Below you'll find the Policy and Legislative Advisory Network's (PLAN) highlights on what's happening in the world of policy that most impacts economic and social mobility within Adams County, Broomfield County, and the City of Aurora.

The Partnership's First Global Target, aka Measurement:

This work is about reduction of poverty and improving the overall well-being of individuals and industry across the region. Credential Attainment is one measurement the community can utilize to monitor progress towards economic and social mobility. Learn more HERE.

Adam Burg, Senior Advisor, Legislative and Government Affairs, Adams County Government

Kayah Swanson, Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy, RMP Backbone

Matthew La Crue, Managing Director, Dentons

PLAN Co-Champion

Ryan McCoy, Executive Director, Front Range Community College Foundation | President, Westminster Public Schools Board of Education

PLAN Co-Champion

We've gotta say it: 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.

The information below is in line with the Rocky Mountain Partnership's formal policy priorities for 2021. Learn more and check those policies out for yourself HERE.

First things first: good news! HB 1222 Regulation of Family Child Care Homes, which the Partnership supports, passed the full House on third reading this afternoon with no amendments. Now, it'll head to the Senate!

The Backbone Team sent letters of support for HB 1222 to our House legislative delegation last week, ahead of the bill's scheduled House floor work today. The same will be done for the Senate delegation.

Stay tuned for updates -- we'll keep them coming! Do you have questions about what it means for the Partnership to support a bill? View our policy FAQ by clicking HERE.

Now that bill introduction has slowed down somewhat, we wanted to take the opportunity to really highlight some of the legislation moving through the statehouse, in addition to tracking bills that align with RMP's policy priorities. Below, see a few of the bills we're keeping a close eye on.

There's a lot happening, but remember that it's all broken down in a bill tracker for you. Click on the buttons below to learn more about the newly introduced bills the Partnership is monitoring.

Is there another bill you want us to track? Let us know by clicking HERE!

We're still keeping track of the eight other bills we've highlighted for you this session. To see an update on where these bills are at in the process, just click on the bill number:

Two weeks ahead of schedule, Colorado has opened vaccine eligibility up to everyone 16 and older as of Friday, April 2. Colorado joins a wave of states doing the same. Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas are all expanding eligibility for the vaccine to all adults on Monday, according to the New York Times, with Minnesota joining that group Tuesday, and Indiana and South Carolina on Wednesday.

In the 31 counties at Level Green on the state's color-coded COVID-19 dial system, Colorado will no longer require masks to be worn in most settings. In those counties, masks will only be required in schools, among congregate care visitors and in other high-risk settings like health care facilities and hair salons. Masks will still be required in counties at Level Blue and higher in public gatherings of 10 or more unvaccinated individuals.

America’s employers unleashed a burst of hiring in March, adding 916,000 jobs in a sign that a sustained recovery from the pandemic recession is taking hold as vaccinations accelerate, stimulus checks flow through the economy and businesses increasingly reopen. Even with last month’s robust increase, the economy remains more than 8 million jobs short of the number it had before the pandemic erupted a little over a year ago.

After more than two months of steep declines, coronavirus infections are on the rise again nationally — along with COVID-19 hospitalizations in many states. In the past seven days, the U.S. reported slightly more than 65,000 new cases per day on average, a jump of 20% from two weeks earlier. But there's cautious optimism that it's not likely to be as devastating as the previous wave, which saw 200,000 or more confirmed cases a day on average.

As the network continues to build infrastructure and capacity around policy work at the state level, the Policy & Legislative Advisory network recognizes the opportunity to begin making change right now.

Last week, the Steering Committee furthered that action by giving the green light for the Backbone Team to begin compiling a toolkit for equitable hiring practices, in addition to creating a public call to action to employ these practices at organizations in our region! We'll keep you apprised of updates on this resource as soon as we can.

There will be more to come as we look to bolster the Partnership's ability to move policy at a local and organizational level where needed. Stay tuned for more information!

The Rocky Mountain Partnership is a coalition of cross-sector stakeholders who are working together to collectively improve economic and social mobility across the Adams County, Aurora and Broomfield region by:

Rocky Mountain Partnership | rmpartnership.org