The Voices for Justice is a group of individuals that have been tracking the 2025 Legislative session. We meet every Monday by ZOOM and review bills that fall within the areas that reflect the values of the Colorado Council of Churches. We are all from different faith communities and we appreciate the opportunity to be in conversation with each other regarding the actions of our legislators.
At the time of this writing SB25-206, the 2025-26 Long Appropriations Bill, is in process. On 4/11, the Senate Considered the House Amendments and the result was to Not Concur and a conference committee has been requested. There was an anticipated state budget shortfall before the session began and with the actions of the current President, funding of anything has become increasingly challenging.
Following, please find summaries from our team about the areas they have been following.
Rev. Marcia Meier
CCC Social Justice Coordinator
Affordable Housing
The Colorado Council of Churches supports legislation to provide, build and create affordable housing, especially for low-income persons. Several bills in the current legislative session address housing issues.
In terms of creating new housing, one bill seeks to allow the state treasurer to invest at below market rates to raise funds for low-income housing. Another allows housing that follows local zoning rules to be built on land owned by education or faith organizations.
Other proposed legislation seeks to regulate housing costs for citizens by preventing price coordination among landlords, modifying laws to protect tenants with housing subsides, protecting owner equity in HOA foreclosure sales, and regulating construction defect claims for middle market housing.
There is also a measure that seeks to create a new council to help reduce and prevent homelessness.
Only one of these proposed pieces of legislation is currently in appropriations. The others are still being heard by committees or debated on the floor of the House or Senate. All proposals have relatively modest impacts on the state budget.
Criminal and Restorative Justice
Several bills in the 2025 General Assembly align with the Colorado Council of Churches policy to care for people who are incarnated. These include bills:
- establishing visitation as a “right” rather than allowing visitation to be withheld to “punish” offenders.
- expanding behavioral health services to our neighbors who are in custody in jails.
- authorizing incarcerated people to have incoming communication with their attorneys.
- eliminating a copayment requirement for health care while in prison.
- aligning municipal court practices with state court practices related to sentencing, access to counsel, and transparency.
- reducing sentences for lower-level offenders close to parole and who are older.
- authorizing behavioral health services to help offenders transition back into the community, which has been signed by the Governor!
Education
In recent months, a number of bills have been introduced addressing a variety of educational topics. These include mental health services for students, special education services for military-connected youth, and local policies regarding book challenges and cell phone usage in schools. Despite the range and importance of these bills, the most critical debates have revolved around school funding. A year ago, the Governor signed a significant bill that mandated an increase in school funding over several years. This legislation also revised the funding formula to provide greater increases to rural schools and included more weight be given to the number of low-income students, students with disabilities, and students needing to learn English. Additionally, the bill contained a provision to gradually shift the method of reporting the number of students served, from averaging the population over several years to using a current year-only count.
However, the projected $1.6 billion deficit has cast doubt on whether the scheduled funding increases can be honored in the current budget year. The bipartisan Joint Budget Committee (JBC) has been debating the feasibility of making any increases this year. The Governor has proposed a more rapid transition to the single-year student count method as one option. Potential losses in Federal funding for programs targeting poor students and those with disabilities have further complicated the situation. The budget to be proposed by the JBC on March 31st does include full funding of the increases promised in last year’s legislation, at least for the 2025-2026 school year. It also proposes a reduced timeline for transitioning to single-year student counts, though it is less aggressive than the Governor’s proposal. This budget will now be reviewed by the full House and Senate, public comment will be sought, and may be amended before the final Long Appropriations Bill is passed.
Environment
This legislature has put forward two bills to reduce food waste, an important concern for a sustainable environment. HB25-1059 seeks to reduce food waste in schools. It passed both the House and Senate. HB25-1166 seeks reductions to food waste in the general population and has passed the House and been sent to the Senate. Legislation to increase awareness of harm from fuel use, HB25-1277, increasing transparency regarding the impact of fuel products, is now before a Second Reading in the House. Another promising step towards more environmental protection is found in HB25-1266, legislation to enable payment of energy improvements to be placed on the monthly utility bill, thus reducing high initial costs to payment over time. This bill is now in the House Finance Committee.
