It’s a rare bill that sails through the House State Affairs kill committee but, according to its supporters, HB 1077 has the smell of common sense about it and it also enjoys sponsorship in the House by Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, and in the Senate by Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik, R-Thornton.

The bill passed out of the shooting gallery that is State Affairs earlier this week on a 7-2 vote, with Rep. Steven Humphry, R-Severance, and Rep. Patrick Neville, R- Castle Rock casting the only ‘no’ votes. It aims to create a bipartisan committee to review and remove what Moreno described as “antiquated and outdated” laws. In fact, the new committee would be a throwback: A precursor committee operated at the Legislature from 1977 to 1985, before being eliminated.

“We’re good at passing legislation, but we’re not good at looking to make sure it’s still applicable,” Moreno said.

The idea for the bill came as a result of a mild attack of legislator panic.

Moreno told The Colorado Statesman that he was scheduled to speak at conservative Colorado Christian University last year and was looking to talk about a legislative idea that “wouldn’t get me booed off of the stage.”

“It really was a game-time decision before I spoke,” Moreno said. “I thought immediately, ‘Who couldn’t get behind the idea that we have a lot of statutes on the books in Colorado and that we should from time to time review those statutes to make sure they’re still relevant.’

“So that’s what I said, and I got rave reviews from the audience — [not] the demographic I’m usually popular with.

“Afterward, I even got a couple of invitations to join the Republican Party,” Moreno added.

In years past, proposals to remove outdated sections from Colorado’s cluttered Constitution have met with resistance and have sometimes spurred political clashing.

In 1992, Coloradans passed Amendment 2, which courts ruled unconstitutionally legalized job and housing discrimination against gay people. The amendment was struck down. Yet when lawmakers proposed removing it from the Constitution in 2012, social conservatives rallied and Republicans opposed the measure.

Moreno said he hasn’t heard any reference to such battles, nor any opposition to his bill along similar lines.

On the contrary, he said his bill is carefully tailored to force the proposed committee to act conservatively in its work.

The committee would consist of eight legislators, and any proposed statutory cleanup could only narrowly deal with one law at a time and would require five yes votes to go into effect.

The need is real, outdated laws litter the statutes, Moreno said.

“I’m very optimistic [this bill] will pass.”

–Ramsey@coloradostatesman.com