Gov. Jared Polis has signed his first law of the 2025 legislative session, a bipartisan cleanup measure that affects the state’s nursing homes.

House Bill 1022, sponsored by Reps. Cecelia Espenoza, D-Denver, and Karen McCormick, D-Hygiene, and Sens. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, and Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, allows individuals who passed a competency evaluation administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on or before July 1, 2017, to be included in the state’s definition of “qualified medication administration personnel”.

Not only is the bill the first measure the governor has signed into law this session, but it is also Espenoza’s first bill to become law since being elected in November.

Last session, the General Assembly passed a measure defining qualified medication administration personnel, or QMAPs, as individuals who have passed a competency evaluation by an approved training entity on or after July 1, 2017. The bill failed to include individuals who received their training through the CDPHE. 

“I’m very happy that we’re able to fix this bill by this bipartisan legislation, and it’s exciting that it was my first bill that did get through committee unanimously and through the House unanimously and through the Senate unanimously,” she said. “It can be done. When we have good policy, we can have bills pass unanimously and that’s what we did.”

Polis called the bill a “good bipartisan piece of legislation that sets a good tone for the legislature”.

“This is very important and is part of our commitment to every Coloradan to be a Colorado for all, including our seniors that live in assisted living facilities,” he said.