Rep. Woodrow asked for a moment of personal privilege, and the chamber went quiet.
"Yesterday, in a town called West Bloomfield, a terrorist drove a truck loaded with explosives into Temple Israel, the largest Reform synagogue in the nation," he told his colleagues on the morning of March 13, 2026. "After he rammed into the building, he engaged in gunfire with the security team, who eventually neutralized him as a threat."
The House Appropriations Committee had convened to dispatch four routine spending bills before sending them to the full House floor. Instead, the morning began with something raw and unscripted — a lawmaker processing, in real time, an act of terror against his own community.
'My Hometown'
The attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, happened on March 12, 2026 — the day before this hearing. According to web search results, the suspect was identified as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a naturalized citizen originally from Lebanon, who rammed his vehicle into the synagogue and opened fire before being killed. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said there was a clear "nexus" between the attack and the broader geopolitical context.
For Woodrow, this wasn't a news alert. It was personal geography.
"West Bloomfield, a suburb nestled 30 minutes northwest of downtown Detroit, is my hometown," he said. "Temple Israel is where my friends send their kids to preschool. It is where I've celebrated countless bar mitzvahs and weddings. Rabbi Josh officiated. My wedding is where my mom serves as the recording secretary for the Temple Sisterhood."
The room sat with that for a moment.
Woodrow didn't let the attack stand in isolation. He placed it inside a pattern — a disturbing, accelerating one. "According to the Anti Defamation League, there were more than 9,300 cases across the country in 2024, the highest number on record since they started keeping track in 1979," he said. He referenced a separate attack at Old Dominion University the same day, a homemade explosive attack in New York City over the weekend, antisemitic violence in San Jose, and what he called Jews being "burned in our own beloved Boulder" the previous June. He noted that Toronto had seen three synagogue attacks in two weeks, and cited a December attack at Bondi Beach in Australia.
Then he quoted Fred Rogers — specifically, Rogers quoting his own mother: look for the helpers. Woodrow said he was grateful for the security team and law enforcement who "undoubtedly saved lives."
And then, with the moment still hanging in the air, the committee chair moved on. "Congratulations. We'll move on to 1187."
Four Bills, Zero Debate
What followed was, by any procedural measure, a model of legislative efficiency — and, for those tracking the state budget, consequential nonetheless.
The House Appropriations Committee cleared all four bills on its agenda in rapid succession, with no amendments, no substantive debate, and no testimony from opponents on any of them. The hearing transcript provides no description of the bills' content beyond their sponsors and vote tallies — a reminder that Appropriations work often happens before the public hearing, in conversations among fiscal staff and sponsors that never make it to a microphone.
HB 1187 was presented by Rep. Stewart and Rep. Wynn. It passed 9-2, with Reps. Scott Bottoms and Matt Soper voting no. HB 1194, carried by Rep. Barron, passed 10-1 — the lone dissent coming from Rep. Bottoms. Soper, who had voted no on 1187, flipped to yes. HB 1207 had the roughest passage of the four, clearing 8-3, with Bottoms, Soper, and Rep. Rick Taggart all voting no — the only bill of the morning where Taggart broke from the majority.
The fourth bill, HB 1280, was presented by Rep. Lieder and Rep. Hamrick. According to public legislative tracking, HB 26-1280 concerns the continuation of the regulation of hemodialysis treatment by the Department of Public Health and Environment — a sunset review bill stemming from a recommendation by the Colorado Office of Policy, Research, and Regulatory Reform. It passed 9-2, again with Bottoms and Soper in the minority.
Across all four votes, Reps. Andrew Boesenecker, Junie Joseph, Karen McCormick, Brianna Titone, Elizabeth Velasco, Yara Zokaie, Emily Sirota, and Kyle Brown voted yes on every bill. Rep. Bottoms voted no on all four. Rep. Soper voted no on three of four. Rep. Taggart voted no only on HB 1207.
The Vote With One Surprise
If there was a subtle storyline in the voting, it was Rep. Soper.
Soper voted no on HB 1187 alongside Bottoms, then switched to yes on HB 1194 — the bill that drew the widest support of the morning, passing 10-1. He returned to the no column on HB 1207 and HB 1280. The hearing record offers no explanation for the pattern; no member asked questions on any bill, and no sponsor offered public testimony about bill content beyond confirming there were no amendments.
Rep. Taggart, meanwhile, voted yes on three of four bills but joined the no column on HB 1207 — making that bill the only one to draw opposition from a member who otherwise supported the morning's agenda.
Without substantive floor debate or public testimony, those vote splits are the only window into any reservations committee members may have had.
Dogs, Champions, and the Texture of a Friday Morning
Before the votes, the hearing had the texture of a last-day-of-the-week session — warm, a little unfocused, and full of the small rituals that make a legislative chamber feel like a workplace.
Rep. Brown announced, to mild amusement, that so many members owed money to the committee's fine jar that staff had built a spreadsheet to track the debts. One member called out that they'd pay when they had five dollars in their pocket.
Rep. Hartsook introduced two Colorado State Patrol K9 explosive detection teams to sustained applause. Master Trooper Hampton, a 27-year veteran, and his dog Gunner — a three-year-old short-haired lab — were joined by Trooper Crenshaw and Scout, a five-year-old German shorthaired pointer. "Trooper Crenshaw has been a trooper for 11 years, has been with the explosive detection for almost five years along with Scout who's one of the original K9s," Hartsook told the committee.
Both teams are primarily assigned to the Capitol and judicial building, where they sweep for explosives, assist with the governor's protection detail, and travel with Colorado Supreme Court and appellate court justices. Scout and Gunner are each trained to detect 25 different explosive odors and can locate shell casings and firearms. According to web search results, the dogs work mostly at the Colorado State Capitol complex but are dispatched statewide to assist partner agencies.
Rep. Hamrick, one of the sponsors of HB 1280, also introduced a joint tribute to the MSU Denver women's volleyball team, national champions, who were making their way from the Senate chamber to the House floor. "At the beginning of the year, they were seventh in the nation," Hamrick said. "But they knew in their spring games that they had something great, beating many D1 teams. Their ending record was 32 and 3 with two losses coming to Colorado teams, Colorado Mesa and CCCS." The team went into the national tournament seeded fourth and won the championship.
Rep. Barone, a proud MSU Denver alum, offered the morning's most succinct commentary: "Go Roadrunners. Beep, beep."
What Happens Next
All four bills now move to the Committee of the Whole — the full House sitting as a committee during second reading — where they will be open to floor amendments before a final passage vote on third reading. Passing a committee is not the same as passing the chamber; each bill still needs to survive the House floor before heading to the Senate.
For HB 26-1280, the hemodialysis regulation continuation bill, the stakes are concrete: if it passes both chambers, the state's regulatory framework for hemodialysis treatment — which governs how dialysis centers operate and are overseen by the Department of Public Health and Environment — will continue rather than lapse under Colorado's sunset review process. Patients who depend on dialysis, a life-sustaining treatment for those with kidney failure, have a direct interest in that oversight framework remaining intact.
For the other three bills — HB 1187, HB 1194, and HB 1207 — the hearing record does not describe their contents. What it does show is that a majority of the Appropriations Committee found them worth advancing, and a small, consistent minority did not.
And for Rep. Woodrow, the morning's business was always going to be secondary. His hometown had just been attacked. He had a microphone, and colleagues who needed to hear what was happening — not in the abstract, but in the specific, personal, irreducible way that only someone from West Bloomfield could say it.
He said it. Then the chair called the next bill.