January 29, 2014 02:04 PM UTC

More Republican Bills "Killed" With No Witnesses

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• by: Colorado Pols

A release from the Colorado AFL-CIO celebrates the death of two bills in the House State Affairs Committee today–House Bill 14-1087 to outlaw the state's public employee union, and House Bill 14-1098, this year's version of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-authored "Work For Less" anti-union bill:

Today the Colorado House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs overwhelmingly rejected dual proposals to “Prohibit collective bargaining for public employees” (HB14-1087) and “Prohibit discrimination labor union participation” (HB14-1098).  Both proposals would strip away the right to come together for better wages and working conditions—as the Denver Broncos currently do…

In response, Mike Cerbo, the executive director of the Colorado AFL-CIO made the following statement:
 
Colorado’s working families applaud the members of the committee today who rejected these irresponsible policies. Republicans whine about legislative overreach and talk about preserving individual rights, yet they will not stand up for the basic rights of individuals to come together to call for better wages, working conditions and quality of life. They have been stuck in a race to the bottom. The legislature was right in discarding these proposals.

Of particular note was the manner in which the bill died. The legislation from Rep. Justin Everett — to ban public employee unions — was apparently not worth its sponsor's time, either:

The first bill was denied by the committee in just under eight minutes. The sponsor was unprepared providing no witnesses and could not cite any facts or figures when asked. [Pols emphasis]

Earlier this month, we discussed a Senate Republican press conference, in which minority members complained bitterly that their bills were being assigned to the State Affairs Committee–well-known under the control of both parties in the General Assembly as the "kill committee." Immediately following that press conference, Sen. Greg Brophy marched into that same committee to seek passage of his bill to gut state regulation of health insurance.

With no witnesses.

Folks, it's a very simple proposition: if you're going to complain that the Democratic majority is killing your bills, you have make some kind of good-faith effort to actually pass them. Introducing a radical piece of legislation facing an uphill fight to pass at best is bad enough. But to make no attempt to convince anyone that your bill is worth passage? How is this not a waste of everyone's time?

At the very least, news outlets who wrote about that ridiculous press conference owe their audience a follow-up. There's more to this story than Democrats "killing Republican bills." Republicans aren't even bothering to try.