please follow me in the pledge i pledge allegiance to the f members this morning we are honored to have a musical presentation presented by deputy tim lambert from the adams county sheriff's office performing amazing grace on the ba leader thank you mister president i move that the senate proceed out of order to consideration of resolutions you have heard the motion all those in favor say aye all those opposed no the motion is adopted the senate will proceed out of order for consideration of resolutions may fifteen two thousand and nine teen as peace officers memorial day cherica thank you mister president i move senate resolution ten and asked that selected sections be read at length mister carpenter please read select officers memorial day whereas the congress and president of the united states have designated may th as peace officers memorial day and the week in which it falls as national police week and whereas the members of the law enforcement agencies within the state of colorado playing a central role in safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the state of colorado and whereas it is important that all citizens of colorado know and understand the duties responsibilities and challenges of their peace officers and whereas it is important that peace officers throughout colorado recognize their duty to serve the people of this state by safeguarding life and property protecting citizens against violence disorder and deception and protecting the weak against oppression or intimidation and whereas law enforcement agencies within the state of colorado have grown to be modern and professional agencies that unceasingly provide a vital public service and  whereas the following peace officers made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the state of colorado in two thousand and five donald young the second of the denver police department jeffrey a christensen of the now no park service and greg our boss of the us postal service in two thousand and six jared jensen and kenneth c jordan the colorado springs police department and michael d thomas of the aurora police department in two thousand and seven douglas d burn of the aurora police department and zachariah templeton of the colorado state patrol in two thousand and eight nicholas hine of the pueblo police department in two thousand and nine david jake internet of the mantras police department in two thousand  samuel kate brownlee of the weld county sheriff's office in two thousand and eleven j sheridan of lyman pd and david roberts of the denver police department in two thousand and twelve jeremy bittner of the englewood police department of the denver police department matthew tyner of the colorado springs police department lead william de fusco and warren w watts of the pueblo county sheriff's office james jeffery davies of the lakewood police department and mary kay record of the colorado department of corrections in two thousand and thirteen thomas l clements of the colorado department of corrections in two thousand and fourteen david michael baldwin of the jefferson county sheriff's office in two thousand and fifteen county sheriff's office nate kerrigan of the parke county sheriff's office derek gear of the mesa county sheriff's office and kody donahue of the colorado state patrol in two thousand and seventeen zachary parrish the third of douglas county sheriff's office in the two thousand and eighteen heath gum of the adams county sheriff's office micah flick of the el paso county sheriff's office and matthew marino of the los alamos county sheriff's office whereas it is fitting inappropriate for the citizens of colorado to join together and commemorating peace officers past and present who by their faithful and loyal devotion to their responsibilities have rendered a dedicated service to their community and in doing so have established for themselves and enviable and enduring reputation for preserving the rights and security of all citizens now therefore be resolved by the senate of the nd general assembly of the state of colorado that we the members of the senate hereby proclaim the week commencing may twelve two thousand and nine teen as police week in colorado in recognition of peace officers efforts and safeguarding the citizens of colorado and call upon all citizens of the state and upon all patriotic civic and educational organizations to observe police week and that we hereby proclaim the day  may th two thousand and nineteen as peace officers memorial day in recognition of those officers who through their courageous deeds have made the supreme sacrifice or who will been disabled in the line of duty and call upon the citizens of colorado to recognize and participate in the observance of this worthy occasion thank you colleagues we're running this resolution to mark the passing but also to remember the three sheriff's deputies that lost their lives in the line of duty last year i personally would call them heroes but i'm pretty sure they wouldn't think of themselves that way nor did they aspire to become heroes they were content simply to do their job to the best of their abilities without glory without reward or special recognition they understood the dangers the risks and the perils of their chosen profession as guardians of the law they understood that it was their duty to defend the defenseless protect the helpless and shield the innocent from those who would prey on society you know law enforcement is not the most dangerous job in the country as a matter of fact it's not even the top ten if you go by the rate of deaths per one hundred zero in that particular occupation however that's a little misleading it's number four in total occupational desk behind farmers truck drivers and construction workers regardless of where falls it's the only profession where people intentionally want to kill you for doing nothing more than their jobs or because of the uniform they wear people don't want to kill farmers for planting their crops or truck drivers for hauling those  the market or construction workers for building homes and businesses you know every year we face natural and man made tragedies and when these tragedies occur and when people are in a time of need the first ones they call upon is law enforcement men and women who are willing to be the brave ones willing to war run towards the bullets towards the tragedies and calamities not away from them the willingness to run towards a catastrophe and calamity for without this willingness we wouldn't be living in a free society a free republic we would be living in chaos and anarchy it takes a very special person who is willing to put other lives before their own takes courage integrity and character in the book the nobility of policing by michael nam and steven covey they talked about plato's vision of a perfect society and plato said this about the police of their time the guardians in a republic that honors the core of democracy the greatest amount of power is given to those called the guardians only those with the most impeccable character are chosen to bear the responsibility of protecting the democracy last year we lost three peace officers three deputy sheriff's in the state of colorado a total of one hundred and fifty eight deputies officers and troopers throughout this nation let me put that in perspective that is a hundred and thirty four more law law enforcement officers killed in the united states than all the military personnel killed last year in afghanistan syria and iraq combined one hundred and fifty eight law enforcement officers twenty four military personnel in combat zones there were also sixty one thousand nine hundred and ninety five assaults on lawn for law enforcement resulting in over seventeen thousand nine hundred injuries these killings and assaults have to stop but how well first off we must do our part here in this chamber we must send a clear message that we support our law enforcement and that is why i'm grateful that we were taking the time out of our busy schedule to run this resolution again we are taking the time to recognize the three deputies not just in their death but in their service to the community and to the state of colorado adams county sheriff deputy heath gum thirty one was shot to death on january th while pursuing a suspect wanted in connection with a fight el paso county sheriff deputy micah flicked thirty four who was shot and killed february th by the nineteen year old he was trying to arrest on suspicion of a car theft and sergeant matthew moreno of las animas county sheriff's office was killed on december th while responding to a call and was hit head on in his patrol car in a minute we are going to do a roll call vote on the resolution and everyone is going to be asked to stand and cast their vote when you do stand and vote i ask you to think about what we can do down here