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Colorado House 2026 Legislative Day 030

Thursday, February 12, 2026·2h 52m·▶ Watch / Listen

The Colorado House passed a full slate of FY2025-26 supplemental appropriations bills on third reading and final passage, with the most contentious debate centering on HB 26-1155 (Department of Health Care Policy and Financing), where members clashed over Medicaid provider rate cuts, fraud concerns, and the impact of the federal HR1 legislation reducing state revenue by roughly $1.2 billion. The session also adopted a historic Lunar New Year resolution and heard a Black History Month hidden figure presentation.

Key Actions

·SJR 26-010 – Lunar New Year 2026 CelebrationPassed

+ 11 more actions

Controversies

Representative Ken DeGraaf vs. Presiding Officer – conduct during HB 26-1151 and HB 26-1155 debate

During debate on HB 26-1151, the Presiding Officer interrupted DeGraaf when he referenced an alleged political prisoner, stating 'Representative, I'll just bring you back to the content of our bill,' and later told him 'I encourage you to continue to speak with respect to your colleagues.' During debate on HB 26-1155, after DeGraaf stated 'I cannot think of a better way to say that a certain party hates Coloradans than this budget process,' the Presiding Officer reminded members 'we don't need to characterize each other's emotions, intentions.'

Notable Quotes

“Last year we balanced our budget. And then in July, The Congress passed HR1, which reduced revenue to the state by roughly $1.2 billion. And as a result, we have supplemental actions this year that are significant that look far outsized from what we have had to grapple with in the past.”

Representative Emily Sirota — Sirota, speaking in support of HB 26-1155 (the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing supplemental), was explaining why the Medicaid supplemental was unusually large and why she viewed the cuts as necessary given the state's fiscal situation.

+ 3 more quotes

Votes

Adoption of HB 26-1151 (Supplemental – Department of Corrections) on third reading and final passagePassed
Yes (1)Representative Camacho (verbal, after machine closed due to button malfunction)
No (1)Representative Ricks
Adoption of HB 26-1152 (Supplemental – Department of Early Childhood) on third reading and final passagePassed
Yes (2)Representative Ricks, Representative Camacho (confirmed verbally)
Adoption of HB 26-1155 (Supplemental – Department of Health Care Policy and Financing) on third reading and final passagePassed
Yes (1)Representative Ricks
Adoption of HB 26-1156 (Supplemental – Department of Higher Education) on third reading and final passagePassed
Yes (1)Representative Ricks
Adoption of HB 26-1165 (Supplemental – Department of Public Health and Environment) on third reading and final passagePassed
Yes (1)Representative Ricks
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TranscriptPreview
The House will come to order. Today our pledge is going to be just a little delayed. We have a guest coming from Assistant Minority Leader Winter's district. She's been caught in traffic and so we would hate to rob her of the opportunity to give the pledge after driving for three hours. So we're going to move the pledge a little further back and we're going to start with Mr. Schieble calling the roll. Representatives bacon. Barone. Bassinecker. Bottoms. Bradfield. Bradley. Brooks. Brown. Representative brow. Caldwell. Camacho. Carter. Clifford. Representative clifford. Excused. Degraff, duran. English. Espet. Espinoza. Representative espinoza. She is here. Ferre. Flannel. Froelich. Garcia. Garcia. Sander. Gilchrist. Goldstein. Gonzalez. Hamrick. Hartsook. Jackson. Johnson. Joseph. Kelty. Leader. Lindsey. Luck. Lukens. Mabry. Marshall. Martinez. Morrow. Mccormick. Wynn. Pascal. Phillips. Richardson. Ricks. Representative ricks is excused. Rootnell. Rieden. Sirota. Slaw. Representative. Slaw. Excused. Smith. Soper. Representative Soper. Stuart k. Rep. Stuart r. Is excused. Story, sukla. Taggart. Tatone. Rep. Valdez is excused. Velasco. Representative velasco is excused. Weinberg. Wilford. Representative wilford. Excused. Winter. Woodrow. Woog. Zokai. And madam speaker is excused. Good. 58. 7. Okay, great. The House will stand. In a brief recession, The House will come back to…
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