March 12, 2025 12:13 PM UTC

Colorado Republicans Have Fully Ceded the "Pro Family" Moniker

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• by: Colorado Pols

The names may change, but the votes stay the same.

In year after year, on one piece of legislation after another, Colorado Republicans have gone out of their way to oppose legislation that would benefit Colorado families. Fortunately, a Democratic trifecta in state government has ensured that these pro-family proposals eventually make it into law anyway.

This debate is happening again today on the House Floor regarding SB25-004 — legislation intended to save Colorado families money on rising child care costs. The bill passed out of the House Health and Human Services committee on Tuesday and is now being debated on the House Floor, where Republicans are voicing their opposition. As a press release from House Democrats explains:

The House Health & Human Services Committee passed legislation sponsored by Representatives Jenny Willford and Lorena Garcia that would improve price transparency and allow Colorado families to request refunds on waitlist fees, application fees, and deposits if they don’t enroll their child in a child care center…

…SB25-004 would require child care centers to provide a transparent fee schedule upon registration, when joining a waitlist, or at the request of a family. The bill would also require application fees, waitlist fees, or deposits to be refundable after six months if a child is not admitted and remains on the waitlist.

A center may charge a deposit, but if admitted, the deposit must go towards the tuition of child care.

House Republicans are arguing AGAINST this legislation on account of…”government overreach” or something. We’re not making this up: Republicans are literally complaining that child care centers might have to refund waitlist and application fees if a child is not admitted to a child care facility after six months of waiting.

This is not a new approach by the House mini-minority caucus, either. House Republicans have voted against one child care assistance bill after another for the last decade.

Republicans even tried to stop the wildly-popular Universal Preschool Program in Colorado. The House GOP opposed the initial bill referring a nicotine tax to the ballot to fund the Universal Preschool (HB20-1427), and after voters approved it by wide margins, Republicans STILL voted against the bill formally establishing the program (HB21-1304).

We’ve long documented in this space the clear and obvious fact that Republican legislators in Colorado seem interested only in opposing things — whatever the things — so long as they have a platform for their performative obstruction tactics. These are not serious people interested in accomplishing serious things.

The next time one of them says that Republicans are “standing up for Colorado families,” everyone in the room should tell them to go ahead and sit back down.