when we write a bill or pass a law that affects law enforcement ask yourself does it make it easier for law enforcement to do their job or more difficult more importantly does it make it safer for them and their families or does it make it more dangerous and puts them in harm's way so let's do our part show support and make it safer for them once again i set up the memory table up here up on the d and it has a lot of symbolism the table is covered with a white tablecloth to symbolize the loyalty and courage with which they served the respected communities the folded american flag represents the courage sacrifice and deputy or duty to the country a single rose in a vase is placed on the table to represent the family and friends the deputies left behind a hat and badge are placed beside the rose to represent their absence and a white candle was lighted to remind us that they are not forgotten a picture frame with the photographs and end of watch date of the fallen deputies is posted on the table as a visible reminder of the deputies who have gone on the memory table remain on the dyess all day and i encourage you to come up during the day and observe the table and honor  colleagues today we mourn we mourn our fallen peace officers and with grief and gratitude we recognize their deep sacrifice the daily work of the officer is sustained between us and danger and the harms that they might suffer in this place on our roads in our communities those are harms that are intended for us but their loss is recorded on the ledger of our comfort and our safety we owe debts to our capacities to pay or even comprehend my uncle jack did leon ii spent his life in service to our protection and in practice with grieving officers he's a former deputy sheriff detective and police chief he has served in wyoming and colorado and for the last eleven years of his career was the director of human services and a police psychologist for the fort collins police services he has helped our legislature in fact through his contributions we have extended confidentiality to peer support teams that work with first responders knowing what we would be considering today i reached out for his help and i asked him if there is anything that he could tell me that he could help me to understand anything that i could share or include today he said this to remember that while our sadness on hearing tragic news might fade inside the profession these things these tragedies reverberate for years and inside a department can reverberate forever in a profession where every stranger is a potential threat every confusion can hide hide a danger and constant vigilance builds the pressure and when that potential becomes real the support of built up defenses can crash down this trauma he said is the first of two crises the primary trauma of physical harm or the psychological harm of witnessing terrible things is followed by a secondary trauma it is the damage done by refusing to voice the first the nature of quiet bravery and it can become a trap of silent suffering and sadly some officers choose to die by their own hand before they choose to care as we remember these fallen and pray for their families and for the fellows consider the complexity of their bereavement all first responders see loss and in each profession it is just as damaging but it is in each different police duty deaths almost always are due to human action a fire an ambulance crash every death is the same maximal tragedy but a death at the hands of another changes the questions it raises a lot of thoughts of intention evil violence stupidity and when an officer falls those questions echo and the minds of those who loved or worked beside them forever and as we grieve the loss of these brave men and women let us ask those that shared in their lives to be brave as well and ask the human questions that are without good answers and ask them of one another and with shared experience pushed together away from the dark concerns in corners every year we lose some of the best among us and let us keep each alive and our memories and to stop those reverberations let us share our hearts and put to rest the harms that claimed them with all of my respect to the families and those who continue to serve us thank you it is a great honor to be able to present this to you today sure cook thank you mister president just for clarification we all know we had a tragic loss about a month ago corporal dan groves from the state patrol and rest assured he will be recognized next year this resolution is basically a year behind it runs from  and see how many deputies or troopers andor law enforcement officers that were killed in your area thank you mister president is there further discussion regarding senate resolution ten sara crowde mister president ladies and gentlemen and peace officers i represent southern colorado i'd like to talk to you a little bit about sergeant merino it was one of the officers listed on last year's  fatality you know it's i just want you to know i really appreciate your vigilance and what you do for us in the nation until this very morning i did not realize that there had been more police officers died than our military veterans in afghanistan it's somewhat shocking you know i as our first line of defense you know you're always running to the problem and most of us are running away i want to thank you i want to thank you for your courage and i want to thank you for the dedication which you give this country state and counties so it is it is imperative that we continually support you you know i know that  you know unfortunately we look forward to this day to honor those who have fallen but it is it is a sad the sad day also that we have to have this day but you know the the officers in which have given everything for their for their community should be admired and we should look up to you like we always have but i wanted to thank you personally for all your involvement i do have a nice it's a that is a policeman and i do i'm concerned about her it's a lady up north and it's a it's a business in which we have to have you you're very good at it but it's an unfortunate situation that we do have these atrocities that do happen to  actually was born in diablo colorado eight one thousand nine hundred and eighty one pretty young man to go he's a los angeles county deputy sheriff and he was killed in a car crash while responding to a domestic disturbance on december th i cannot tell you that i know sergeant moreno i've met him but just getting an idea of what is written about him was was fairly impressive sergeant moreno impacted  lives of so many with his light hearted generous spirit and sense of humor he loved a good practical joke and he also loved being a guy called when they needed help the state of colorado has lost a devoted public servant in the death of loss animus county sheriff deputy matthew troy and you know i just i want to take this moment to really you know give my heart out to the family the edie marina was the dad the ex wife three kids jared summer and morgan you know we have to also realize that not only did we lose a fallen police officer but there's also family members that are left behind to that we need to continually support any way that we can but i appreciate the opportunity to speak on this and i just want you to know that you know so they call rhoda you know you have our total respect and thank you very much thank you mister president mister president and i too rise in strong support of senate resolution ten my dad joseph thomas channel although he didn't serve here in colorado he was a police officer in new hampshire manchester new hampshire for over twenty five years and i wish you i wish he was around still to hear his comments and his perspective as a police officer back in the s s and s and how it looks to him now but he is not around and i would value his perspective deeply i do know firsthand though what families of officers go through each day and i believe that my family was fortunate enough never to have that quote unquote knock on the door like some of these other fallen officers have had i want to thank you all that are here all that are not here because they're on duty and all that are not here and to their families because they were on duty and unfortunately lost their lives but thank you for all that you do you are always and will be always a part of my family and you are in my heart and prayers thank you thank you mister president and the morning and colleagues i stand in strong support of senate resolution ten and want to thank the bill sponsors for taking this time and opportunity for us to remember those fallen officers as i read the resolution it indicates three hundred and forty one peace officers made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the state of colorado and so i want to just focus on the folks