The state House of Representatives unanimously approved legislation that seeks to modify Colorado’s sexual assault law by adding the word “consent.”

The House passed House Bill 1169 on Tuesday with 64 members voting in support and one member, Eaton Republican Rep. Tonya Van Beber, excused. The bill’s next stop is the state Senate.

“I’m so thrilled that the entire body recognized the importance and urgency of adding the word consent to the law,” said bill sponsor Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City. “One more step in making it harder to get away with sexual assault in Colorado.”

The bipartisan bill – also sponsored by Rep. Matt Soper, R-Delta – aims to change Colorado’s legal definition of sexual assault from sexual intrusion when “the actor causes submission of the victim by means sufficient to cause submission against the victim’s will” to when the actor causes sexual intrusion “knowing the victim does not consent.”

The current law was written in the 1970s and Colorado is one of only two states in the country that still uses the language. Soper said 34 other states currently use the language proposed under the bill in their sexual assault laws. Colorado also includes the term “consent” in its law for misdemeanor sexual contact, but not for sexual assault.

Both bill sponsors said they hope the change would clarify the law to help jurors make decisions in sexual assault cases and to help victims understand whether what happened to them legally qualifies as sexual assault.

This bill come as, last year, the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault reported that Colorado’s sexual violence rate is higher than the national average. The organization said 23.8% of women in Colorado had experienced sexual violence, compared to 18.3% nationally.

A sexual assault occurs in the U.S. every 68 seconds, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Less than one in three sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement, and, of those reported, only around 16% result in arrests and 9% result in felony convictions, the network said.