LEGISLATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS
PUBLIC EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY | HEALTHCARE | LABOR
Public Education
“From kindergarten through college, Colorado’s children deserve the best possible foundation for their future. I am dedicated to addressing educational disparities and ensuring our K-12 schools have the funding they need to give students the tools to thrive.”
Sponsored SB22-069: Learning Disruption Effect On Teacher Evaluation, a bill temporarily prohibiting the use of student academic measures when assessing the performance of licensed educators amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. It worked to protect the integrity of the evaluation system for licensed personnel performance by recognizing that declines in student performance were not attributable to the effectiveness of Colorado educators.
Sponsored HB21-1067: College Admission Use of National Test Score, a bill that breaks down barriers for students and brings greater equity to our college admissions process by removing that requirement that Colorado colleges and universities require national assessment test scores like the SAT and ACT as an eligibility criterion for admission.
Sponsored SB21-058: Approval of Alternative Principal Programs, a bill that helps meet the critical shortage of principals in Colorado, particularly in rural Colorado, by allowing for the continuation of Alternative Principal Licensure programs, in which districts can recruit a local teacher or community member to complete one of these licensure programs and become a principal.
Sponsored SB20-006: Amend Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative, a bill to strengthen the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative program by tying scholarships to the rising cost of attendance rather than tuition alone. COSI serves tens of thousands of Colorado students each year, and strengthening the program will allow more of our children to have access to an affordable college education”
Sponsored HB20-1002: College Credit for Work Experience, a bill that expands opportunities for students to earn college credit for learning acquired through work, including employment, apprenticeships, internships, or self-study.”
Sponsored HB20-1407: College Admission Use Of National Test Score, allowing Colorado public four-year institutions of higher education to waive national assessment score requirements for the high school graduating class of 2021, who had their SAT exam dates cancelled this past spring due to COVID-19.
Sponsored SB19-057: Student Loan Repayment Programs, a bill that requires an annual notice be sent to eligible recipients of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. This will increase awareness of the program and allow public servants like teachers to receive student debt relief that will make it easier financially for them to remain in their important public service jobs.”
Sponsored SB19-204: Public School Local Accountability Systems, a bill which created a grant program to help schools develop, collect, and publish indicators of student success beyond those required by the State. This will provide the ability for schools to demonstrate student success in ways which may be unique to a school and not recognized by common measures of achievement.
Sponsored SB19-129: Regulation Of Online Schools, ensuring online schools are properly regulated in response to the Department of Education task force's recommendations. Required a multi-district online school (MDOS) that is on performance watch to keep that status if it moves to a new authorizer, and if a MDOS is closed as a result of actions related to being on performance watch, it must attain a new certification before opening with a new authorizer.
Sponsored HB19-1222: IB Exam Fee Grant, making funds available to high schools to reduce or eliminate the international baccalaureate exam fee for low-income students, similar to how advanced placement fees have been reduced or eliminated.
Sponsored SB19-097: Area Technical College Grant Program, enabling technical colleges to submit a grant request to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education for additional funding for a specified purpose, such as capital and equipment expenditures.
Co-sponsored HB24-1430: 2024-25 Appropriations Bill, a bill that, among other funding, eliminated the budget stabilization factor and fueled more than $560 Million into public education. While this was long overdue, the funding levels are only back up to 1989 funding levels. We must continue to forge ahead to better fund public education for Coloradans.
Co-sponsored SB23-099: Special Education Funding, a bill increasing special education program funding to help bring down student-teacher ratios, reduce class sizes, and help Colorado provide the focused and individualized special education support these students deserve.
Co-sponsored SB23-269: Colorado Preschool Program Provider Bonus Payments, a bill allocating funds for one-time bonus payments to early childhood care providers in Colorado's Universal Preschool Program. This initiative aims to expand access to this essential early education step for more children, ensuring it remains free and accessible.
Environmental Responsibility
“Wildfires have not only devastated Colorado families, ranches, and businesses, but they have also ravaged our forests and caused thousands of acres of deforestation. Allocating funding to the Colorado State Forest Service Nursery will help mitigate the risk of wildfires, protect communities and preserve our water resources.”
Sponsored HB24-1024: Extend Outreach Campaigns Wildfire Risk Mitigation, a bill enhancing outreach efforts and campaigns aimed at heightening residents' awareness of wildfire risk mitigation to the more than half of Coloradans who live in the Wildfire-Urban-Interface through 2027.
Sponsored HB23-1216:Natural Gas Pipeline Safety, a bill that continues previous efforts to address gaps in maintenance and inspections of natural gas distribution systems, ensuring safety and accountability. This guarantees that energy delivery to Coloradans will be conducted safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
Sponsored HB23-1060: Updates to State Forest Service Tree Nursery, a bill that encourages reforestation efforts by requiring the State Forest Service make necessary upgrades to its seedling tree nursery, and expand its capacity.
Sponsored SB22-151: Safe Crossings for Colorado Wildlife and Motorists, a bill funding projects creating safe crossings for wildlife across Colorado roadways. This helps limit wildlife-vehicle collisions, allowing for improved safety on our roadways for both wildlife and Coloradans.
Sponsored HB21-1326: 2020-21 General Fund Transfer Support Department Of Natural Resources Programs, a bill that invests $25 million towards improving Colorado’s state parks. It provides funding for new state park infrastructure and development, staffing and maintenance, implementation of a statewide wildlife action plan for conservation of native species, backcountry avalanche safety program support, search and rescue efforts support, and funding for the outdoor equity grant program.
Sponsored HB21-1223: Create Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, a bill that makes sure the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office is here to stay, by making it permanent in statute. The bill directs the Office to help cultivate, promote, and coordinate development of the outdoor recreation industry in Colorado, as well as to partner with the outdoor recreation industry to help conserve our public lands, water, air and climate.