or the law enforcement officers that lost their lives starting in the year two thousand officer down i don't know about you but every time i hear about a news report the officer has fallen it shakes my because these law enforcement officers the troopers the sheriff's the police officers are just doing their job protecting our community our neighborhoods our property they're just doing their jobs and in the course of doing their jobs they are encountered with a variety of different risk and danger and for that some of them experience the ultimate sacrifice of the loss of their life many of you are here today representing some of the police departments and sheriff's departments around our state's and i just want to say thank you for the work you do it's not easy there's a lot of risk involved and every time you wear uniform it symbolizes to me that there's someone that's on watch so despite what you might hear from the community when we see you in that uniform it commands a certain level of respect when i see you behind me i slow down because i don't want to get a ticket and we all know how to behave when we see a law enforcement officer in their uniform so don't believe that the the messaging that you might hear that we don't respect law enforcement we know what your uniform symbolizes it means order it means discipline and we respect that but we also realize that evil prevail in our society but we know that evil cannot prevail in the presence of goodness and that's what law enforcement is all about it's about goodness it's about coming to the rescue when those are in need thank you thank you denver police department thank you colorado state patrol thank you colorado division of wildlife thank you larimer county thank you jefferson county thank you colorado springs thank you pueblo police department thank you montrose police department well county sheridan jefferson county inglewood aurora police department colorado department of corrections i need to stop right there because the director of correction was my friend his name was tom clemen he taught me about what it's like to be incarcerated and how his role was how to manage those that are incarcerated i remember you and i remember all of the dear conversations that we had regarding what it's like to manage a correction facility his life was taken university of colorado colorado springs police department douglas county adams county i can go on and on and on i don't want to forget any county but i just want you to know that we remember you and the reason we're taking this time out in the state senate is because we appreciate all that you do to keep our community safe we will never forget those fallen souls who gave their lives for us so when you wear that uniform and you put on your shield please know that we respect you and we honor you and we appreciate all you do thank you so much for this resolution s thank you mister president i think this bill sponsors for bringing this forward i think is very important just checking through senate district six i found fifteen people who have given their life that's a lot in a small area and i personally know some of them have been there with their kids at the four h sale when dad couldn't be there school events watch them graduate and this is my ni like the senator from aurora that i know there's some been there longer but the ninth year that we've been through this and i think it's very commendable that we do this but it's also very disappointing that leaves a family wondering they're grieving how do we handle this how do we move forward i think it's time that we stop just doing resolutions and and actually do something for these families that have lost their loved ones their means of support their future think about that it's a little late this year but by golly we can come up with something next year we have to it's too important we ask these people to go out to protect us to save us when we get stopped for speeding we don't like them for a few minutes but they're actually doing their job and we need to acknowledge each and every person not only in colorado but in our nation who have given their all to protect us rather we try to we look for a bad example a bad example of maybe an officer that is not in the true blue form and we try to publicize that we criticize and that criticism of that small portion of our men and women and service puts a stain on the rest when can we stop this thank you for this resolution is there further discussion on guardian senate resolution ten thank you mister president members i want to rise in support of this resolution and remember gentlemen from my community who gave his life and service of us a few years ago deputy gum heath gum was a devoted officer the law who had been serving with the adams county sheriff's office since two thousand and thirteen he graduated from mullen high school in two thousand and four and earned his posts certification from a rapo community college in tw he worked for cripple creek police department in abs county sheriff's department he was awarded the distinguished service medal by adams county sheriff's department in twenty seventeen heath loved traveling being outdoors spending time with friends and family and playing hockey he was loved by everyone who met him his kindness easygoing nature and wonderful sense of humor will be missed he will be remembered as an amazing husband son grandson brother cousin nephew and friend he is survived by his parents jim and becky gum his wife natasha wotcher grandmother sister reddy and brother in law colleagues please join us for a moment of silence to honor the legacy of a fallen colorado hero the senate will observe a moment of silence th is there further discussion regarding senate resolution ten carpenter please pull the senators senators bridges bridges i cook cook i quorum quorum i court will you please proceed by playing taps mister president i'd like to ask for a moment of personal privilege granted thank you members we're very privileged today to be able to have the family members of deputy heath come here with us today and so we wanted to recognize them and  your son and husband to serve us so thank you but we also have many law enforcement agencies here we have the colorado state patrol and we have adams county sheriff's office jeff co sheriff's office denver sheriff's in police department douglas county wel donovan thank you mister president colleagues this has been a nice quiet morning of reflection and so i would like to bring you  and thirteen today and continue just some brief discussion i will not ask it to be read at length because i think that we can talk about corporal sexton and a bit of his life and you can get a feel for what the resolution would relay and and please colleagues take your seats as we as i share a little bit about you about this wonderful piece of history from my district and a little bit about corporal sexton so this resolution will name a number of miles on either side of the town of bv as corporal ernest clifford sexton memorial highway and corporal sexton was a soldier and world war one but let's go back and start just a little bit before that as the resolution points to he moved to bv at the age of ten and instantly became i think a well known figure in the town and the baseball player that everyone knew about they was the season that they won a hundred games which is a club record that still stands and they also won the world series so corporal sexton a young man living in the mountains of colorado working mines invited by the white sox to come tryout and likely make the team he decided instead to enlist and was sent off to kansas to begin training with the three hundred and fifty v inventory and this was made up of young men from kansas missouri and colorado so instead of playing ball he was doing drills in the hot summer sun of kansas as a commitment to his country they after months of training were shipped to new york were they staged and eventually traveled over to the frontline of world war one where the three hundred and fifty v inventory occupied the front in france from august to october to get to the front and that year of one thousand nine hundred and eighteen they took buses the first time in the history of the army that people use motorized transport as buses to get to the frontline so i just love this juxtaposition of the life that he could have had being one of those boys of summer  chicago batting around the field playing catch versus the life that he chose of patriotism which landed him on the front line in france serving in those conditions that we know were some of the worst in the history of warfare he lost his life on november th just two days before the beginning of the end of world war one he was he was returned to his family and is buried in buena vista and shortly after earned the honor of the local american