The Colorado General Assembly has adopted several rule changes, including strict requirements when a lawmaker requests a bill be read at length, as the lawmaking body approaches its final days of the 2024 session.  

Those rules changes included votes by the House Democratic majority in January and standard changes that occur every year.

Here’s what some of them look like:

House only: Rule 33 (b5) allows for substantial amendments on third reading in preparation for the final votes. Up until now, those amendments could only be technical.

The most substantial changes in House Resolution 4 deal with reading bills at length, a tactic the minority frequently uses.

Any member requesting that a bill be read at length must remain on the House floor during that reading, except for five-minute breaks. Otherwise, a member who leaves the floor during a reading at length is deemed to have abandoned that request.

If the request to read at length is made during the second reading or the final vote, the majority leader can lay the bill over instead, and that’s a non-disputable motion.

In addition, if another member asks for the same bill to be read at length, the reading begins from where the previous reading stopped instead of starting over.

Another change is expected in the next week in both the House and Senate: The committees of reference will be pared down to include state affairs, appropriations, finance, and any other committees the leadership may deem necessary.

That means all bills will be assigned to one of those remaining committees, regardless of topic.