Joint Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources and House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources

Friday, January 23, 2026·4h 17m·▶ Watch / Listen

A marathon joint session of the Senate and House agriculture and natural resources committees ran from budget to bison: JBC members walked lawmakers through the Governor's FY27 request amid an $840 million hole, while Colorado River Commissioner Becky Mitchell delivered a combative negotiations update and CPW absorbed pointed questions on wolf-compensation costs that have blown past their original estimate.

Key Actions

·Governor's FY27 budget request (Agriculture & Natural Resources)Action

+ 11 more actions

Notable Quotes

“So when we're talking about that, the budget is out of whack by $840 million as we start off the next budget year. At least going to be more than that.”
Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer (JBC) — Kirkmeyer framed the scale of the state's projected shortfall as the backdrop for scrutinizing the Governor's FY27 spending requests.

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TranscriptPreview

All right. Joint Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Smart act hearing is now coming to order. Please call the roll. Senators and Representatives Catlin. Excused. Danielson. Excused. Garcia. Sander. Present. Goldstein. Here. Henriksen. Excused. Johnson. Here. Yep. Here. Lindsey. Here. Lukens. Here. Martinez. Here. Morrow. Online but excused for now. Pelton B. Present. Pelton R. Here. Smith. Here. Stuart K. Here. Story. Here. Here. Sukhla. Here. Winter. Here. Roberts. Here. And Madam Chair? Here. Great. Thank you all for being here on a Friday afternoon. We start with our JBC committee briefing and Representative Sirota. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll just say a few words before I turn it over to Senator Kirkmeyer, but we are here before you to meet our joint rule 25 obligation and what we bring to you today. A discussion about the governor's budget request for the fiscal year 27. He is required to submit a balanced budget and did so well. He submitted a budget on October 31st. And we have since been spending time with our analysts, getting briefed on each department and spent time in hearings with the department's committee going over our questions about their submissions. And so we have been…

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