legion naming their their post after him and every memorial day the cub scouts and boy scouts work with the american legion and actually center their memorial day services around his grave in the cemetery just slightly above the small town  so colleagues thank you for giving me some time on this morning of reflection to share with you some information that i hope lets you feel like we can all know corporal sexton a little bit better and next time you drive on highway twenty four if you join me in support of this resolution perhaps you can picture him as you see those signs and be reminded of the remarkable patriotism of the heroes that have blessed this country throughout its history thank you mister president is there further discussion seeing none the motion before the body is the passage o smallwood bridges pettersen moreno story mister president i move that we the senate proceed out of order for a very brief moment of personal privilege you've heard the motion all those in favor say aye all those opposed no the eyes haven't the center will proceed out of order for a moment of personal privilege from the good senator from denver thank you mister president asked for a moment of personal privilege granted thank you members i just want to take a brief moment and recognize that today is zoo day at the state capitol as the senator in sen e district thirty three i know that my district is special it spans from twenty six and broadway all the way out to the airport but i am very privileged to have such a wide variety of cultural attractions educational opportunities and these activities within my boundaries one of those special places is the denver zoo this year the zoo will celebrate its one hundred  of serving and educating the community about the importance of the connections between humans and animals it has become a very long way since its first founded in one thousand eight hundred and ninety six with just a single bear cu zoo has more than five hundred and fifty species and over three thousand five hundred animals call our zoo home many of these animals from far reaches of the globe are threatened or endangered presenting all of us with a unique opportunity to learn more about what the planet holds one six million visitors every year have the privilege of seeing the science and education to life by more than three hundred and fifty employees and six hundred volunteers the denver zoo just doesn't serve city park community in senate district thirty three but it serves the entire state as the most visited cultural attraction and it serves the entire world by teddy kd more than two five million every year to feel competent conservation programs go believe and so today we celebrate the denver zoo on a hundred and twenty three years of serving as our window to the rest of the world so we do have some visitors here from the zoo so if you just take a moment and recognize our guests in the galley thank you thank you mister president third reading the bills issuance of driving authorization documents of foster children who are under eighteen years of age and in connection therewith making an appropriation mister majority leader thank you mister president i move the passage of all the bills in the third reading of bill's consent calendar which includes senate bills one fifty nine one taught court appropriations committee report to the committee report senator lee the committee report just made a meinl a minor change in the bill to enhance to change some minor language in the bill and and substituted one statutory reference for another asks for an aye vote on the appropriations committee report thank you senator lee is there any discussion is there any further discussion adopted to the bill senator lee thank you madam chair this bill the enhanced school safety incident report is a follow up to a bill that we passed last year which basically provided some grant money within the department of public safety to enable agencies to provide services to schools to train them to deal with incidents that occur in the school and we're talking about shooting incidents and school invasion incidents and things of that sort this year is just and the bill allocates additional money from that existing fund to the department of public safety so that ah to the bill senator marble okay thank you madam chair we do have a couple of amendments for this bill and i think it's very necessary especially for one  but this bill it gave me a real opportunity to learn more about exactly what the cold case team does we fund through this bill the database for cold cases i wish we could fund the investigations behind these cold cases but we just didn't get that done this year i am extremely concerned about that because we have a database that keeps growing with unsolved cases due to the lack of funds for the investigations to clear them out through in two thousand and twelve and it increased the numbers from fifteen to sixteen and also put representatives from victims families on which i think were very very important so i would like to address the amendments move and hope for your support on this it's taking the years that this goes out to seven instead of it and so we would be taking it back into reconsideration in two thousand and twenty six and the reason for this is when if you put it out thirteen years there's many people here in the legislature who wouldn't even know this existed and i think by bringing it into seven years it keeps the conversation alive and lets the legislature legislators know how important a job these task force members actually do and hopefully at some point we can get money to the actual investigations necessary to clear out a lot of the cold cases that exist in this database so i i move l to and ask for your support is there any further you madam chair l zero zero one is a very complicated amendment it actually changes this from the safety clause to the petition clause and i move eyes barely have it the amendment is adopted to the bill senator marble thank you madam chair all things considered with senate bill one hundred and sixty three and the funding of the database which is very necessary to keep track of these cold cases i ask for your full support and to get behind this most critical critical team senator fields thank you madam chair and i also urge an aye vote on senate bill one hundred and sixty three current law defines a coal case as a homicide investigation that has been open for more than three years from the date of the crime basically what this bill will do it will continue the the interface the technology to make sure that we're tracking those cold cases because what the task force does it reviews and it makes recommendations for okay cold case the agricultural and natural resources committee report to the agricultural natural resources committee report senator winter i we talked about the training of the river outfitters but this is not an actual school as defined by dory's so there is training but not the use of a school and we fixed that and i encourage a yes vote on the committee report  senator winter will you move your committee report please i move the committee report for agriculture natural resources thank you any further discussion seeing none the motion is the adoption of the agricultural and natural resources committee report to senate but one recommendation is there any further discussion seeing none the motion is the the motion before their body is the adoption of senate bill one hundred and sixty all those in favor say aye those oppose is a good bill that will help former offenders gain employment it is a very narrow bill it's a bill that that disallows employers from having a box about criminal history on their initial application only it does not disallow criminal background checks it also has some exceptions in the bill for those that can't hire any folks with a criminal history that are that are automatically subject to a background check so it's designed  to make sure that these ex offenders can actually gain employment and that their applications are just automatically thrown away because they check the box one estimate has it that over a million coloradans actually do have some form of a criminal history and we do know also that having stable employment is important and in fact one of the most important factors to make sure that those former offenders do end up being able to rehabilitate rehabilitate themselves and support themselves and their families so we asked for an aye vote thank you for discussion senator rodriguez thank you madam chair yes this bill somebody who works with people coming out of prison or people with criminal records you know they just need a shot to get in front of somebody to tell their story you know they're they're more than willing to tell somebody that they have something on their record but when you don't even