The state of AI: where things stand at the Colorado General Assembly mid-day Saturday
Stephen Swofford
Colorado President of the Senate James Coleman, D-Denver, listens as Colorado Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, addresses the Senate at the start of Special Session on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (Stephen Swofford, Denver Gazette)
Stephen Swofford
At the beginning of this week’s special session, word under the Golden Dome of the state Capitol was that the debate over artificial intelligence would be the biggest story, or headache, of the session.
It’s living up to its billing.
While the House on Saturday worked on final votes on six of the last seven House bills on their calendar, with four Senate bills awaiting preliminary debates, the Senate is now 26 hours into doing little else but waiting.
What they’re waiting on: what happens to Senate Bill 4, the artificial intelligence measure offered by Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriguez, D-Denver.
After approval, and amendments, from the Senate Business Affairs and Labor Committee Thursday, SB 4 was sent to Senate Appropriations, where it has sat ever since.
Negotiations over that bill, and House Bill 8, the measure to delay the implementation of the 2024 artificial intelligence law, continued Saturday.
Among the political activity surrounding the bill: sources have said Rodriguez intends to change the makeup of the Senate Appropriations Committee to make it more friendly to his bill. That could include removing one Republican – Sen. Larry Liston – and one Democrat, Sen. Jeff Bridges, who happens to be the chair of the Joint Budget Committee and is the vice-chair of the appropriations committee. That would make the committee 5-2 Democrats to Republicans.
One problem with SB 4 is its cost: the introduced version showed a bill of $4.4 million in general fund dollars for the Office of Information Technology and the judicial department. After the business and labor committee amended SB 4, with amendments supported by Rodriguez, the cost went up, to $4.8 million and two more state agencies – the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Personnel and Administration – were added to the list of impacted state agencies.
As of 1 p.m. Saturday, the Senate had not even gaveled in for the day, with senators wandering the halls of the Capitol, waiting for a deal on the Rodriguez bill. Finally, before adjourning for the day at 6:30 p.m., lawmakers voted to layover both SB 4 and HB 8.
One of the options for the appropriations committee is to pass the bill without adding an amendment that would allow for the appropriation.
The chair of Senate Appropriations is Sen. Judy Amabile, D-Boulder, who put a hold on the committee hearing Friday.
Amabile and Sen. Lisa Frizell, R-Castle Rock, are the Senate cosponsors of House Bill 8, the House’s artificial intelligence bill that was gutted Friday and replaced with a “clean” delay on the implementation of the 2024 law, which is scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 1, 2026. Under the amendment offered by the House sponsors, Democratic Reps. William Lindstedt and Michael Carter, the 2024 law would be delayed to Oct. 1, 2026.
HB 8 is ready for second reading debate in the House. Sources have said that if the House rejects HB 8, it would be a sign of a deal on Senate Bill 4.
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