House State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs

Thursday, January 29, 2026·1h 41m·▶ Watch / Listen

The House State Affairs committee advanced a narrowly divided bill letting Coloradans 72 and older opt out of jury duty — a measure vetoed as 'ageism' last year — over bipartisan objections from prosecutors and defense attorneys alike, and unanimously moved a technical fix on remote participation for joint legislative committees.

Key Actions

·Jury Duty Opt-Out for People 72 Years or OlderPassed

+ 2 more actions

Notable Quotes

“What struck me the most about this piece of legislation that's being proposed is that it assumes that our elderly population is somehow, by virtue of their age, unable to serve as jurors. I find that just not to be true.”
Ann Kelly (District Attorney, San Luis Valley) · witness — The San Luis Valley DA distilled the core objection from prosecutors — that an age-based opt-out sends an insulting, ageist message to capable seniors.

+ 5 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction

Yes (6)Monica Duran, Lisa Feret, Kenny Nguyen, Naquetta Ricks, Chad Clifford, Jenny Willford

No (5)Scott Bottoms, Brandi Bradley, Michael Carter, Cecelia Espenoza, Stephanie Luck

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (11)Scott Bottoms, Brandi Bradley, Michael Carter, Monica Duran, Cecelia Espenoza, Lisa Feret, Stephanie Luck, Kenny Nguyen, Naquetta Ricks, Chad Clifford, Jenny Willford

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TranscriptPreview

The House State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee will come to order. Ms. King, please call the roll. Representatives Bottoms. Here. Bradley. Here. Carter. Present. Duran. Here. Espinoza. Present. Foray. Excused. Luck. Joyfully. Present. Win gracefully. Present. Bricks. Excused. Clifford. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Wonderful. We. We have a quorum. We have two bills on the agenda today, House Bill 1022 and House Bill 1068. Before we proceed with hearing bills, I just wanted to make a few remarks with reminders to committee members. First, State Affairs Committee will meet every week on Mondays at 1:30pm welcome, Representative Foray. We'll get. We'll get there. And on Thursday, 15 minutes upon adjournment. And we will always be right here in LSBA, just like in our previous session. For hearings with 19 or fewer individuals signed up to provide testimony, we'll provide three minutes per person and up to eight minutes for committee questioning of the panel. And for hearings with 20 participants or more, we will limit testimony to 2 minutes per person and 10 minutes for committee questioning of the panel. I feel like as a committee, we did a really good job last session keeping things light and…

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