Sunset bills usually are a rubber stamp when they come through the legislature, but Senate Majority Leader Chris Holbert of Parker said this session they will be a way to trim some fat out of government.

Eighteen programs are up for reauthorization this session.

“We’ll have our committees of reference looking productively on how to get government out of your way and help you employ more people and hopefully enjoy more prosperity in the great state of Colorado,” Holbert said in the Senate Republicans’ weekly video message.

Those cuts will have to survive the Democrat-led House, however, or head to a compromise committee. If negotiators from the House and Senate can’t agree, the respective programs would ride off into the sunset, hence the name sunset review.

Among those facing sunset reviews this session are the Colorado Civil Rights Division and Commission, the Board of Examiners of Nursing Home Administrators, permits for weather-modification operations and the regulation of custom meat processing.