Legislative Action 

The Social Justice Ministry and the many parishioners who work to advocate for state legislative bills that relate to our three areas of focus are celebrating some successes from the recently ended session.  We choose bills that address housing/homelessness, LGBTQ+ rights, and racial justice.  The racial justice bills are often related to criminal justice reform.  We worked to support eight bills this session.  Six of those bills passed through both houses and have either been signed by the governor or are expected to be signed once the process is complete.  Of the two that did not pass, both related to children in the justice system, one may have been pulled by the sponsors to be reintroduced at a later session, and one may have run out of time at the end of a very crammed session.  They are:

HB22-1131 –    “Reduce Justice Involvement for Young Children”,

                                      https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-113

SB22-023 –        “Deceptive Tactics Juvenile Custodian Interrogation

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-023     

The six bills that passed are:

HB22-1098 –     “Department of Regulatory Agencies Barriers to Practice Regulated Professions.” https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1098

SB22-010 –        “Pretrial Diversion for Behavioral Health”

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1098

SB22-050 –        “Work Opportunities for Offenders in the Department of Corrections” https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-050

HB22-1083 –     “Colorado Homeless Contribution Income Tax Credit” https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1083

SB22-099 –        “Sealing Criminal Records”

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb22-099

HB22-1304 –     “State Grants Investments Local Affordable Housing”

https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb22-1304

Thank you to all who gave their time and energy toward the passage of these bills.