The 2023 legislative session has come to an end!

I quickly got to work to make good on the goals we set at the beginning of session - to pass life-saving gun violence prevention legislation, protect the right to abortion and increase access to reproductive health care, address the existential threat of climate change, and make Colorado more affordable.

We hit the ground running, introducing a package of comprehensive, commonsense gun violence prevention measures to make our communities safer.

Colorado has a long and tragic history when it comes to gun violence. Last December, we were shaken by the tragedy at Club Q in Colorado Springs, where five lives were taken from us. In March, students and teachers at Denver East High School were subject to gun violence not once, but twice. Tragically, we lost Luis Garcia, a sophomore at Denver East.

• Raise the age to purchase a firearm to 21
• Remove overly broad protections for the gun industry
• Strengthen our red flag law
• Establish a three day waiting period when purchasing a firearm
• And crack down on unserialized, untraceable “ghost guns”.

A few weeks later, we introduced another package of bills, this time to ensure everyone who lives in Colorado or travels to Colorado has access to safe reproductive and gender-affirming health care.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, it has become increasingly important that we take action as a state to preserve access to all reproductive care, including abortion care. While reproductive rights continue to be under threat by the Supreme Court and in states across the country, Colorado took further action to protect the freedom to access safe, affordable reproductive health care. 

And, we accomplished much, much more. Like… 

• Protecting Coloradans from future energy bill volatility by increasing fairness and transparency in the rate-setting process and investing in the transition away from expensive, polluting fossil fuels.

• Supporting emissions reduction efforts by strengthening our greenhouse gas emission reduction standards, expanding infrastructure for electric vehicle charging stations across Colorado, and implementing a package of tax credits that will reduce the costs of clean energy technologies for residents and businesses.  

• Investing in Colorado’s clean energy future by developing a carbon management roadmap, expanding infrastructure for geothermal energy projects, and advancing clean hydrogen projects for utility providers. 

• Expanding Colorado’s wildfire fighting and mitigation capacity by providing much-needed resources for wildfire investigations, investing in the best available wildfire fighting equipment, and funding reforestation of natural areas across Colorado. 

• Enhancing protections from dangerous wildfires by establishing state-wide fire resiliency standards, ensuring all Coloradans have adequate access to home insurance coverage, and minimizing the risk that homeowners are underinsured. 

• Improving support for victims of wildfires by lowering the rebuilding costs and creating a grant program for Coloradans to improve the fire resiliency of their homes. 

• Prioritizing water conservation efforts by investing in collaborative actions to save water across Colorado, holding the oil and gas industry accountable for reducing their water use, and supporting transitions to water-conscious landscaping. 

• Making it easier for all Coloradans to reduce their carbon footprint by providing free public transit options during peak ozone season, allowing homeowners to replace gas appliances with electric options, and streamlining residential solar permitting which will reduce the time, cost, and burden for homeowners to transition to solar. 

• Streamlining access to life-saving prescription medications for people with serious mental illness, people with serious allergies, and people with chronic pain. 

• Protecting patients from the overwhelming costs of medical care by capping medical debt interest rates, reducing prescription drug costs, increasing transparency for companies setting prescription drug prices, and requiring hospitals to provide patients with easy to understand descriptions of services billed. 

• Continuing our work to improve behavioral health care in Colorado by expanding access to services for youth and their families, mapping pathways to long-term recovery for people with serious mental illness, and prioritizing comprehensive care with trusted mental health providers. 

• Strengthening tenant rights by simplifying the application screening process for low-income folks and leveling the playing field when it comes to signing lease agreements. 

• Supporting renters facing eviction by returning power to tenants and allowing remote participation in eviction proceedings so barriers like childcare, transportation, employment, and disability don’t prevent folks from participating. 

• Increasing Colorado’s stock of permanently affordable housing by giving non-profit authorities priority in the housing market, making homeownership more achievable ,and creating denser, more efficient communities where workers aren’t burdened by long commutes. 

• Making historic investments into our public education system by increasing per pupil funding by over $1000 and providing over $40 million to support students with disabilities. 

• Setting our students up for success by creating the Colorado Youth Advisory Council Committee to support students who need substance use treatment resources and establishing the Universal High School Scholarship Program for students who pursue in-demand career pathways. 

• Supporting our teachers - who have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years - by joining the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact to remove barriers to relicensing, expanding loan forgiveness programs, and creating new education pathways so teachers can get hands-on classroom experience throughout their education. 

• Supporting workers by setting clear labor standards and protections for large energy projects, establishing a better care system for those who need or provide in-home care, and implementing new protections for public sector employees.

The legislative session may be over, but the work continues.

This session we referred a couple measures to this November’s ballot. Keep an eye out over the next few months for information about the ballot measures and how you can get informed and involved.

Before I sign off for the session I want to say thank you. You turned out in the 2022 midterm elections giving us the ability to make big things happen. You were more engaged than ever before, sending me questions, comments, and concerns, showing up to town halls, and even coming to the Capitol to make your voices heard. Each session I am reminded how very grateful I am to represent District 18.