Policy and Legislative Updates
June 17, 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 6.17.2020 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 Policy Updates
Coronavirus In Colorado; The Numbers
According to today's data release, in Colorado there have been 259,546 people tested, 29,673 positive cases, 5,294 hospitalized, 1,631 deaths among cases (1,402 deaths due to COVID), 323 outbreaks at residential and non-hospital health care facilities, 60 of 64 counties with positive cases. In Adams County we have 3,791 cases and 149 deaths. Read More from CDPHE HERE
Governor Polis Introduces Protect Our Neighbors Framework, Announces New Draft Safer At Home Guidelines
On Monday Governor Jared Polis announced Protect Our Neighbors, a framework that will empower local governments that can demonstrate strong public health and health care systems, paired with low virus levels, to make decisions about how they should reopen. The Governor also announced additional draft guidelines under Safer at Home and discussed the state’s efforts to prepare for a potential second wave of the virus. This framework will launch at the end of June. Read More from Colorado Governor Jared Polis HERE
Chaos And Compromise- Colorado’s Coronavirus Legislative Session Ends With A Flurry Of Big Bills
The Colorado Capitol was mostly empty as the state legislature took a two-month coronavirus pause this spring. The work, though, didn’t actually stop. Behind the scenes, mostly via video calls on Zoom, lawmakers were figuring out how to deal with a host of new issues related to the pandemic, chief among them: how to balance a multibillion-dollar hole in the budget caused by the economic collapse and how to help hundreds of thousands of residents who were newly out of work. And while the legislature was on a break that lasted more than two months, finding solutions in that timeframe proved difficult. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE
Colorado Lawmakers Ditch Expectations In Dizzying Re-Session
Loren Furman is an unflappable political veteran. The senior vice president of state and federal relations for the Colorado Chamber of Commerce described the Capitol chaos for her peers, as she broadcast from a cavernous granite hallway. Furman spoke of bills that were introduced out of the blue one day that week, rushed to a committee the next and voted on within hours to join the state code ever after. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Police Reforms, Hard Budget Choices Mark The End Of Colorado Lawmakers’ Strange Year
Colorado lawmakers have finished their work, bringing an end to one of the most unorthodox legislative sessions in recent memory. Legislators dealt with an unprecedented global pandemic, unexpected multi-billion dollar budget cuts and met at the state capitol as protests galvanized by the death of George Floyd gathered daily to call for an end to police brutality and for more support of the Black Lives Matter movement. While the session had its usual partisan differences and disagreements, lawmakers did come together to pass a sweeping law enforcement accountability measure, among the first of its kind in the nation. Read More from CPR HERE
Senate Republican Leadership- 2020 Session Was Kinder And Gentler But Left A Lot To Be Desired
Senate Republican leaders said Monday the 2020 session was less contentious than last year's, and they give some of the credit to Gov. Jared Polis, who acted as something of a peacemaker. That said, Senate Republicans are pinning their hopes on retaking the Senate in the fall elections, to restore the balance that they said the General Assembly needs. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Governor Polis Signs HB20-1153, Colorado Partnership For Quality Jobs And Services Act
Yesterday Gov. Polis signed HB20-1153, Colorado Partnership For Quality Jobs And Services Act. The bill creates the Colorado Partnership for Quality Jobs and Services Act, which creates a collective bargaining system between covered state employees and the state's executive branch. The bill requires the state to enter into a partnership agreement with certified employee organizations, defines the duties of the parties, and creates standards and procedures related to disputes. Read More from Colorado Governor Jared Polis HERE
Alcohol Takeout, Delivery Will Continue In Colorado For Another Year
While it wasn’t the two-year extension some were hoping for, a new law passed Monday in the Colorado legislature allows bars and restaurants to continue selling alcohol to-go for another year at least. Liquor takeout and delivery will continue then through July 2021, when the legislature will have to decide again on the future of alcohol to-go. According to the Colorado Restaurant Association, 87% of Colorado restaurants have reported making revenue from alcohol to-go sales, with 20% reporting “significant” revenue made from those sales. Read More from Denver Post HERE
State Health Department Releases COVID-19 Risk Guide For Various Activities
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has released a guide describing the relative likelihood of COVID-19 infection for a range of social activities, both indoors and outdoors. No matter the activity, the department recommends maintaining six feet of distance, wearing a mask and frequently washing hands. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Coloradans Could See An Anti-Fracking Measure On Their 2020 Ballots After All
