Democratic members of a House panel voted down a pair of Republican-backed bills Thursday that, if passed, would have limited vaccine mandates by allowing exemptions for various reasons. 

House Bill 1200 would require employers to allow exemptions for vaccine mandates for health concerns or religious beliefs. If an employee was fired for refusing a vaccine for any reason, the bill would make them eligible for unemployment benefits. House Bill 1201, meanwhile, would prohibit mandates for vaccines not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, not tested for at least one year or not manufacturer-liable for injury or death.

The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee indefinitely postponed both bills in 5-8 votes along party lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. The votes came after more than five hours of debate and testimony from dozens of people who came to speak on the bills. 

“I saw first-hand in our hospitals how important it’s been to have a vaccinated workforce,” said Rep. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, an emergency room nurse. “The vaccine is the best tool we have to prevent people from getting sick and missing work, which is why I am disappointed that we continue to see dangerous bills that spread misinformation about the vaccine. This is not the time to handcuff our state’s small businesses, which is exactly what these bills would do.”

“My heart breaks for the families of Colorado who have been staying up at night trying to decide between receiving a vaccine with questionable effectiveness or keeping their job,” argued Rep. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, sponsor of HB-1200. “There are many Coloradans now struggling to pay their bills, to live or to work because their employer forced them to make a choice between their job and injecting a new type of vaccine. That is not right.”

The legislature tackled the bills as the COVID-19 pandemic brought vaccine mandates to a sharp focus. Many businesses have implemented vaccine mandates to slow the pandemic’s spread in the workplace. Mandates have also been established for certain situations, such as organ transplants. Statewide, 3.99 million people – 69.3% of the population – are vaccinated against COVID-19. That is higher than the national average of 65.3%.

Thursday’s speakers were roughly evenly divided between who support and oppose the bills. Supporters included multiple people who said they lost their jobs for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine and felt they’re being treated like “second-class citizens.”

“If you don’t vote yes, families like mine become unemployable,” said Jody Davison, a former state employee who said she was fired in December for refusing the vaccine due to health concerns because she could not obtain a medical exemption. “The only person liable for my health today is me, so I have to be empowered to make this decision.” 

Colorado issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for state employees in September 2021. Since then, less than 1% of employees have applied for a vaccine exemption – 546 out of 65,000 employees, according to state data.

The bills’ critics included many in the health care industry who said the measures would put their patients at risk by preventing businesses, such as hospitals and nursing homes, from mandating vaccines for employees who come into contact with the medically vulnerable.

Others said the portion of HB-1201 that prohibits mandates for vaccines that haven’t been tested for at least a year would have deadly consequences if and when another pandemic hits.

A study from the Yale School of Public Health estimated that, if the U.S. had not started distributing the COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020, an additional 279,000 people would have died and 1.25 million would have been hospitalized by July 2021. If only half as many vaccinations were administered, there would have been 120,000 additional deaths and 450,000 additional hospitalizations, the study added.

“(The COVID-19 vaccine) was a medical miracle and it has saved countless lives,” said Dr. David Keller of Children’s Hospital Colorado. “Had this bill been in effect, we would have been forced to continue to use non-biologic measures to control the pandemic and would have had more illness, more hospital utilization and more death. The bill will certainly impair out ability to finish recovery from the last wave of omicron and will impair our response to the next pandemic.”

Several businesses spoke in opposition to the bills, as well, saying it should be up to employers to decide what mandates to adopt. They include the Colorado Mining Association, South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Competitive Council.

When voting against the bill, some lawmakers raised additional concerns about conflicting with vaccine mandates for federal workers within the state.

Each bill included an approximately $1 million price tag to settle lawsuits expected to be brought against the state due to these kinds of conflicts.