HB25-1006 would allow solar garden lease terms on school properties to be extended and thus more fully enabled, and it is now before the Senate awaiting a Second Reading having passed the House. HB25-1096 further enables clean energy developments with automated permits expediting the process for their installment. Having passed the House the bill now is before the Senate. Legislation to expedite the accessibility of essential materials in emergency situations has been signed by the Governor, HB25-1025. Another bill that has been signed by the Governor is HB25-1009 which seeks more protection from wildfire by reducing vegetative materials on private property. These are some steps forward for more environmental protection during this legislative season.
Health
89 bills have been introduced that include “health” in the description or are assigned to the health-related committee in this legislative session. Many have already been postponed indefinitely. Some have already been signed by the Governor. As a member of the faith community (those called to care), it is good to see that many of the bills continue to concern the care of children, those incarcerated, our military families and those who suffer from mental illness.
It is also very apparent that this year’s legislative concerns have been greatly impacted by the changes within our federal government. The bipartisan Joint Budget Committee (JBC) has indeed been struggling with what funds are available and how those funds should be allocated. The massive changes with our national systems will impact our state systems, if not now, soon. And those who provide health care will need to make adjustments.
HB25-1297, HB25-1174, HB25-1223 and SB25-045 all concern, in some form, Health Insurance Affordability, analysis of payment systems, limiting amounts that can be charged for health care and Capital needs of Rural and Frontier Hospitals. Colorado has become very popular for those who choose and can work remotely and our rural communities are being challenged. The urban communities continue to be impacted as well with an increasing demand on services provided for a very diverse and growing community.
Immigration-related Bills
Voices For Justice monitored two immigration-related bills that were introduced early in the 2025 Colorado Assembly session. Both bills, one considered in the House and the second considered by the Senate, would have repealed current state law that limits collaboration of local and state law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Fortunately, neither bill passed out of committee.
HB25-1140 — “Authorizing probation employees to disclose information to immigration authorities for certain individuals” was pulled from the hearing committee docket by the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Barron Caldwell.
SB25-047, “Concerning reversing certain actions by the general assembly related to measures intended to limit enforcement of federal immigration law” included the allowance of collaboration of local law enforcement with federal officials that had been intended in HB25-1140. This Senate bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Mark Baisley, was broader than the house bill. SB25-047 would have allowed additional for-profit detention centers to be located in Colorado and would have allowed local governments to contract with private entities for detention services. This bill also would have repealed protections that prevent individuals from being arrested at courthouses or during legal proceedings. With the large Old Supreme Court room full to capacity of individuals in support and in opposition to SB25-047, testimony and debate in the hearing of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs committee lasted about 6 hours. The final vote by committee members to postpone the bill indefinitely was 3-2, along party lines.
SB 25-276 Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status was introduced 4/4 and is moving very quickly. It concerns measures to prevent the violation of the civil rights of persons in Colorado based on immigration status.
Racism
We’re tracking two bills that deal with racism. The first bill is SB25-50 which would require all state and local government entities to include specific categories, particularly Muslims, when collecting racial and ethnic information, and to adhere to future revisions to federal standards. That bill currently awaits consideration in the Senate Appropriations Committee. The second bill is SB25-123 which expands genocide studies taught in public schools to include genocide against Native Americans. That bill has been introduced in the Senate Education Committee, but no action has been taken.
Sexuality, Families and Abuse
So far, the General Assembly has just a few bills in regard to foster care. These focus mostly on the structure, in place or proposed, of the foster care system. Other bills proposed address well-being of children and youth protection with an emphasis on all children and youth. Finally, two bills are directed towards monies required in the child care structure.
Veterans and Military—submitted by Vicky Daub, Executive Director, Veteran Servant Corps Project, serving hundreds of thousands of military members/veterans and their families in the Rocky Mountain region.
Several veteran and military bills were introduced this legislative session. Of particular note is House Bill (“HB”) 25-1132 which creates the military family behavioral health grant program to provide behavioral health services to service members, veterans, and their family members. This program is needed since 18 veterans/military members complete suicide daily.