Sponsored HB21-1149: Energy Sector Career Pathway in Higher Education, a bill that invests $5 million into job training and workforce development for the energy sector, helping Colorado build back stronger by making sure our workforce is prepared to take on the clean energy jobs of the future. Priority will be given to those who have lost jobs due to COVID-19 as well as communities of color and low-income communities who are disproportionately impacted by pollution and the effects of climate change.
Sponsored SB21-108: PUC Gas Utility Inspection Authority, a bill that improves gas pipeline safety in Colorado by strengthening regulatory oversight for gas pipelines and increasing frequency of pipeline inspections. This will better protect our communities against future catastrophes and provide greater protection of the environment and wildlife resources.
Sponsored SB21-229: Rural Jump-start Zone Grant Program, a bill that helps economically distressed communities – particularly rural communities and those that will be affected by the energy market’s transition away from coal to more renewable energy sources – attract new businesses and jobs. It does so by creating the Rural Jump-Start Zone Grant Program to issue grants to new businesses that establish operations in these communities.
Sponsored SB21-231: Energy Office Weatherization Assistance Grants, a bill that provides $3 million to boost the Weatherization Assistance Program, which offers free home weatherization and energy-efficiency support to low-income residents.
Sponsored SB20-055: Incentivize Development Recycling End Markets, a bill that seeks to attract new businesses to the state and make recycling more economically viable, ultimately improving recycling rates in Colorado.
Sponsored HB19-1003: Community Solar Gardens Modernization Act, a bill that reduces the limitations on solar power technology by expanding the scope and capacity of community solar gardens and makes solar energy a more viable environmentally friendly source of energy in Colorado.
Co-sponsored SB20-204: Additional Resources to Protect Air Quality, a bill that ensures enforcement of environmental regulations to protect our air from harmful chemical emissions.
Healthcare
“I believe that all Coloradans deserve access to quality affordable healthcare regardless of their employment status.”
Co-sponsored HB24-1438: Implement Prescription Drug Affordability Programs, a bill that continues efforts to enhance affordability for prescription drugs such as insulin and epi-pens. This affordability program aims to improve compliance with current affordability measures and enhance information dissemination at pharmacies, so more Coloradans can access the lifesaving drugs they need.
Co-sponsored HB23-1003: School Mental Health Assessment, a bill establishing mental health screenings in schools to better support the mental health and well-being of Colorado’s students.
Co-sponsored HB22-1285: Prohibit Collection Hospital Not Disclosing Prices, a bill ensuring Coloradans don’t face surprise medical bills by prohibiting hospitals or other entities from pursuing debt collections when the hospital was not complying with federal hospital transparency laws.
Co-sponsored SB21-123: Expand Canadian Rx Import Program, a bill that extends the Canadian Prescription Drug Importation Program to nations other than Canada, so that we can continue working to ensure that every Coloradan has access to life-saving prescription drugs.
Co-sponsored SB20-215: Health Insurance Affordability Enterprise, a bill that will make health insurance more accessible to Coloradans who need it by establishing a funding structure for Colorado’s reinsurance program.
Co-sponsored SB20-212: Reimbursement For Telehealth Services, a bill that extended Coloradans ability to receive tele-healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. As many people rightfully worry about receiving care in person, this bill ensures that their ability to receive care remotely continues as we work our way through this deadly pandemic.
Co-sponsored HB19-1168: State Innovation Waiver Reinsurance Program, a bill that established a reinsurance program, significantly lowering health care costs for Coloradans on the individual health care market.
Co-sponsored HB19-1287: Treatment For Opioids And Substance Use Disorders, a bill that expands substance use treatment in rural parts of Colorado and areas that don't have enough access to treatment facilities.
Labor
“All Coloradans deserve fair wages, safe and protected workplaces, and the right to unionize. I will always stand in solidarity with workers. ”
Co-sponsored SB23-231: Amend Fund to Allow Payment Overdue Wage Claims, a bill giving the Division of Labor and Statistics and the Department of Labor and Employment the authority to pay employees who are unable to obtain withheld or delayed wages from their employer. This allows workers to be fairly paid for their work and protected by the state of Colorado, when their employer fails to.
Co-sponsored SB22-161: Wage Theft Employee Misclassification Enforcement, a bill enhancing procedures and enforcement against wage theft by employers. By providing additional protections for employees who experience delayed payments or illegal withholding of wages, accompanied by substantial penalties for offending employers, we ensure workers receive the pay they earned.
Co-sponsored HB22-1401: Hospital Nurse Staffing Standards, a bill requiring hospitals to establish a Nurse Staffing Committee to ensure adequate nurse staffing and to receive, track, and address feedback from direct-care workers and other staff. This law aims to enhance hospital accountability and improve safety standards for nurses and other direct-care staff.
Co-sponsored SB20-205: Sick Leave for Employees, a bill requiring all employers across Colorado pay sick leave, up to 48 hours per year, to their employees as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees can use accrued paid sick leave for their own or a family member's illness, injury, medical care, preventive care, domestic abuse-related issues, or in case of school or care facility closures during a public health emergency.
Co-sponsored HB19-1210: Local Government Minimum Wage, a bill that repealed prohibitions against local governments from setting a local minimum wage law. This allows local governments to address the current and future needs of their citizens, and create fair wages to better their community.
Co-sponsored SB19-238: Improve Wages and Accountability Home Care Workers, a bill that provides ensures necessary compensation and protections for home care workers. This has helped with retention and recruitment rates of home care workers, and has taken additional steps towards recognizing the value these workers are within Colorado’s workforce.