You Only Get Five Bills, So Why Not Waste Them?

18 Comments

by: Colorado Pols

Among the many pieces of legislation introduced in the Colorado General Assembly this week, highlighted by economic development and middle-class tax relief measures in the Democratic controlled House and Senate respectively, are a few real, shall we say, hum-dingers. Here’s a brief tour, with more sure to follow–post good ones you find in this space.

Guns: In addition to the “More Guns In Schools Act” we discussed yesterday from conservative Senate firebrands Scott Renfroe and Ted Harvey, GOP freshman Rep. Justin Everett is carrying this year’s version of the perennial “Make My Day Better” bill, with Sen. Kevin Grantham as the Senate sponsor. If you pay attention to its yearly introduction, debate, and death, you already know it’s opposed by more or less everybody in a public safety role.

God: Headed directly for the House State Affairs Committee, a.k.a. the “kill committee,” is Rep. Kevin Priola’s House Bill 13-1066, “Concerning the preservation of a person’s exercise of religion.” A state flavor of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, the bill (interestingly for the normally tort-hating Rep. Priola) allows for monetary damages to plaintiffs if a “substantial burden” to a person’s exercise of religion is proven. This legislation is considered by opponents as providing an affirmative defense for various kinds of discrimination.

Bedrooms: In addition to Rep. Janak “Dr. Nick” Joshi’s warmed-over “fetal homicide” bill, House Bill 13-1032, newly-elected Rep. Steven Humphrey introduced House Bill 13-1033–a no-apologies ban on abortions, with no exceptions of any kind for victims of rape or incest.

The bill prohibits abortion and makes any violation a class 3 felony. The following are exceptions to the prohibition:

A licensed physician performs a medical procedure designed or intended to prevent the death of a pregnant mother, if the physician makes reasonable medical efforts under the circumstances to preserve both the life of the mother and the life of her unborn child in a manner consistent with conventional medical practice;

A licensed physician provides medical treatment to the mother that results in the accidental or unintentional injury or death to the unborn child.

Teachers and public employees: Republican morale-building measures for public employees include Rep. Kevin Priola’s House Bill 13-1040 to slash public employee retirement benefits, and freshman Sen. Vicki Marble’s Senate Bill 13-017 to bust teacher’s unions. Meanwhile, the honor of carrying this year’s right-to-work (known to opponents as “work for less”) bill falls to freshman Sen. Owen Hill, who brings us Senate Bill 13-024. Sen. Hill could have made more edits to the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) sample “Right to Work” bill–which Sen. Hill’s legislation is rather obviously cribbed from. But we guess he was busy.

These are just a few bills that caught our eye as they were introduced–no doubt there are more. Again, we have little doubt that every bill you see above will die in an Assembly now fully controlled by Democrats. In terms of individual legislators, particularly those representing safe red districts, these kinds of bills probably don’t hurt the reputations of their sponsors.

As for the brand of the party they all belong to…that’s really the problem here, isn’t it?

18 thoughts on “You Only Get Five Bills, So Why Not Waste Them?”

johnpauljones says:

January 11, 2013 at 10:43 am

Would Hickenlooper be conflicted out?

I think it is a great idea and my 18 year old daughter concurs.

Log in to Reply
ProgressiveCowgirl says:

January 11, 2013 at 11:18 am

Where’s the post I promoted this morning? It still has my promotion tag but isn’t on the FP.

Log in to Reply
1. Colorado Pols says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 2:39 pm
  
  It’s possible the post was edited after you promoted it, which with newer accounts does seem to remove the post from the homepage. Please repromote the post.
  
  Log in to Reply
BlueCat says:

January 11, 2013 at 12:06 pm

They blame sub-par teachers for education woes yet propose making teaching less rewarding in terms of salary and benefits while also being keen on adding new responsibilities such as becoming weapons trained security personnel.

This makes as much sense as their militant devotion to zygotes coupled with their “tough luck” attitude toward children who have actually been born but who have exercised poor judgement by choosing (?) to be born to parents struggling financially or to undocumented workers or just into one of the less desirable (by their standards) demographics.

Apparently they believe that the secret to attracting high quality professionals to teaching is to treat them with contempt and make it a job offering more onerous duties with fewer financial advantages and that responsibility for one’s choices, like personhood, should begin at conception.

Log in to Reply
1. rocco says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 2:49 pm
  
  What I can’t figure out is how a cookie cutter republican, a regular, working stiff, middle class, average joe type pinko hasn’t figured out exactly what you just posted.
  
  How can 32% of the public be so damned willfully uninformed, when the very future of their own kids is put at hazzard by the very political hacks these dipshits support?
  
  Log in to Reply
Diogenesdemar says:

January 11, 2013 at 2:46 pm

definitely not that our legislators are only allowed five bills . . .

Couple that with the fact that these idiot bills are required to have at least one committee hearing . . .

The problem is (as is clearly evidenced here) that every legislator is permitted (and consequently expected to have) five bills to begin with. Without this prime-mover stupidity, a lot of this subsequent legislative stupidity would be greatly curtailed, if not eliminated all together.

Want further proof? — list five good ideas that Greg Brophy has had in his entire life . . .

Log in to Reply
1. rocco says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 2:50 pm
  
  Log in to Reply
2. thiokuutoo says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 3:27 pm
  
  The only idea that Brophy did good on was to not ask me questions when I testified on bills before the committees he was on.
  
  Other than that, you need to ask someone who cares about him if he ever had any other good ideas.
  
  Log in to Reply
3. DaftPunk says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 10:13 pm
  
  But he’s a bike riding tool, and has teamed up with some tree-hugging Dems to pass good pro-cyclist legislature.
  
  He also looks better in Lycra than Chris Romer:
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. unnamed says:
    
    January 12, 2013 at 7:24 am
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. DaftPunk says:
      
      January 13, 2013 at 12:49 pm
      
      Here‘s her race report.
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. DaftPunk says:
    
    January 13, 2013 at 2:16 pm
    
    None should consider this a comment on Chris Romer’s environmental record.
    
    Log in to Reply
davebarnes says:

January 11, 2013 at 3:30 pm

Scott Gessler pushes new bill that would allow him to remove non-citizen voters from the rolls

http://blogs.westword.com/late…

Log in to Reply
1. gertie97 says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 4:33 pm
  
  Log in to Reply
2. BlueCat says:
  
  January 11, 2013 at 4:34 pm
  
  The legislature and Governor are Dems. For gubernatorial in our state he has to tack toward center, not right. Has he pretty much concluded he’s just going for rightie celeb in the future, like Tancredo?
  
  Log in to Reply
Not Dame Edna says:

January 13, 2013 at 10:50 am

The Republicans are concerned with Democratic overreach this session and this is their legislative agenda?

These sort of dangerous proposals makes me thankful that I know they have no chance of ever getting past a committee in either chamber. I would very worried if the Democrats did not hold the majority.

And these people don’t understand how they ended up in the minority. Well, it’s a mystery.

Thankfully the citizens of Colorado have more sense.

Log in to Reply
ClubTwitty says:

January 20, 2013 at 10:58 am

Jared ‘Graft’ Wright is sponsoring a bill to ‘arm teachers’ and to allow businessowners to shoot unpleasant patrons.

Ray ‘API’ Scott is introducing legislation to give tax breaks to Big Oil and Gas for more drilling contrary to what the (formerly beloved) Free Market would otherwise bear.

Log in to Reply
1. dukeco1 says:
  
  January 20, 2013 at 11:06 am
  
  Don’t you just love it?
  
  Log in to Reply