COLORADO - The Colorado General Assembly 2025 Regular Session originally convened on January 8, 2025. It ended on Wednesday, May 7.

As the session came to a close, several of the House and Senate bills voted on over the last week reflect the state’s position on major national issues, including labor unions, protections for undocumented immigrants, and transgender rights. 

SB25-276 was passed by the House by a 23 - 12 vote on May 5. The Senate Bill, sponsored by Senators Julie Gonzales and Mike Weismann and Representatives Lorena Garcia and Elizabeth Velasco, repeals the requirement that undocumented immigrants submit an affidavit stating their application for lawful presence when attempting to acquire in-state student tuition classification or other certain identification documents. 

The bill also prohibits jail custodians from intentionally delaying a defendant’s release for the purpose of a federal immigration enforcement operation. Probation officers, probation department employees, pretrial officers, and pretrial services office employees are also prohibited from providing personal information on a defendant to federal immigration authorities. 

SB25-276’s passing comes after the U.S. Department of Justice sued Governor Jared Polis, Colorado State Attorney Phil Weiser, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Denver Sheriff Elias Diggins, Denver’s City Council, and the City and County of Denver to overturn the state’s “sanctuary laws.” 

The lawsuit claims the “mishandling” of the Tren de Aragua gang situation in both Aurora and Denver in late 2024 are examples of how Colorado’s “disastrous” policies are resulting in public safety dangers.  

In rebuttal, Senator Gonzales said on Monday that “If the Constitution protects us all, then we in Colorado have the opportunity with this vote today to demonstrate and affirm that the Constitution does, in fact, protect us all—that due process does extend to everyone, no asterisks allowed.”

SB25-005, “Worker Protection Collective Bargaining,” advanced through the House and was passed by a 43 - 22 vote on Tuesday, May 6. The bill, which has been classified as “pro-union” and was supported by every legislative Democrat, removes the requirement for “a second election to negotiate a union security agreement clause in the collective bargaining process.” 

Democratic support for the bill revolves around the initiative to ease the unionization process and remove “anti-union” impediments. Those opposed to the bill, including the Associated General Contractors and the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, believe that removing the second election requirement would allow for unions to vote unilaterally to require payment of dues from non-union employees. 

The bill now faces a potential veto from Polis, who has stated to legislators that he will take such action if a compromise between labor union organizations and business leaders cannot be met. 

Polis’ attempts to negotiate between the groups to reach an agreement on SB25-005 was first rejected by business representatives, after which Polis gave labor groups an ultimatum, stating that the bill would be acceptable as written, without the approval of business groups, but only if the labor unions were willing to come to the table on several other major legislative initiatives. 

The other policies that Polis wanted to be discussed included the controversial call to cut tipped restaurant workers’ wages, to allow for the expansion of charter schools, and to privatize the state’s insurer for workers’ compensation. 

Polis has yet to state his intentions on a potential veto now that SB25-005 has passed the House and landed on his desk.  

Progress on SB25-318, introducing the nation’s first “Artificial Intelligence Consumer Protections” bill, was unexpectedly ended on Monday.

The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Robert Rodriquez and Representative Brianna Titone, was aimed to amend SB24-205, passed last year, to make certain AI utilizations exempt from AI regulations. 

SB24-205, which goes into effect on February 1, 2026, requires companies to disclose when AI is used for hiring, leasing, or any other “consequential” decisions. SB25-318 was to make document sorting, spellchecking, and cybersecurity utilizations exempt from the previously set provisions. 

Despite Rodriquez first stating that he required more time to work with those who would be affected by the regulations, and after having reviewed a related amendment but refusing to move it forward, he ended up pulling the bill from the agenda entirely just as it was set for a hearing before the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee. 

The handling of SB25-318 raised questions and concern among Colorado representatives regarding AI legislation. Polis, Senator Michael Bennet, Attorney General Weiser, Representatives Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen, and Denver Mayor Johnston all signed a letter asking legislators to delay the implementation of SB24-205. 

“This pause will allow consumer advocates, Colorado’s business community, and other states to collaborate on a balanced, future-ready framework—one that protects privacy and fairness without stifling innovation or driving business away from our state,” the letter reads. 

Progress on HB25-1169 was also ended by Rodriquez on Tuesday. The bill, named the “Yes In God’s Backyard” bill, sought to ease restrictions on churches and educational institutions to allow for housing development on their property. 

Rodriquez remarked that the bill, despite having been passed by the House and the first Senate committee, was ultimately removed from discussion as part of a deal made with Senate Republicans in order to end their filibuster against another bill (HB25-1312) that impeded the Assembly’s progress on Monday night. 

HB25-1312 was the most contested over the last week. The bill, sponsored by Representatives Garcia and Rebekah Stewart and Senators Chris Kolker and Faith Winter, aims to provide “Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals” by making it easier for them to change their names on legal documents. It also makes it discriminatory not to  refer to a transgender person by their chosen name or to “disrespect their gender identity” in workplaces and schools.

Section 1 of the bill establishes that these legal protections will be referred to as the “Kelly Loving Act,” named after a transgender woman who was one of the five victims of the Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs in November of 2022. 

After going through rounds of negotiations and amendments, the most contested sections of HB25-1312 were removed, including a provision requiring family courts to consider “deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual's gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control” when making child custody decisions. 

The anti-discrimination language was reportedly changed several times within the bill, and a shield law was removed which had prohibited “a Colorado court from applying or giving any force or effect to another state's law that authorizes a state agency to remove a child from the child's parent or guardian because the parent or guardian allowed the child to receive gender-affirming health-care services.”   

The bill was eventually passed on Tuesday afternoon by a 20 - 14 vote, with only two Democratic senators, Kyle Mullica and Marc Snyder, having joined their Republican counterparts in voting against it. It was passed on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold the Trump Administration’s ban on transgender military service members.