HB 22-1096

HB 22-1096, also known as the Bill Drafting Transparency Act, requires the Colorado General Assembly's legal office to make drafts of certain bills publicly available on their website before a regular legislative session begins. For returning legislators, this means draft versions of their proposed bills must be published 40 days in advance, while new members need to submit topics for their bills 33 and 30 days ahead of time, with the actual drafts due 10 days prior. If no draft is ready by the deadline, at least the topic will be posted until a full draft can be shared. This bill has been signed into law, meaning that starting from future legislative sessions, voters will have more access to proposed bills before they are formally introduced in the legislature.

Official Summary

The bill requires the office of legislative legal services (office) to publish drafts on the general assembly's website (website) of any bills that may be introduced as one of a legislator's 5 bills by right (covered bills). Specifically, the bill establishes the following requirements for the office: 40 days prior to the 1st day of a regular legislative session, the office is required to publish the current draft of a returning member's covered bill; 30 days prior to the 1st day of a regular legislative session, the office is required to publish the subject of a new member's request for a covered bill; 10 days prior to the 1st day of a regular legislative session, the office is required to publish the current draft of a new member's covered bill; If there is no draft as of the deadline, the office is required to publish the subject of the request for the covered bill and then publish the draft as soon as it has been completed; A redraft of the covered bill is required to be published; and The office is required to publish a notice of any covered bill that is withdrawn after the bill subject or draft has been published on the website. To accommodate the deadlines for publishing the bill drafts and subjects on the website, the bill establishes the following bill request deadlines for covered bills: 70 days prior to the 1st day of a regular legislative session for a returning member; and 33 days prior to the 1st day of a regular legislative session for a new member.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)