Last week, Colorado Rising, the group behind a failed 2018 attempt to increase drilling setbacks, announced it would not collect signatures to put a similar plan on Colorado’s 2020 ballot. But the decision lacked support from activists Anne Lee Foster and Suzanne Spiegel. Because the pair are listed as the proponents for the initiative, they have the sole power to withdraw it from consideration for the ballot. They declined to do so even after Colorado Rising said it wouldn’t support signature collection. The pair is now working with a new coalition backing the ballot plan. Read More from CPR HERE
Colorado Lost More Than 7,000 Clean Energy Jobs Since Coronavirus Pandemic, Industry Organization Says
Colorado and the country continue to lose clean energy jobs by the thousands since the coronavirus began spreading. A new analysis by E2, Environmental Entrepreneurs, said the industry lost 27,000 jobs nationwide in May, increasing the total to 620,500 since the coronavirus caused an economic clampdown. Colorado lost 7,531 jobs, a 11.2% drop from March through May, according to the report. The jobs range from construction to manufacturing to engineering and include work in renewable energy, energy efficiency, electrified transportation and biofuels. Read More from The Denver Post HERE
RTD’s Budget Crisis Will Likely Mean Deep, Long-Lasting Service Cuts
The Regional Transportation District’s financial situation is so dire that the agency likely will not be able to restore service to its pre-pandemic levels — or anything close to it. The transit agency cut its service by about 40 percent in April. The federal government provided a $232 million cushion for 2020, but staff now predict a shortfall of $252 million in 2021 — about 30 percent of its overall budget. They expect a $1.3 billion cumulative shortfall by 2026. Read More from CPR HERE
Governor Polis Takes Action In Response To COVID-19, Support Election CyberSecurity
Governor Jared Polis took additional action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to support election cybersecurity in Colorado. The Governor signed Executive Order D 2020 105, to extend certain state income tax payment deadlines for all Colorado taxpayers to quickly provide relief from payment and penalties due to COVID-19. Gov. Polis also signed Executive Order D 2020 106, activating the Colorado National Guard to assist with election cybersecurity defense efforts during the 2020 state primary election on June 30, 2020.  Read More from Governor Jared Polis HERE
Amtrak To Cut Service On Colorado Rail Lines
Amtrak will cut service on its two rail lines that run through Colorado later this year. The California Zephyr, which runs across the Eastern Plains, through Denver and into the mountains, and the Southwest Chief, which slices through southeastern Colorado, will drop from daily service to just three times a week on Oct. 1, 2020. Read More from CPR HERE
A Pandemic Exposed The Cracks In Colorado’s School Funding System And Changed The Conversation
The 2020 Colorado legislative session opened with high hopes for increasing teacher pay, strengthening school safety, bolstering student mental health services, and improving funding for higher education and K-12. The coronavirus pandemic crushed those hopes and brought significant budget impacts that not only sidelined this year’s education agenda but reversed much of the progress made last year. Most significantly, the budget crisis amplified conversations about addressing long-standing challenges that have plagued school finance. Read More from Chalkbeat Colorado HERE
Colorado Adults Will Soon Be Able To Earn College Credit For Work Experience
Coloradans will soon be able to earn college credit for their work-related experience, a move that especially benefits adults who decide to further their education. The extra credits would allow students to earn a certificate or diploma more quickly, as well as increase overall college attainment among Colorado residents. A committee will study how colleges should handle work experience for credit and state public institutions will begin to give the credits to students enrolling in the 2022-23 academic year. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Rural Colorado’s Census Response Rates Are Lagging
Rural Colorado counties are lagging in responding to the Census, worrying government officials who say that an undercount could cost Colorado federal dollars and a possible new seat in the U.S. House. Read More from The Colorado Sun HERE
Denver International Airport Resumes First International Flight Since COVID-19 Pandemic
After two and a half months, Denver International Airport resumed on Tuesday its first international flight for essential travel, between Denver and Guadalajara. Volaris, a low-cost airline based in Mexico, is now operating service two days a week between the two cities through the rest of the year. The company expects to resume nonstop flights from Denver to Mexico City and Chihuahua as public health conditions improve. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
Denver Extends Disaster Emergency Declaration To July 20
At the request of the Hancock administration, the Denver City Council extended for the third time the city’s disaster emergency declaration until July 20 in response to the coronavirus. Gov. Jared Polis on May 22 extended the declaration of a disaster emergency for Colorado for another 30 days. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock first declared a state of emergency on March 12, enabling the administration to tap into additional funding streams and resources to support the city’s efforts to slow the spread of the virus. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
In Final Senate Debate, Hickenlooper And Romanoff Pitch Different Visions For Change
