Day Two of the 2020 General Assembly’s special session saw less drama than on Day One, and with 10 bills left moving into what’s expected to be the final day.

The House picked up the Senate bills that passed that chamber early Tuesday on unanimous or near-unanimous votes. The Senate began their quick work on seven House bills that mostly won bipartisan support Tuesday morning.

One bill, however, didn’t make it to the end of the day.

House Bill 20B-1007 was intended to fix an error from the 2020 regular session on occupational therapy practices. The bill ran into trouble, not because no one wanted to fix the problem, but because lawmakers feared it wouldn’t pass constitutional muster because it wasn’t closely tied to the governor’s requirements for the special session.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, and Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert of Parker both pointed to a Legal Services memo that discussed the standard for deciding whether a bill fits under the governor’s call. Colorado Supreme Court rulings have given the legislature a bit of latitude on that meaning , according to the memo. A bill should have a “rational nexus” to something in the call, the memo stated.

Singer, on Monday, and Holbert, during a Tuesday Senate Finance Committee hearing, noted that occupational therapists have been providing telehealth services during the pandemic, but the error in the law could jeopardize their licenses.

But those pleas weren’t persuasive to Democrats on the finance committee Tuesday, who want a permanent, clean fix of the bill without raising constitutional concerns.

That same hearing prompted two Democrats to advocate for a full-time legislature. Sens. Julie Gonzales and Chris Hansen, both of Denver, noted that a full-time legislature would have had an opportunity to fix the problem instead of waiting for the next session.

That prompted disregard from Republican Sen. Paul Lundeen of Monument. “To conclude we need to go to a full-time legislature is a bit of stretch,” Lundeen said. “We create more mischief when we’re doing business than when we’re not.”

So then there were 10.

The Senate made quick work of its evening debate calendar, finishing its work for the day by 5 p.m. This included passage of:

• House Bill 1001, which would provide grants to expand internet access for K-12 students, teachers and districts that rely on remote learning during the pandemic. That bill comes with a $20 million price tag.
• House Bill 1002, which would provide direct aid to child care providers, many of whom struggle to stay open with fewer children and COVID-19 risks. Total cost: $45 million.
• House Bill 1003, which would send $5 million to the nonprofit Energy Outreach Colorado to assist Coloradans who are struggling to pay utility bills.
• House Bill 1004, which would allow restaurants, bars and food trucks to retain the state’s 2.9% sales tax, to a maximum of $2,000, to be used for rent or other business purposes. That sales tax holiday would last for four months beginning in November 2020.

The Senate amended the bill’s legislative declaration Tuesday evening – yes, for once, that actually matters, according to sponsor Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village – because the bill has a major impact on the economy, something that must be affirmatively stated.

Co-sponsor Sen. Jack Tate, R-Centennial, pointed to comments made earlier in the day by Sen. Rob Woodward, R-Loveland, about whether allowing those businesses to keep a 2.9% sales tax would make any difference.

“This meaningful tax relief only makes sense if the business is getting revenue,” Tate said. “I’m going to beat that dead horse for maybe another 18 hours,” predicting the end of the special session as well as his time as a lawmaker, since he didn’t run for re-election.

House Bill 1005, which was not identified as specific to the special session call, also cleared the Senate on second reading Tuesday. The bill allows local governments to cap the fees charged to restaurants by food delivery services. It drew opposition from Woodward, who said small-scale entrepreneurs would be kept out of that market. But Tate replied that “there’s no free market anymore” under the pandemic, and that out-of-state delivery companies – DoorDash, UberEats and others, are exploiting the market.

House Bill 1006, also not specifically a part of the call, deals with the sale of premium insurance tax credits, and was pushed by state Treasurer Dave Young. It applies to the CLIMBER Act, a small business loan recovery program that was part of COVID-19 relief and passed during the 2020 regular session.

Treasury is scheduled to close on the sale of those credits later this month, according to sponsor Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, but the sale mechanism was not correctly outlined in the original bill. Hence HB1006, which corrects the issues so that the state gets the best return on those sales.

Zenzinger acknowledged the bill was not part of the call, but said the bill touches on both housing and small business relief tied to the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives passed four bills on second reading that originated in the Senate, defeating Republicans’ amendments aimed at limiting the emergency powers of Gov. Jared Polis – but sometimes only narrowly.

One of the contentious measures was Senate Bill 4, a $100 million transfer from the general fund to the Controlled Maintenance Trust Fund, which the governor could then move to the account for disaster spending. Bill sponsor Rep. Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, who is also the vice chair of the Joint Budget Committee, said the bill was necessary to front money that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has delayed sending to the state. COVID-19 tests, of which 25,000 are administered per day, are the main driver of costs.