get that opportunity to talk with somebody this opens that up and it helps prevent barriers so i wholeheartedly ask for an aye vote thank you any the clerk please read the title to madam chair um this is really just creating a standard and licensure for freestanding emergency departments and making sure that they obtain the proper licensure and that the they have the this bill is about making this room more accessible to more people we know that democracy works best when we have a diversity of backgrounds a diversity of views  diversity of people sitting in these chairs and talking about possible solutions i've been recruiting and training people to run for office for the past fifteen years and oftentimes one of the first questions they ask is can i do this and have a family both my co sponsor center foot and i have young children at home and it is difficult to have young children and do this and one of the small ways we can make sure that when people say i want to run for office and have children can i do this and we can say yes is by actually saying you can use some campaign finance funds to pay for the cost of child care that you incur because you are on the campaign out in the community outdoor rules you could make an argument that these types of expenses are related to campaign and and therefore could be could be used but we wanted to make sure that it was clear in the statute that you could we certainly wouldn't want someone to use their campaign funds for childcare as necessary for their campaign and then have that used against them in some way in the current political environment so we just want to make sure it's clear it'll give obviously clarity to folks running for office as well as just original executive order allowed the state of colorado to be a pass through entity in order to receive funds from the federal government for refugee resettlement and services and then obviously distribute those dollars to community organizations  nonprofit organizations to help refugees resettle in the state of colorado for me colleagues i don't think that our commitment to refugees should ever rest on who occupies the governor's office i believe the legislature has an interest in supporting refugee resettlement as well so this bill merely codifies the existing executive order and allows in the future should the general assembly choose to do so appropriate funding to support refugees thank you madam chair i move house bill eleven forty nine to the bill senator lee thank you i didn't think there was a committee report but i was waiting for you to help me out there  bill eleven forty nine proposes to have cc jj study the age of delinquency to determine whether it makes sense to have the rehabilitative services that are typically provided to youth available to people that are eighteen to twenty four years old the bill is easy to support because it's a study that costs nothing and it empowers cc jj to look at this issue  the modern brain science tells us that kids brains don't develop fully particularly the frontal lobe until age twenty five and this study would look at those issues to determine as i suggest whether or not it makes sense to have rehabilitative services as opposed to merely punitive services of the criminal justice system for youth this bill has received significant twenty seven reading there is no committee report to the bill senator fields thank you madam chair members this bill just allows the use of court facility dogs by a witness and  i have an amendment to this bill there is an amendment on the desk i move amendment zero seven to twelve twenty  dogs to help witnesses who are giving testimony in court to help reduce their anxiety and the judge has to authorize it this bill merely puts a little bit more of an additional guardrail around the judges determination he has to determine by a preponderance of evidence that the presence of a court facility dog during the witness's testimony would substantially reduce anxiety and enhance the ability of the court to receive full and accurate testimony so it's a minor tweak to the bill to give the judge more discretion now we ask for an aye vote on the member i just receiving this amendment right now so i have not had a chance to evaluate the merits of this amendment but wanted to give you a sense of what these court facility dogs will do often time if you have a child witness who has been sexually assaulted or something has happened where they have to testify in a courtroom and their parent or their family member is there these dogs and they they were a showcase for us in the courtroom these are the ones we saw were labrador retrievers they just said calmly in the committee room they weren't wagging their tails they weren't doing anything to create any excitement typically their house or they sit underneath the witness podium there and they're not visible so there's no way to have them be influenced influenced by the jury the judge makes determination all the time so i'm just kind of a little bit complex about why we need to have additional guardrails around anxiety and why we need to have some additional clarification regarding anxiety we see anxiety every day and judges are making decisions that are much more complex as relates to behavior anxiety looks like we see it here every day somebody might have sweaty palms they might have their voice shaking but what we're trying to do is we're trying to get the truth out in a courtroom and if a dog is able to provide some kind of comfort in the courtroom that's not seen to reduce that anxiety so they can get the truth out so that the jury members and the judge can make a fair assessment what's wrong with that why do we need to have more definition around anxiety a judge knows how to determine when a young person is displaying levels of anxiety if your eight year old nine years old twelve years old you have a disability intellectual disability and you need to have something to reduce your anxiety and a courtroom facility dog is there to help elevate an advanced truth to solve crime why do we need additional language so the judge can determine if someone is having an anxiety or not i don't know if that's necessarily arrey it seems minor but i have not had a chance to review this with the stakeholders who brought this forward have not had an opportunity to review this with da that seems simple but i have not had the opportunity to really evalu if how this hinders the ability to get truth out this is already taking place in courtrooms across the nation we're doing this be in that room i just don't understand why this is necessary so before i can say vote yes or no i guess i need more clarification about why does judges what do i just need more clarification on this we're asking them to provide sentencing five years three years now we're trying to determine how they should determine if a child has anxiety about testifying against their parent or family member against sexual assault this is about advancing the truth and sometimes having a dog that's just there as a area of comfort you see people here in the in the companion dogs this is a dog that's trained and certified not to interfere with the process but to reduce anxiety and now we want to create more clarification about what anxiety is all about these judges are smart they know how to sniff out and evaluate if somebody's trying to trick the system they do it every day i don't think we need more clarification to determine to give to a judge about how do you determine if a child or a witness is too anxious we're all anxious when you go through a court proceeding it's not easy but we're trying to advance the truth and if a dog is there to help reduce the anxiety of a child or someone with a developmental disorder because it's already stressful now we want to introduce another criteria to hinder is it to hinder truth what what are we trying to do here why is this necessary our judges can do this without this a different this  clarification so if someone can speak to the legal merits of this then i would appreciate this because i believe that our judges have the qualifications the certification the intellectual capacity to determine if a witness is anxious or not and determine if if they should have a courtroom facility dog in the courtroom that's all they they have to determine that and i think they're qualified to do so and so zero zero eight removes the word substantially reduce anxiety so there is no change the qualification that the judge must evaluate is that the pres of the dog will reduce anxiety and increase the abilities of the court to receive full and accurate testimony so we're adding the concept that the presence of the dog has to both increase excuse me both reduce the witness's anxiety which the senator spoke about and enhance the ability of the court to receive full and accurate testimony so we just want