House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources

Thursday, March 5, 2026·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee cleared two sunset bills at day's end, voting to keep Colorado's water vessel registration program afloat and to let the state's biomass utilization grant program expire on schedule.

Key Actions

·Sunset Water Vessel Registration ProgramPassed

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Notable Quotes

“We are specialized in basically underwater search and recovery for basically any type of evidence. Unfortunately, most of the evidence we're looking for is drowning victims or people that have been involved in boating incidents that end up in the water. So we use a lot of different types of technology like sonar, underwater ROVs, and such like that to be able to search underwater and to be able to help bring these victims back.”
Brian Phillips (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) · witness — Phillips detailed how registration fees fund the Marine Evidence Recovery Team, grounding an otherwise routine sunset bill in the tangible public-safety work it pays for.

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Votes

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction

Yes (13)Carlos Barron, Lori Goldstein, Dusty Johnson, Mandy Lindsay, Meghan Lukens, Matthew Martinez, Lesley Smith, Katie Stewart, Tammy Story, Larry Don Suckla, Ty Winter, Tisha Mauro, Karen McCormick

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (13)Carlos Barron, Lori Goldstein, Dusty Johnson, Mandy Lindsay, Matthew Martinez, Lesley Smith, Katie Stewart, Tammy Story, Larry Don Suckla, Ty Winter, Tisha Mauro, Karen McCormick, Meghan Lukens

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TranscriptPreview

House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources committee will come to order. Ms. Kelly, please call the roll. Representatives Barone. Present. Goldstein. Here. Johnson. Here. Lindsey. Here. Lukens. Excused. Martinez. Here. Smith. Here. Stewart. What's wrong? Excused. Oh, here. Representative Stewart is. Here. Story? Here. Sukla. Here. Winter. Here. Maro. Here. Madam Chair. Here. All right. We have two bills on our agenda today. First up is House Bill 1197, which is a sunset of the water vessel registration program. Representative Morrow? Thank you, Madam chair and members of the committee. I'm pleased to be here presenting House Bill 1197. Colorado boasts a variety of recreational waters for residents and visitors to enjoy. In fact, recreational boating represents one a 1.8 billion annual economic impact in the state of Colorado alone, supporting over 5,500 jobs and 200 businesses. The state's water vessel registration program requires that all motorized and sail propulsion vessels be registered by Colorado Parks and wildlife. House Bill 1197 seeks to continue the water vessel registration program which was set to sunset effective September of this year. In the fiscal year 2324, more than 71,000 vessels were registered in the state of Colorado. The registration process is relatively…

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