Capitol updates: Legislature adjourns after passing college abortion pill access bill, killing gun and workplace bills

The Colorado legislature is set to finish this year’s regular session by the end of the day Wednesday. Lawmakers will spend the last day taking final votes, toasting each other and celebrating-slash-exhaling after 120 days of work.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

7:26 p.m. update: The House adjourned about 7:15 p.m., with the Senate joining soon after. The 2026 session has come to an end. Read more about the final day in this fresh story.

Colorado legislature ends session with action on transportation and abortion pills — while notable measures die

5:48 p.m. update: The Senate passed a bill that would undercut a proposed constitutional amendment concerning road funding after the bill sponsors amended the measure in what one called a show of “good faith” to backers of the amendment.

Initiative 175, which is out for signature gathering to qualify for the November ballot, would amend the state constitution to require the state to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on road funding. Democrats in control of the legislature warn that would hamstring other state priorities, like education and healthcare, by sapping money from the general fund.

House Bill 1430 would rework some state funding and cut the gasoline tax to neutralize Initiative 175’s effect on the state budget, supporters of the bill said.

Sen. William Lindstedt, a Broomfield Democrat, introduced an amendment creating a new bucket of money in the state, specifically to go toward road maintenance, by sequestering some permit fees for oversized vehicles. He called it a show of “good faith” to supporters of the amendment that the legislature wants to prioritize road funding — and, Lindstedt and other Democrats hope, it might spur backers of the amendment to drop their push.

Republicans, however, continued their opposition to the measure. Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said she saw the bill as the legislature trying to impede people’s ability to petition their government. Sen. Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican, urged supporters of the initiative to keep pushing the measure.

“The people of Colorado need to make a statement to make roads a priority,” Pelton said, comparing it to a constitutional amendment requiring a baseline of education funding that voters passed in 2000.

2:58 p.m. update: Colorado lawmakers have given final approval to a bill that would limit the number of daily deposits a gambler can make in a sports-betting app, and it will now go to Gov. Jared Polis. The state would be the first with such a deposit limit. Read more about it in this story.

2:53 p.m. update: The Senate gave formal approval to bills that would require the collection of data on temperature-related work injuries, spur new security measures for lawmakers, require college health centers to provide abortion medication and close the state-level equivalents of some tax cuts made through the federal tax bill last year.

The tax measure bills (House Bills 1223 and 1289) and the extreme temperature bill (House Bill 1272) all need to return to the House for consideration of Senate amendments later today. The security measure bill (House Bill 1422) and college abortion medication bill (House Bill 1335) will head to Gov. Jared Polis.

1:39 p.m. update: The Senate killed a bill that would mimic federal workplace protections at the state level when six Democrats joined Republicans in opposition.

House Bill 1054 would have enshrined federal standards from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in state law. Worker safety advocates said it was necessary in the face of likely rollbacks of worker protections under the Trump administration.

The bill died a rare death on the formal third-reading vote. None of the Democrats who voted against the bill — Sens. Judy Amabile, Matt Ball, Jeff Bridges, Lindsey Daugherty, Kyle Mullica and Marc Snyder — spoke from the floor about their opposition either before the formal vote or during debate last week.

1:32 p.m. update: After weeks of languishing on the House’s calendar, a bill that would regulate the sale of gun barrels is officially dead.

House Majority Leader Monica Duran today moved to delay a final vote on Senate Bill 43 until Thursday — effectively a death sentence, given that the legislature will not be in session then. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Meg Froelich, had said she hoped for a final vote on the measure before adjourment, and when Duran announced SB-43’s death, Froelich sat back in her chair in disappointment.

Had it passed, the bill would’ve required people who buy or sell detachable gun barrels to do so in person, and sales could generally only be conducted by a licensed firearms dealer.

The Senate passed the measure in early March and it cleared initial votes in the House shortly after. But it rolled along on the House calendar for weeks. Its initial vote was delayed because key supporters were absent, Froelich said. The vote was then further delayed, in part, because Republican opposition meant it would take hours to debate — and in part because Gov. Jared Polis intended to veto the measure, Froelich said.

Later in today’s session, the House rejected Senate amendments to House Bill 1274. The measure would’ve allowed organizations that receive grants from the state to receive advance payments. But the Senate amended the bill Tuesday to block nonprofits that are led by legislators from receiving any advance payments.

That amendment was brought by Republican Sen. Byron Pelton, who said he wanted to curb the “appearance of impropriety.”

The move prompted Rep. Lorena Garcia, one of the bill’s sponsors, to pull her name from the bill — and the bill’s remaining supporters to reject the Senate’s amendments, putting the bill on the precipice of failure. An Adams County Democrat, Garcia is the CEO of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition, which has received grant funding from the state.

She said the Senate’s amendment was a “direct and personal attack on me.”

“The accusations that came on the floor from the Senate are a desperate attempt to find someone to blame, for who knows what,” she said.

Garcia said her nonprofit group applied for an early childhood teaching grant in June 2022. She said the state gave her group initial approval in October of that year. Garcia was appointed to the legislature through a vacancy committee in January 2023, and the grant contract was formally signed two months later.

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