John Hickenlooper and Andrew Romanoff, Colorado’s 2020 Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, met in a television studio for a debate Tuesday night. It was their first — and only — one-on-one event to be held in person before the primary election ends on June 30. It was the candidates’ longest faceoff yet, and the last chance for many voters to see the two men hash out their policy differences and discuss their electability before casting their ballots, which have already been mailed to voters. Read More from CPR HERE 
U.S. Senate Passes Cory Gardner's Great Outdoors Act
Called the biggest federal lands bill in 50 years, the Great American Outdoors Act passed the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, just in time to add life to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner's reelection campaign. Gardner's legislation fully funds the once endangered Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million and takes on the roughly $20 billion maintenance backlog on federal public lands. Read More from Colorado Politics HERE
How Colorado Is Getting The Reopening Right
Colorado raised some eyebrows when it became the first Democratic-run state to start lifting its lockdown — but a few weeks later, the state is sticking out for all the right reasons. Colorado has so far avoided the COVID-19 resurgence rippling across the West, thanks in large part to its measured reopening strategy and residents who have largely followed public health officials’ advice. The state’s go-slow approach appears to be succeeding. Read More from Politico HERE
National Policy Updates
Coronavirus Racial Disparities Are Worse Than We Thought
Black and Hispanic/Latino Americans have coronavirus mortality rates as much as 10x higher than white Americans' when age is taken into account, according to a new analysis by the Brookings Institution. Why it matters: We've known that minorities are being hit harder by the coronavirus, but we didn't know it was this bad. Between the lines: White Americans tend to be older than black and Latino Americans, putting a higher percentage of white people in older and thus more vulnerable age brackets. That's skewed the overall death rate by race. Read More from Axios HERE and Brookings HERE
President Trump Signs Executive Order To Reform Policing, Encourages Ban On Chokeholds
Under pressure to take action in the wake of the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order aimed at encouraging police departments across the country to adopt stricter standards on the use of force. The president announced that his order calls for police departments to adopt bans on chokeholds, with an exception for when the officer's life is at risk. The order also calls for the creation of a database for police departments to share information on officers with a history of misconduct to prevent those officers from easily moving between different departments. It also encourages the use of so-called co-responders, like social workers and individuals trained in mental health issues, to respond to non-violent calls. The order does not directly address race. Read More from ABC News HERE
Parties Collide Over Police Reform
The partisan battle over police reform hits a critical juncture on Wednesday, when House Democrats will tee up their sweeping reform package for a floor vote and Senate Republicans unveil a similar but likely less far-reaching alternative. While the goals are the same, however, the partisan approaches are not. And to reach an agreement, the sides have plenty of work to do under the glaring spotlight of public scrutiny and the reluctant gaze of a president who’s been wary to police the police. Read More from The Hill HERE and The Washington Post HERE
Officer Who Shot Rayshard Brooks Charged With Murder
The Fulton County district attorney announced at a press conference on Wednesday that former officer Garrett Rolfe, who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta last week, will be charged with 11 counts, including felony murder and aggravated assault. The big picture: Rolfe fatally shot Brooks in a Wendy's parking lot after a struggle, setting off another wave of protests that had been ongoing since the killing of George Floyd. Officer Devin Brosnan, who was also present during the incident, faces three charges, including aggravated assault. Read More from Axios HERE
Most Superintendents Say They Don't Know When Schools Will Reopen
Most school superintendents say they aren't ready to announce when they'll reopen their classrooms, according to a nationwide survey from AASA, The School Superintendents Association. The superintendents, in the survey, said their districts haven't announced when their schools will reopen for in-person instruction. But, more than half say they “intend” to open on time. The survey was released as lawmakers and governors push to have kids back in school by fall, and it highlights the challenges education leaders face as they try to plan schooling around a pandemic. Read More from Politico HERE
PPP Failed To Get Money Where It Was Most Needed
With the deadline for businesses to secure funding from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) less than two weeks away, the most high profile portion of the $2 trillion CARES Act looks to have left out the people who needed it most. Driving the news: Fed chair Jerome Powell said during his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday that despite the nearly $700 billion program, the coronavirus pandemic was "presenting acute risks to small businesses." Between the lines: That seemed to be doubly true for black-owned businesses, which were statistically much more likely to need the funds. Read More from Axios HERE
An Issue For OZ?