to ensure that this dog is doing some good for the witness to enhance their capability not just be a companion for the sake of companion there anything else when i vote on the amendment thank you senator fields thank you madam chair and i'd like to thank the representative from colorado springs for providing this senator fields do you mean the senator from colorado springs yes excuse me the honorable senator from colorado springs thank you for bringing el zero eight thank you and so here we're talking about semantics once again this is about words and so what we've done here is that we've added the word an you agree with it she she agrees with it i'm experiencing the criminal justice system is not easy this is a way to advance truth in the courtroom having a training facility court dog that three when i think about it is we're just trying to get at the truth why do we have to have these additional barriers for a judge to consider i mean we already have all kinds of criminal codes criteria for sentencing you can get this sentence i mean work words there truth in justice where now we're trying to say that you can have a courtroom facility dog chair this amendment does exactly that it enhances the capability of the witness to provide credible full and accurate testimony that's exactly what the amendment does the court testimony and that's what we want in full and accurate testimony and the judge should make both of those findings not just that they want to have the dog there but that the presence of the dog enhances their ability added an amendment at the request of the house sponsor to add a very short title called punky's law on behalf of the house sponsor whose dog died on march t bill was moving through the process punkie was a rescue from new mexico and was badly abused and it was the best friend of the of the house sponsor representative and ninety two links the welfare of pets to the welfare of people and basically this bill would allow judges to order convicted abusers into a treatment program aimed at reducing recidivism in addition it would prevent animal abusers from owning another animal for a specified period of time this bill only applies to pets as defined in crs thirty five eighty one hundred and it does not apply to livestock or the senate will come to order thank you madam president i move for adoption of the report the emotion is the adoption of the committee report of the whole the committee of the whole report are there any no votes seeing none with thirty five i zero no zero excuse t field ten twenty five ten ten eleven forty nine twelve twenty as amended house bill ten ninety two as as amended passed on second reading and ordered revised and placed on the calendar for third reading and final passage senate bill one  the creation of a period systems program for emergency medical service providers and in connection therewith making an appropriation president garcia that the president of the senate is saying that we should concur with the house i beg your pardon senator garcia madam president yes it appears that the house with limited wisdom did propose some amendments that would be would ask for an aye vote in concurrence and did you move to concur yes been impressive all right so is there any further discussion the motion is that the senate confer concur with house amendments to senate bill sixty five are there any no votes thank you madam president i appreciate everybody's super attention to this it's so important senate bill ninety i have to ask for a conference committee well i think that's far more appropriate than concurring with the house thank you so i move a conference committee reform for senate bill nine zero is there discussion about the motion to move to a conference committee for senate bill ninety seeing none the motion is to can to move to a conference committee are there any no votes seeing none the motion to move to a conference committee is hundred absence you're excused is adopted the following senators are appointed as members of the first conference committee on senate bill ninety senators donovan senator todd and senator scott donovan chair senator scott thank you madam president and unfortunately because the house did such a incredible job of stirring up things on body is to grant permission scope of differences to the conferees on the first conference committee on senate bill ninety to go beyond the scope of the difference between the two houses all in favor say aye the butter script as opposed no the eyes ha well the clerk please read the title to the senate concur with the house amendments to sj r one thousand nine hundred eight it seems they saw something outside the galaxy we did not see  yes in all seriousness they saw the wisdom in sending a copy of the resolution to the ceo of the space foundation i think that's an appropriate thing to do there probably was no way we could have done it other than to amend the resolution and so because that is the nature of communications in this day and age i think it is appropriate that we amend this resolution thusly is there further discussion seeing none the motion is that the senate concur with house amendments to sen mister president i have a question for the senate sponsor did this happen because the heart was in the saturn and the head as it was in  the sponsor not willing to answer that question i believe that that is out of order is there further discussion seeing them the motion is for the reap asses of sjr zero eight are there any no votes consideration of conference committee reports will the clerk please read the title to house bill eleven thirty one is there any discussion is there further discussion mister president so colleagues this is uh this is important as you know we had good discussion about house bill eleven thirty one i believe this week before last as you probably remember we had made an amendment in the senate that if i remember correctly was viewed as a friendly amendment which turned house bill eleven thirty one into what i thought was a very good bill so what happened in conference committee was the house wanted to change things a this is a bill that is discussing the requirements of pharmaceutical company either manufacturers or the representatives themselves so the bill that that left the senate that i was in  would require those drug reps when speaking with physicians in a sales setting to talk about the wholesale acquisition cost of that drug which i think is good practice i think that makes for a good bill and helps with the spirit of transparency around health care that we've been talking about here for a while the concern that we had in the original bill that i had in the original bill was the additional burdens that were placed on that drug rep when it came to discussing competitors products and in the original bill also the competitors pricing as well so if you can imagine a world where unregulated professions right dora does not regulate prescription drug representatives manufacturers representatives where we are telling those representatives what they have to do and basically making the absence of that illegal and that was that was the concern that i had so i i view it sort of analogous to going into maybe a grocery store clerk and telling that grocery store clerk that when somebody comes in and buys delmonte green beans that the clerk at that grocery store would be required to tell the customer you know you're buying these brand name green beans but if you went to a different grocery store you could buy generic green beans for a lot less money i know you brought me del monte but you you can save money by getting these other green beans or if you go to a shoe store and you want to buy a pair of nike basketball shoes that costs three hundred dollars that that clerk at the shoe store would need to tell you that you know if they went to walmart or payless they could buy a similar style shoe for a third of the price or twenty percent of the price and you may be thinking hey we're not talking about green beans and tennis shoes here we're talking about we're talking about prescription drugs we're talking about people's health care in which case we could say well if you're going to to buy brand name allergy medication that the clerk selling you that brand name allergy medication would need to tell you now do you know that you can buy generic allergy medication at one of these other stores for less money so the whole idea that we're going into unregulated professions unregulated occupations and telling them that the absence of doing things would now be against the law is something i have great concern with secondly the information source is something that we need to take into account also so we're talking about telling a drug rep who my understanding is this is somebody who very likely has a bachelor's degree in biology let say that would be typical