Hopefully, Republicans say, next year will be better.

Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Parker told Colorado Politics Monday that he’s hopeful the 2020 session won’t be a repeat of 2019 and that Democrats – especially in the Senate – have learned lessons on calendar management and working across the aisle.

There was scant little of either in 2019, Holbert indicated.

That included bills that waited for action for months – like House Bill 1032, on changes to the state’s comprehensive sex education curriculum for public schools.

The measure sat in the Senate Appropriations Committee for almost two months, finally moving on to the Senate floor on April 23. Sponsors didn’t bring the bill up for debate until the day before the end of the session, and then did so with a rewrite that took out some of the language that conservative Christian groups found objectionable.

Holbert, who said he would have preferred to see that measure die, said that if a similar situation arises next year, Republicans will be better prepared for it. 

“We’ve been accused of being obstructionists, but in some cases, that just wasn’t true,” he said, adding that the sex ed bill was one of those cases.

Then there were measures that moved too fast; Holbert cited Senate Bill 181, the oil and gas regulatory reform bill. That measure went through three Senate committees in one week, Holbert noted.

“I expect next year will be a balance,” with fewer bills that he terms “aggressive.”

Holbert pointed to the 2007-08, 2009-10 and 2013-14 sessions. The first of the aforementioned sessions saw aggressive measures, but measures were “more balanced” in the following year, which was also an election year, he said.

Holbert is hopeful that Senate Democrats have learned valuable lessons on scheduling and how to run committee hearings, too. But he’s also proud of the job Senate Republicans did to slow down the rush on some of the measures on the Democrats’ agenda. 

Republicans found opportunities all along the way, such as when a bill got laid over in a committee or on the floor. The logjam that happened at the end of the session was one in which there were more bills than hours left to pass them.

“I am proud that our team helped create that,” he said.

Where that played out most was in committee hearings, such as in Senate Finance, he said.

“Our members are good at asking questions and understanding concerns and the input of people who testify in committees,” he said. “Our members are good at having debate and making our points and concerns known on the floor.”

As to policy successes, Holbert pointed to Senate Bill 25, sponsored by Sen. Jim Smallwood of Parker. That measure put information about safe haven laws — establishing legal places for parents to relinquish unwanted newborns — into comprehensive sex ed or general health curriculums taught in public schools.

Safe haven laws have been in place for almost two decades, yet the Smallwood bill ran into controversy because of its possible inclusion in the sex ed bill.

At one point the measure was on the verge of being killed by a Senate committee. But the committee chair, Democratic Sen. Mike Foote of Lafayette, had second thoughts. A week later the measure won his committee’s unanimous approval.

“Much to do about nothing,” Holbert mused.

Holbert said the push against the bill was “unnecessarily aggressive.”

Holbert also spoke about Senate Bill 188, the family-leave measure, and how that bill changed in its final days from implementation of a paid family leave program unpopular with many businesses to a study.

Republican Sen. Bob Rankin of Carbondale carried the amendment to change the bill into a study, and fellow Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling found support for an amendment that dictated a new bill would have to be introduced to put the program into law.

“On a big policy issue for Democrats, I’m most pleased it became a study,” said Holbert, though he generally doesn’t like studies, he added. “Our strategy led to that. We could have gone hours and hours” in debate, but in the end, they didn’t have to.

Holbert also addressed the tactics Republicans employed during the session, whether it was asking for a 2,023-page bill to be read at length, which led Senate Democrats to set up five computer programs to read the bill all at once. That led to a lawsuit and an injunction granted to the Republicans to ensure those incomprehensible readings didn’t take place again.

There were other tensions throughout the session. The logjam began to break when Democratic Sen. Nancy Todd of Aurora and Sonnenberg begged the two sides to stop fighting and start talking. 

That eventually led to a deal on transportation that resulted in $300 million in one-time money for road and bridge projects. 

“That’s good for the people of Colorado,” Holbert said. It also gave the Republicans a platform for moving forward in discussions with the majority party leaders. 

What frustrated Holbert during the session was the lack of communication with Senate Democrats. In the past, when delay tactics – like reading a bill at length – came up, the majority party would reach out to the minority party to ask what it will take to work things out.

That never happened in 2019, Holbert said. He and Assistant Minority Leader John Cooke of Greeley learned they had to make their interests known, because it was only then that Senate Democrats began to respond.

“They never asked,” even when the Senate spent five hours on final votes on a handful of bills, Holbert said. “That’s not how I’ve seen it done, but we figured out a way to make it work.”

“We Bobbed,” he said, referencing the loquacious Sen. Bob Gardner of Colorado Springs. “We did what we’re supposed to do for our constituents. The process worked.”