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2025 General Assembly Extraordinary Session
Legislators met today at 10am and out of 30 bills plus a couple of resolutions,14 are already dead in the water. All but one of these unfortunates are GOP-only sponsored. Naquetta Ricks-D from HD-40 in Aurora sponsored a health care bill on expanding health care services by licensed providers. She experienced a take down. Her bill may be resubmitted in January and may receive a different reception then.
Of the remaining 16 bills, 11 have to do with money, either clawing back tax benefits, reducing corporate tax go-arounds, selling tax credits, or shifting money around. If Democrats sponsored the bills, the money legislation is headed to Appropriations committees for review. GOP versions on these issues went no where. Expect the total dollars ginned up to hit somewhere around $750 to $800 million.
Health insurance affordability is a large issue. HB25-S1006 creates a back-up plan to find state dollars to back fill unfunded federal dollars mostly for Medicaid when/if the money doesn't show up.
Probably the most contentious issue is the impact of Artificial Intelligence on personal privacy and algorithmic bias v. technology development and innovation. Colorado passed SB24-205 in 2024 that put Colorado at the forefront of consumer protections for "high risk" AI systems making consequential decisions affecting credit, employment, and housing, among others items.
HB25-S1008 changes the terms of the original bill to make its implementation somewhat easier for AI developers while maintaining some protections for consumers. The bill requires disclosure to individuals interacting with AI, extends Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act to AI developers to reduce bias in the use of algorithms, shields schools and government agencies from liability of AI systems that violate consumer protections and anti-discrimination rules, and establishes safeguards for future development of AI uses.
Objections to the new bill include the burden of complying with anti-discrimination and consumer protection rules, uncertainty around potential liability, the problem of proving an AI system violates consumer protections or discriminates, and the overall risk of these elements on AI innovation.
SB25-S004 repeals SB24-205. It's a mulligan that creates recourse for harms, transparency for users to reveal that AI may affect them, and enforces consumer protection laws. The gist of both the House and the Senate bills is to protect the viability of AI development in the state. While Colorado often chooses to be in the forefront of policy-making, in this case, the legislature is being asked to retreat from the forward position to, maybe, the back end of the front line.
The session is already in a rush to get over with. According to the Senate calendar for tomorrow, Senate bills are already up for a Third Reading. House bills only reached second reading status.
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