Supporters of Opportunity Zones, created in the 2017 tax law, have long plugged the program as a way to spark employment in areas of need. But OZ’s are much more likely to be used to back real estate projects like condos or commercial projects, the Urban Institute says in a progress report on the two-and-a-half year old initiative. In fact, just 4 percent of investments are in operating businesses, the report found, pointing to figures from the accounting firm Novogradac. Read More from Politico HERE
Powell Says Economic Gains Are At Risk If Stimulus Measures End Prematurely
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said recent economic improvement could be jeopardized if Congress curtailed support to workers displaced and businesses shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite a gain in payrolls last month, Mr. Powell said 25 million workers remain dislodged from their jobs. Congress faces deadlines this summer over how to address expiring provisions of relief measures for businesses and unemployed workers, following nearly $3 trillion in emergency spending earlier this year. Read More from The Wall Street Journal HERE
Can Land Banks Get Us Out Of This Mess?
Even though the driver of this economic downturn is much different from the last one, some lawmakers are betting that one of the tools that took off in the wake of the foreclosure crisis can be expanded to protect towns and cities from the havoc that the pandemic-fueled economic downtown stands to wreak. That tool is land banking — a process for local governments to manage properties that are vacant, abandoned or foreclosed. Read More from CityLab HERE
Treasury, SBA Ease Path For Loan Forgiveness After Outcry
The Trump administration today slashed the amount of paperwork that small businesses must fill out to avoid being stuck with debt from government-backed loans, in response to an outcry from lawmakers and business groups that the process was too complicated. The Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department released a three-page "EZ" loan forgiveness form that certain borrowers from the so-called Paycheck Protection Program would be able to use. The administration said it requires fewer calculations and less documentation than the full application. Read More from Politico HERE
Several States Report Record Numbers Of New COVID-19 Cases. Here's What Doctors Say Needs To Happen
Just as much of the US was improving, several states are going backward in the fight against the coronavirus with record-high daily case or hospitalization numbers. Florida, Texas and Arizona have all set records for daily new cases this week. They're among 21 states across the country with increasing trends in new cases from one week to the next. Read More from CNN HERE
A Mad Scramble To Stock Millions Of Malaria Pills, Likely For Nothing
The Food and Drug Administration’s abrupt decision this week to revoke an emergency waiver for two malaria drugs promoted by President Trump as potential “game changers” against the coronavirus has left 66 million doses stranded in the federal stockpile — and officials do not yet know what they will do with them. Read More from The New York Times HERE
A Cheap Steroid Cuts Deaths From Severe COVID-19
Drug discovery is, almost by definition, an emotional rollercoaster. But the gloom lifted on June 16th with news from a large clinical trial in Britain. This trial found that dexamethasone, a cheap steroid drug, reduced deaths by a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients. The drug is set to become the standard of care for the National Health Service (NHS) across Britain. Doctors around the world will, undoubtedly, follow suit. Read More from The Economist HERE
2020 Electoral Map Ratings
President Trump is in a political hole and has a lot of ground to make up over the next five months if he hopes to win another term, an NPR analysis of the Electoral College map finds. Given his handling of the coronavirus and protests over racism and police brutality in the first six months of this year, Trump has slipped in many of the key swing states he won in 2016. The percentage of people disapproving of the job Trump is doing is at near-record highs for his presidency, and the intensity of the opposition is higher than for any past president. Read More from NPR HERE
President Trump Has A Point About The Polls
As President Donald Trump tumbles in the polls and falls further behind Joe Biden, his campaign has returned to a familiar refrain: The polls are underestimating Trump’s appeal again. They have a point. Pollsters aren’t deliberately skewing their surveys against the president and his party, as Trump’s orbit alleges. The national polls showing Trump trailing Biden by an increasing margin aren’t “phony” or rigged. But some pollsters, especially the relatively few who conduct surveys in battleground states, are still grappling with the same problems that plagued those polls four years ago. In fact, most pollsters believe that, on balance, state polls are overstating the scale of Biden’s advantage. Read More from Politico HERE
Can We Tell Which States Will Be Swing States In November?
