Any expectation of time off for lawmakers – and anyone else who works at the state Capitol – between now and the May 11 end of the legislative session may be wishful thinking, based on the number of bills still awaiting action in the 2022 session.

According to the Office of Legislative Legal Services, 232 bills out of the 645 introduced this year still await committee action as of start of business on Thursday.

Add that to the number of bills that are going through the legislative process but still haven’t made it to the finish line and the total number of bills requiring lawmakers’ attention reaches 328 – more than half of the introduced total. 

Of those measures, 109 House bills haven’t even made it over to the Senate yet, while 49 Senate bills have yet to leave the chamber.

On top of that, lawmakers continue to add new bills every day. This week alone, they introduced 13 bills in the House and eight more in the Senate.

The backlog is parked squarely in the House, where 200 of those 328 await action. But 109 House bills haven’t yet moved out of the House, meaning that backlog will hit the Senate in the last 10 days of the session that ends on May 11.

That also means lawmakers, primarily Democrats, are going to have to decide which bills they’re willing to let die, and some of that is based on what they’re hearing from the minority party.

The collective bargaining bill, Senate Bill 230, is already a prime target for the House GOP when it reaches that chamber. Currently, the bill is awaiting action from Senate Appropriations, but should it make it to the Senate floor, sources indicate the Senate GOP has more than 200 amendments at the ready to grind that second reading debate to a halt.

Senate Minority Leader Chris Holbert, a Douglas County Republican who has solid experience in how to manage the calendar, told Colorado Politics on Thursday he’s provided the Senate president and Senate majority leader with a list of bills – he wouldn’t disclose what’s on it – his Republican colleagues believe are “particularly bad and are prepared to debate at length.”

This is a time when the majority in both chambers need to decide what bills they’re going to pass, Holbert said.

“There aren’t enough hours left” to pass everything on top of whatever gets introduced in the coming days, he said.

House Majority Leader Daneya Esgar of Pueblo told Colorado Politics the House will get through all the bills before the General Assembly adjourns on May 11.

“We’re prepared to be here for long days, long nights, and weekends,” she said.

She would not say what bills the House majority is willing to give up to get through the calendar.

Holbert said Esgar’s chamber is “further behind than I’ve ever seen.”

“It’s because they didn’t get enough done in the first half of the session, and that’s not my problem,” he added. 

“We are under no obligation to step aside and let the majority pass bills we disagree with,” Holbert said. “We will debate many of them, and as that final moment of May 11 draws closer, the reality of that situation will become undeniable.”

He said his request to Democrats is to have tough conversations with their caucuses. That could mean bills going to a committee of reference and failing, or dying in appropriations committees because the time isn’t right or the money isn’t there. While the General Assembly has about $900 million in one-time funds available, how that money can be spent is limited to short-term projects that don’t require future funds.

Money for bills that have out-year costs is limited to just $40 million.

“The majority realizes there’s more demand for the dollars than actual dollars available,” Holbert said. “A dollar means exactly one dollar, and that’s how much we can spend and no more.”