have symptoms. The organization held a live Q&A on its social media pages to address questions about comments made by a WHO official that suggested asymptomatic people only rarely spread COVID-19. Read More from CNN HERE
Unpacking the New WHO Controversy Over Asymptomatic COVID-19 Transmission
For months, researchers have warned that people without any COVID-19 symptoms could still be silent carriers of the disease, making it that much harder to get the pandemic under control—and that much more important to take precautions like social distancing and wearing a mask, even if you feel fine. So it came as a surprise when Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) technical lead for COVID-19, said at a press briefing on June 8 that asymptomatic transmission appears to be “very rare.” Read More from Time HERE
CDC Releases Several New COVID-19 Guidance Documents
The CDC has released several COVID-19 guidance documents for individuals with disabilities. The resources include: Guidance for Direct Service Providers, Guidance for Group Homes for Individuals with Disabilities, a resource for direct service providers, caregivers and parents of individuals with disabilities and a final resource for those with developmental or behavioral disorders including information on maintaining routine care, managing stress and mental health. Read More from CDC HERE 
The CBO Weighs In
More aid to states and localities would be about as much economic help as the more narrowly tailored assistance to those governments offered by the CARES Act, H.R. 748 (116). Increased Medicare spending actually does even more to help the economy. But more aid to the states is a bigger help than both tax breaks for businesses and increases in refundable tax credits — with the caveat that it depends on the details of how Congress would offer that assistance, and that more state and local aid would have different impacts than other relief in the CARES package. Read More from Politico HERE
Seizing Medicaid Recipients' Stimulus Payments Is 'Unlawful', Lawmakers Say
Compounding the hardships of the coronavirus, some nursing homes have demanded that low-income residents turn over their $1,200 economic stimulus checks, a cash grab lawmakers want to halt. On Tuesday, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on the Health and Human Services inspector general's office to issue a warning to nursing homes and assisted living facilities that such practices are “improper and unlawful.” Read More from KTBS/CBS HERE
What The Early 1980s Implies For American Unemployment Today
Although America's unemployment rate shocked almost everyone by falling in May, 20M workers remain out of a job because of the coronavirus pandemic. The official unemployment rate is 13.3%, though that rises to about 16% if everyone who was employed but absent from work because of the pandemic is correctly accounted for. Many commentators worry that a large chunk of the unemployed will have no job to go back to, even as lockdowns ease and stimulus payments land in bank accounts. Read More from The Economist HERE
Minneapolis Police Department Withdraws From Union Contract negotiations
The Minneapolis Police Department is withdrawing from police union contract negotiations as a first step to reforming the agency, Chief Medaria Arradondo announced Wednesday. Arradondo said the contract needs to be restructured to provide transparency and “flexibility for true reform.” A thorough review will examine protocols for critical incidents, use of force, and disciplining officers. Arradondo said it is "debilitating" when the department has grounds to terminate officers, but a third party works to keep them on the street. He also promised to implement new strategies to identify bad officers. Read More from Axios HERE
Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point
In Minnesota, St. Paul police killed Philip Quinn, a Native American man in the midst of a mental-health crisis, in September 2015. One week later, Duluth police killed Robert Christian, a white former fullback for the Wisconsin Badgers who was enduring a mental-health crisis of his own. Two months after that, in November 2015, Minneapolis police killed Jamar Clark, a 24-year-old unarmed black man. Hundreds poured into the streets. In response to Clark’s killing, protesters launched what would stretch into an 18-day occupation of one of the city’s police precincts. Read More from The Atlantic HERE
International COVID-19 Policy Updates
European Countries Face Biggest Economic Hit From COVID-19 - OECD
Spain, France, Italy and the U.K. face the world's roughest economic hits this year from the coronavirus. Those four countries would see the worst declines in case of either a single wave or a recurrence of the disease. The "double-hit scenario" would knock down their gross domestic product 14 percent or more, nearly double the global projection of 7.6 percent. The U.S. also would fare worse than average in a second wave, at 8.5 percent. Read More from Politico HERE
NATO Sets Its Sights On China
Even as it grapples with short-term troubles, among them another spat between America and Germany, NATO is starting to plan for the next ten years: how to adapt to the rising power of China? Finding an answer may be vital if the alliance is to retain a sense of purpose in 2030. Read More from The Economist HERE
Quarantine Fatigue - Why Some Of Us Have Stopped Being Vigilant And How To Overcome It
If you've found you're no longer disinfecting your hands as often or becoming more lenient toward unnecessary trips outside, you're not alone. This unintentional phenomenon is "caution fatigue" — and you have your brain to blame. You were likely vigilant at the pandemic's outset, consistently keeping up with ways to ensure you didn't get infected with the coronavirus or infect others. Fast-forward three months, and that sense of immediacy may have faded. Read More from CNN HERE 
About Rocky Mountain Cradle to Career Partnership (RMC2C)
The Rocky Mountain Cradle to Career Partnership (RMC2C) Backbone team is working to support network partners in their efforts to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. The Backbone continues to be in a position to bring people together to work collectively, specifically around emergency response and recovery related to COVID-19.

Previously, RMC2C has exclusively focused on supporting youth from Cradle to Career. However, in light of the crisis our community currently faces, there is an immediate need to provide the Backbone's expertise, skills, and resources to the larger community.
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