maybe a bachelor's degree in chemistry and we as a body are saying that physicians who have a bachelor's degree a four year med degree three to seven years perhaps of residency really needs to learn about prescription drugs from a drug rep that they are not either smart enough capable enough well studied enough through all the years that they've spent in education around being a doctor they're not really the ones qualified to know which prescription drugs are available for their patient we need to have the drug rep with their biology degree from cal state fullerton tell us that this is going to be potentially the better choice for the patient colleagues i just i just think that's wrong we also got into a little bit of discussion about making something illegal and we heard from the senator from fort collins about this when this bill was on seconds and i believe when it was on thirds is that if we're gonna make something illegal and not have any sort of associated crime with it for an unregulated profession wrote what really is that and this is where i would probably lean heavy on the those in the in the chamber who have law degrees so we've declared something is illegal but there's no associated crime and there's no body to regulate it so if you're a physician and you the drug rep had come in talking about the fact that you know i'm talking about drug xyz and fails to notify that physician about the existence of generic drugs that might be available because again the physician really needs to know that information because they're not well educated enough i haven't studied enough to already know that this exists so because they failed to do that now let's say the physician or the patient is upset somebody has broke the law so let's call the police though they call the sheriff's department this drug rep broke the law so they they they they call bring in an officer or sheriff's deputy and say look this this law was broken my guess is is that law enforcement is gonna say well there is no real crime associated this so yes it's against the law but there's really nothing we can do so instead then that upset physician or upset patient is gonna call the regulatory body let's say in this case it's it's dora and say this person egregiously broke the law and didn't tell me about other generic drugs that are similar to the drug that they were originally talking about i want i want some action taken now i don't work for dora i never have but i feel really strongly that door is gonna say we're terribly sorry but we don't regulate that profession therefore there's nothing we can do so if law enforcement can't do anything and the regulatory bodies can't do anything is it really important that we put it back into the law if it's so important as to the senator from fort collins point if it is that important that we're now making this behavior illegal shouldn't we consider having some enforcement around it and colleagues i submit to you that there is absolutely none that is nothing more than us as a legislative body saying we think that you should do this just because so i think i think we had a good bill originally i think we had a good bill we had a most of us voted for it it was really in the spirit of transparency and now the house has changed this bill into something that instead is going into an unregulated profession demanding things that i think are unreasonable nowhere else can i think of where we have a profession that the salesperson is required not only to present their own product but to present products from competitors so i would ask for an aye vote on the minority report on the first conference committee not the house bill we didn't that's why we went to a conference committee in the house bill they actually wanted you to present three different of the same product they wanted you to share the cost of those three different products and i agreed with the good senator from douglas county that that seemed not correct not the right way we should be doing things and we took that language out we then had a conversation about what is appropriate and came to what we thought was a compromise between the house and the senate that we didn't have to share prices we didn't have to share three others that simply we just had to say that there's a generic and you don't even actually actually have to see it you can just hand it out in your prop in in the paper you leave with them so we made it as easy of a conversation as possible this the house frankly would like us to still be comparing three different and sharing three different prices and so this truly is a compromise between a don't share anything to share hard at our jobs including all the doctors this isn't about who has what degrees and who doesn't have what degrees this is actually about we have people that are interesting that are entering offices every single day talking about their drugs talking about why their drugs should be bought talking about their why their drugs should be prescribed and all we are simply asking for is that they close the price and let you know if there's a generic that is a very simple basic foundational piece of this bill and as its you not being enforceable i don't want to be punitive with the folks with the pharmacy reps are doing i'm legit i'm just tryin going into a cut going into a ford dealership and having the ford salesperson say by the way in addition to this ford here's chevy's invoice price at the chevy dealer down the street just trying think through that one a little bit or better yet being in construction being a union contractor you mechanical contractor and then being you're selling contracting services maybe the general contractor and you're asked you're now required by law to tell the general contractor oh by the way these are the labor rates and costs of the non union mechanical contractor you should maybe just know that as well it like i said i don't even know what to say about that and if it's not about the doctor getting information then what are we even doing i can assure you doctors know there's generic alternatives the role of a drug rep is usually to talk about a new product doctors receive the information with the amount of time they have when they're not taking care of patients or dealing with insurance companies  they have many technology tools by which to look up a drug and have it immediately right in front of them generic equivalents or alternative competing brand names for the drug they're looking at  l thank you mister president and i guess i'm in agreement with the good senator from parker okay yes  they the drug reps could always leave a paper with the md or the health care provider well we're trying to stop the increased pricing of drugs but every time there is something that has to come from a company from a pseudo co company that has to be vetted that has to go through a process that's even harder than what we go through and it has to come from the corporate so you want to talk about an increase in pharmaceutical prices if a drug rep has to leave pricing information on their drug plus generic drugs which probably change all the time so i can't tell you how often that piece of paper that's shiny and nice is going to change and the price of drugs is going to continue to go up because of things like this information like this first i also want to say that i totally think that drug reps have a lot of information that they deal with they they if they forget to have the wholesale acquisition cost they forget to say that to the healthcare provider there right now is no consumer protection that is enforceable that if a drug group doesn't say that then who's gonna enforce it it doesn't have any teeth  me this is taking away the onus that we have for years and for forever have put on pharmacists who are very credible reliable professionals that i think doctors and health care providers go to all the time and we're putting it on the drug representatives that have a lot of things to do and may only get two minutes or less with that healthcare provider so i am not in favor of this this bill nor this amendment because i do believe there is no way that we are able to protect the  consumer it doesn't have any teeth and it's also asking pharma to a corporation to do something with the people that they have employed that may get covered it may not get covered but rodriguez thank you mister president i stand in opposition to the minority report on another bill i carried under that i dug into the pharmaceutical and the drug pricing there are actually studies out there that have tied in pharmaceutical industries and and the federal government tracks that the amount of money that is given to a doctor for meals lunches and their studies show that it increases prescriptions of their drugs to go up i think this is a good transparency issue the tying it to construction and jobs i can't