A rarely used procedural move by a Republican legislator has thrown the Colorado House into an extended slowdown, after she invoked her right to have a nearly 700-page state budget bill read aloud in full.

Once Rep. Brandi Bradley, R‑Roxborough Park, made the request, the House is required by law to read House Bill 1410, which contains the proposal to spend $46.8 billion next year.

Colorado legislators are constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, and they are grappling with a deficit of more than a $1 billion. The current state budget has already been modified a few times, and they’re not done yet changing that spending plan.

Rarely invoked when it comes to the budget bill, the parliamentary maneuver to read a bill aloud can be a form of protest or a strategy to slow a measure’s passage, sometimes with the hope of gaining concessions. It can also invite a reaction.

While other lawmakers can come and go during the reading, the law requires Bradley to remain on the House floor until she rescinds her request or the bill has been fully read.

Reading the long bill is no small task. The annual state budget typically runs hundreds of pages, and this year’s measure comes in at 661 pages.

Thursday’s reading began around 6:30 p.m. and continued until about 11 p.m., when the House adjourned for the night and planned to resume on Friday.

While Democratic House Majority Leader Monica Duran, D-Wheat Ridge, halted the reading Thursday night, Bradley said she was ready to stay through the night if necessary. Because the full reading is expected to take roughly 15 hours, Friday’s session was expected to go through most of the day.

As of noon Friday, the bill had not even reached the halfway point.

Earlier in the week, the House worked through about half of the 73 amendments that must be debated as part of the “long” bill. The remaining amendments will be taken up after the full bill is read at length.

That means the House chamber will be working through the weekend, according to Duran.

In addition to pushing work into the weekend, the full reading has halted all other House business. Lawmakers warn that delaying a vote on the budget compresses the timeline for completing the rest of the session’s agenda.

Republicans, who have been in the minority since 2013, have often used the threat of forcing a full reading of the long bill to bring Democrats to the negotiating table. However, until now, no Republican had actually followed through and requested the full reading.

In the past, negotiations have produced weekends off, including Good Friday and Easter last year, and favorable consideration of amendments to the long bill or of other legislation throughout the rest of the session.

As a result, the entire Republican caucus benefits from the negotiations. The threat is the single most important tool Republicans have.

Bradley’s decision to follow through on the threat is not just about the contents of the proposed budget bill. Instead, she used remarks on the House floor and posts on social media to voice frustration over how an ethics complaint she filed against fellow Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg of Loveland was handled.

Bradley had levied sexual harassment allegations against Weinberg over the summer. In response, the House formally admonished Weinberg and recommended that he attend sexual harassment prevention training. Bradley called the ethics complaint process “broken” as she requested that the full budget bill be read aloud.

Duran told Colorado Politics that Bradley’s actions are “frustrating” because lawmakers are there to do the people’s work and the budget is the most important bill of the year.

The Democrat said using the long bill to make a personal statement about the outcome of an ethics complaint is “horrific.”

“I don’t even have the words right now to tell you what it feels like. And it’s not just me,” she said.

In addition to raising concerns about the ethics committee, Bradley wrote on X Friday morning that she made the motion because “we have a spending problem, and we have a transparency problem.”

“From out-of-control budgets to leadership sweeping serious issues under the rug, including the harassment of women,” she said, “it has to stop.”

“Sunlight matters. Reading this bill, every page of it, forces what’s been hidden into the open, and I won’t allow it to stay in the dark any longer,” she said.

Duran said she spoke with Bradley for weeks before Wednesday’s action, walking through the process for the ethics complaint. Duran said she was willing to clarify the rules and committed to doing so after the session concluded. Duran also said she asked Bradley to be part of that conversation and to work with the Senate, which also wants to work on the ethics complaint process.

Duran said that the offer has been on the table for several weeks.

Duran said she meets daily with her counterpart, Minority Leader Rep. Jarvis Caldwell, R-Monument, to review the day’s calendar.

That’s especially the case when the long bill is coming up. The door has always been open, one-on-one, Duran stressed.

“I made them an offer” for the rest of the session, in exchange for not reading the bill at length.

In a statement to Colorado Politics, Caldwell said that each year, “good‑faith negotiations are made between the Minority and Majority. This year was no different.”

However, he noted that the $1.5 billion budget deficit left little room to negotiate for Republicans’ priorities. They offered amendments to fund veterans’ mental health services, child maltreatment prevention centers, and programs for intellectual and developmental disability communities — all of which were rejected, he said.

Caldwell said the majority, meanwhile, advanced an amendment shifting money from the Department of Corrections to support services for immigrants illegally staying in the U.S., a reference to an amendment to HB 1411, which, as introduced, sought to cap children’s enrollment in Cover All Coloradans. The cost program, which provides health care coverage to the immigrants, has exploded by scores of millions of dollars.

“Our priorities are just not in line for productive negotiations,” he said.

On the decision to read the long bill at length, Caldwell said he recognizes that any member has a constitutional right to request it. But, he added, “choosing to read the long bill in full should be a strategic caucus decision with a clear intended outcome. The decision this year was made by one person without any caucus discussion.”