It’s the holy grail of presidential election campaigns: knowing which states will be decisive in the Electoral College. We have our guesses: States like Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin are widely expected to be among the top swing states for 2020. But how confident can we really be in those expectations five months before the election? Read More from FiveThirtyEight HERE
More Homeland Security Employees Fear Furloughs As Funding From Fee Collections Drops
As the Homeland Security Department prepares to send furlough notices to thousands of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees, workers in other areas of the department are worried they too could see furloughs after fees collected by their offices have dropped precipitously in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Union officials raised the concerns Tuesday at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee’s panel on oversight, management and accountability, pointing specifically to Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations. Read More from Government Executive HERE
Emissions Are Surging Back As Countries And States Reopen
In early April, daily fossil fuel emissions worldwide were roughly 17 percent lower than they were in 2019, as governments ordered people to stay home, employees stopped driving to work, factories idled and airlines grounded their flights, according to a study published in May in Nature Climate Change. But by mid-June, as countries eased their lockdowns, emissions had ticked up to just 5 percent below the 2019 average, the authors estimated in a recent update. Read More from The New York Times HERE
Target Permanently Raising Hourly Minimum Wage To $15
Target on Wednesday announced that it will permanently raise its minimum wage for workers by $2 to $15 per hour starting next month. The retail giant said in a statement the wage hike will go into effect on July 5 and that it will also offer a one-time “recognition bonus” of $200 to “frontline store and distribution center hourly workers” for their work during the coronavirus pandemic. Read More from The Hill HERE 
The Pandemic Has Unleashed A Cyber Crime Wave
Cyber criminal networks and individual opportunists have leveraged the coronavirus crisis to ramp up schemes to defraud businesses, credulous consumers and governments at all levels. The big picture: This new wave of cyber crime, documented in a series of indictments, public disclosures and statements from U.S. officials, illustrates why the U.S. government sometimes refers to the “big four plus one” of cyber threats. The big four are the traditional quartet of states known for their cyber capabilities: Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Read More from Axios HERE
The Pandemic Shows Us The Genius Of Supermarkets
Long-suffering as one of the thinnest-margined businesses in existence and one of the least-looked-forward-to places to visit, the supermarket has, for more than a decade, been under assault from e‑commerce giants. Yet in recent months, the supermarket has assumed a new centrality in Americans’ lives. Grocery shopping is no longer one in a long list of mundane errands. For many people, it’s the errand—the only one—and it now seems not inevitable, but somewhat amazing to be able to do at all. Read More from The Atlantic HERE
International Policy Updates
U.S. Mulls Controversial Foreign Aid Shake-Up
Efforts are underway in Washington to revamp U.S. foreign aid in the wake of the coronavirus. Proposals from both the White House and the Senate would shift billions of dollars in foreign assistance, consolidate control over U.S. humanitarian aid in the State Department and undermine the lifesaving work of USAID. Read More from NPR HERE
Should The World Be Worried About The 'Explosive' New Outbreak Of Coronavirus In Beijing
As reports emerge of a new COVID-19 outbreak at a Beijing market, the vigor of the public health response from Chinese officials is only surpassed by the severity of their language. Since 106 new cases emerged around the Xinfadi wholesale food market in Beijing’s southwestern Fengtai district, the Chinese capital has been plunged into what officials are calling “wartime mode.” Some 100,000 epidemic control workers have been deployed, at least 29 local communities placed under lockdown, schools and sports facilities shuttered, and various officials sacked. Read More from Time HERE
India And China Have Their First Deadly Clashes In 45 Years
The two armies each had guns, artillery and tanks to the rear. But they wielded only sticks and stones at the front, as night fell on June 15th. That was deadly enough. When the brawl ended, and the final rocks had been thrown, at least 20 Indian troops lay dead in the picturesque Galwan valley, high in the mountains of Ladakh. Chinese casualties are unknown. They were the first combat fatalities on the mountainous border between India and China in 45 years, drawing to a close an era in which Asia’s two largest powers had managed their differences without bloodshed. Read More from The Economist HERE
U.S. Sanctions Hit Assad But Risk Deepening Syria's Economic Crisis
New U.S. sanctions targeting Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and those who fund it are likely to increase pressure on the Syrian government and deepen the country's economic crisis. Assad has survived nine years of civil war, but Syria's dictator now faces protests in the street, a currency shock and internal divisions highlighted by a public feud with his billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf. The people of Syria continue to suffer. The Caesar Act, named for a photographer who secretly documented the regime's humanitarian abuses, targets 39 individuals and entities, many of whom are already under sanctions. Read More from Axios HERE
What Our Post-Pandemic Behavior Might Look Like
Changed social expectations of face masks could be one, a new aversion to face-touching may be another. Images of crowds gathered during Memorial Day weekend may suggest that for some people, few social-distancing norms will stick. Still, past epidemics, disasters, and instances of social isolation have demonstrated how these societal disruptions can alter our behavior for years to come. They’ve also demonstrated time and again that humans are fundamentally resilient, making adjustments in the short-term but also falling back into old habits once an acute risk has passed. Read More from CityLab 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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