imagine they don't go out in bid prices and it's not really the same issue so i didn't understand how they were tying those two together but i just wanted to put that out there and say i oppose the minority report center mister president and i just wanted to make sure that i was clarifying my discussion i opposed the minority report the minority report the conference committee is not where the house wants to be this is truly a compromise the house wanted many more comparisons they wanted more information this is simply saying in a handout that there's a generic this is a compromise this is not exactly what the house wanted we think this is balanced and i'm encouraging a no vote to the minority report mister president i would support the minority report but i want to offer maybe another suggestion and that would be to withdraw both motions form a second conference committee and go back to discuss this with the house and here's why we in the senate should be the more thoughtful experienced body and there's a topic that i think applies here that has not been mentioned and that is that we do not have the authority to regulate previously unregulated professions unless someone from that previously unregulated profession goes to the department of regulatory agencies and completes a sunrise review application and there is extensive statute which i have amended over the years and our colleague former representative rosemary marshall over the house amended but it all started who might have put such a restriction in a place for the colorado general assembly to not be able to regulate previously unregulated professions it may come as a surprise that that was representative jerry copal a democrat from denver we should be very careful about putting regulatory requirements either saying these drug reps cannot do one thing or must do another because as has been pointed out by my colleague from douglas county we don't regulate those people they are a previously unregulated profession and though i'm not i do have more experience with the sunset sunrise process probably than any other my first day in the capital here working professionally in march of two thousand and two had specifically to do with the sunrise review application process so this is something i've had to study i had the honor of working with representative copal before his passing and i would encourage consideration of maybe us as the upper chamber more wise and experienced members of the general assembly to consider withdrawing both amendments going back and  conference committee and really helping our colleagues in the lower chamber maybe understand that concern that we don't have the authority in the general assembly because their statute on the books that limits our ability to do that and the good representative gerry copal helped us get there we cannot regulate a previously unregulated profession and if this bill either report from the conference committee if it places restrictions or requirements on a previously unregulated profession i think the first question would be should the members of that profession either be registered or licensed by the state of colorado which would occur at the department of regulatory agencies and before that can happen someone from the industry would fill out the sunrise review application and submit it to dora that has not happened to the best of my knowledge and i would really encourage consideration between the two reports between the sponsoring members maybe the best thing is pull both of these off the table ask for a second conference committee to be formed and go help the house understand some of this institutional memory in history here in the state of colorado thank you mister president thank you mister president members i heard this bill and our health committee and i also was a appointed and a member of the conference committee and i oppose the the majority report we tell you why it's because we all understands the cost of prescription drugs are increasingly getting difficult for people to pay we know that if you have a name brand drug it's gonna cost more than a generic prescription basically what this bill will do it will provide more transparency to that patient to the consumer in reference to the options that are available to them so members i urge that you oppose this the center will come back to order recognized thank you again mister president thanks to all the colleagues spending time on on this important issue so it sounds like this is something that we are going to take up on a different day after consulting with both the drafter and maybe either olls or ledge council as to how much we can actually do here but i do want to give proper credit to the the senate sponsor because again if i wasn't completely clear before i think we had we had a very good bill that left the senate and i know the senate sponsor has worked to try to create compromises or i feel strongly that she has where she could and so i look forward to further conversations about it it's not  the idea of the bill that i oppose because again i voted for it and i and i support it so i appreciate the the president the majority leader and the minority leader working with us on this and look forward to being laid over  mister president we have an addition to the appropriations calendar tomorrow morning we will be also hearing senate bill one hundred and eighty eight so please add that to your calendar thank you thank you mister president finance committee members finance committee presenters the second we get off the floor rush upstairs to finance committee we're way late so let's get going  it has to be ten minutes fifteen minutes we have to spend all right get up there as soon as fifteen minutes is over and we are we are also laying over  and thirty three at the sponsors request so we won't be hearing that thank you thank you mister president and you know first and foremost i want to just say thank you for allowing us to start later this morning because it did keep us off the roads and might travel down here and i hope everyone else's was really easier because of that so thank you mister president for that that decision yesterday education will be held this afternoon but instead of starting at one thirty we will start about fifteen minutes after finance conclude president the judiciary committee will have a command performance tomorrow friday upon adjournment to finish off bills two hundred and twenty two and two hundred and twenty three so i look forward to seeing you tomorrow and the more expeditiously we finish it the sooner we will get out so thank you committe thank you mister president this morning we should have each receive a small plant from rise colorado coalition which celebrates the approximate number of a hundred and eighty babies which are born in colorado daily rise colorado supports all colorado kids and families during the prenatal period throughout the earliest years to ensure that they have a healthy start in our community and to support our economic development into their future so as the colorado general assembly we just want to thank rise colorado for all they do to support families and the healthy well being of colorado kids thank you s mister president asked for a moment of personal privilege granted thank you members i am pleased to show you the national western calendar that we received for the steer that we bought that the national western junior livestock sale we raised or they raised million twenty seven thousand seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars for those kids the young lady that you have here is trista lip sack and she wrote us a nice thank you note that i'm gonna read just a little bit of that says thank you for buying my steer otis after two thousand and nineteen national western stock showed you in your livestock auction i appreciate the time you spent away from your duties at the state capitol it means a great deal to me that you see the value of h and ffa programs across colorado i am honored that you bought my calf as he was the only steer in the sale from colorado about me i am sixteen year old sophomore have been in high school i live between bennett and strasburg and i am in the house district fifty six and senate district twenty five that didn't even raise anybody hackles i am a third generation native colorado and have lived within a few miles of my current home all of my life my great grandfather john lab sac served in the state house thank you mister president colleagues the joint budget committee will start as soon as the senate adjourns the rules that govern other committees never apply to the jbc center winter  president transportation and energy we have one bill up i know that you can be efficient and on time and get this done before one thirty so we will everyone just walk upstairs and go vote on this bill after we're done thanks