State & Federal Update – November 25, 2024

It’s Monday, November 25, 2024. The 2025 General Assembly will convene in 44 days. 

These updates are curated from multiple news sources and designed to be a “choose-your-own-adventure.” Please read any coverage of interest and skip anything you deem to be irrelevant. Hyperlinks are provided to add additional context. With the 24/7 news-cycle I hope to keep us all in the loop on items we may want to know about or better understand. Please feel free to share if you think someone outside FGMC needs to be aware of this information.

Disclaimer – The news and articles contained within this update do not represent any political positions or policy opinions of Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP. This update is designed for informational purposes only.

Today’s Big Three Things-To-Know:

1. Does the Colorado General Assembly need vacancy reform? Ok – so let’s be clear, this is not a new issue and something politicos have been discussing the past few years. But most recently two re-elected Democratic state senators, Chris Hansen and Janet Buckner, are set to resign on January 9, sparking calls for reform in the legislative vacancy process. Hansen, a D-Denver senator, won re-election with over 80% of the vote and is stepping down to become CEO of La Plata Electric, a Durango-based co-op offering a $500,000 salary. Buckner, a D-Aurora senator, ran unopposed and is retiring to focus on family, travel, and mentoring. A third senator, Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, was elected to the Douglas County Board of Commissioners but has not announced his resignation date. Vacancies have become a growing issue, with 28 out of 100 lawmakers in the 2023-24 session having filled their seats through the vacancy process. This system allows a small group of party insiders to choose replacements for entire districts, leading to criticism from both parties, though some see it as a practical solution. The 2025 General Assembly will include at least 19 members who secured their seats through the vacancy process, with 11 in the House and 8 in the Senate, including replacements for Buckner, Hansen, and Van Winkle. Depending on the outcome of current House members’ races, up to three additional seats may also be filled through vacancies. Last week, the chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party issued a statement calling for reform of the vacancy process. What exactly that reform looks like remains to be seen. Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Shad Murib said he plans to reach out to Governor Jared Polis and other officials to talk about possible reforms. “We’ll put together a stakeholder group of lawmakers, the governor’s office, Secretary of State, voting rights groups, and other coalition partners that are interested in seeing good government reforms that represent voters, not special interests,” said Murib. “We’re open to all sorts of creative solutions.” So, keep your eyes on this issue, it’s not going away.
2. Colorado continues to push new oil and gas regulations. Colorado air quality regulators will consider stricter rules on hazardous emissions from the oil and gas industry early next year, aiming to address the state’s ongoing ozone pollution problem. The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) voted last week to advance proposed changes to state air quality rules put forward by the Air Pollution Control Division, part of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. These revisions to Regulation Number 7 will be discussed at the AQCC’s February hearing. The proposed rules would require improved equipment to prevent and detect leaks at thousands of oil and gas facilities, particularly in the nine-county Denver Metro/North Front Range Nonattainment Area, which has long been out of compliance with EPA ozone standards. Ozone forms from a chemical reaction between sunlight and pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with major sources including oil and gas operations, vehicles, and lawn equipment. The new rules target VOC and methane emissions from oil and gas production sites, compressor stations, and processing plants. They would mandate zero-emission pneumatic controllers, which are used to automate fossil fuel flow at facilities. Regulators estimate over 94,000 pneumatic controllers are in use at 5,697 facilities statewide, many of which unintentionally or intentionally emit gases. While the proposed changes are partially modeled on new federal rules on oil and gas operations, state staff told AQCC commissioners that the repeal of those rules by the incoming Trump administration wouldn’t affect state-level enforcement.
3. What are Trump’s plans for the Department of Justice? During the election year in which Donald Trump promised to significantly overhaul the federal government, the Justice Department became a focal point of attention. While Trump, now the president-elect, pledged to eliminate entire agencies like the Interior and Education Departments—an ambitious goal that would require congressional approval—his proposals to overhaul the military and foreign policy, including scaling back U.S. assistance abroad and halting support for Ukraine, would send shockwaves globally. However, it was Trump’s outspoken commitment to targeting the Justice Department’s prosecutors, career employees, and law enforcement officials that drew the most scrutiny. He publicly criticized the department and its leadership, setting the stage for a contentious relationship between his administration and federal law enforcement. Pam Bondi, the former Florida Attorney General and a Trump loyalist, has been nominated to head the department, following the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz’s nomination. If confirmed, Bondi will likely face tough questions during her Senate confirmation hearing about how she plans to navigate potential political influence from the White House in her role as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. Senators are already grappling with these critical questions as they prepare for her confirmation process.

***Bonus Story – Jena Griswold questioned by Colorado lawmakers over voting systems password leak. Colorado lawmakers grilled Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Friday at the state capitol about her handling of a possible security breach. Hundreds of passwords to election equipment were leaked days before Election Day and could have severely impacted half of Colorado’s counties. The passwords were for voting equipment across the state, and they were posted on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website. There are still a lot of questions about what happened, which is why Griswold says she has hired an outside firm to investigate. The Denver District Attorney’s Office is also looking into the leak to determine if a crime was committed.

***Bonus, Bonus Story – Trump’s picks are complete but Hill fights loom. What Cabinet secretary announcements are we still waiting on? None — in a flurry of announcements on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Trump rounded out his Cabinet secretary nominees. But he’s facing resistance from GOP lawmakers who are pushing back against his attempts to bypass Congress, particularly when it comes to controlling federal spending and nominating key officials. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) has indicated that Republican senators will not allow Trump to sidestep Congress’ constitutional authority over the confirmation process. Trump’s pick of Pam Bondi as attorney general, following the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz’s nomination, has been met with mixed reactions. While Bondi is seen as a more palatable option compared to Gaetz, some Justice Department staff remain wary. One former prosecutor questioned whether she would be merely a “more polished version” of Gaetz or bring a fresh approach to the role. Keep your eyes on congressional buzz over the week.

And now, more news…

From Denver…Immigrants in Denver jobs program hope to start new year working in restaurants, construction and child care

As reported by The Colorado Sun, Denver has enrolled about 850 so far in its asylum-seeker program, including more than 300 who are in the job-training phase. Besides culinary training, the new immigrants can choose career paths in two other industries that are short on workers — construction and child care.

At the same time, they receive help applying for work authorization, a process that takes about six months. Most immigrants are not eligible for a work permit until their asylum application has been pending for 150 days. For many of those enrolled in the city’s program, the clock will stop in January, a month or two after they complete job training. The city has also provided shelter, meals and medical care to about 43,000 migrants. About 8,000 people have received rental assistance through local nonprofits, which received city and state funding. And about 3,500 people have attended the city’s workshops that offer help applying for work authorization.

You can read more from The Colorado Sun here.

More (sports) news from Denver…National Women’s Soccer League narrows expansion to three cities.

From DBJ, the NWSL has officially narrowed its expansion process to three prospective ownership groups seeking to bring teams to Cincinnati, Cleveland and Denver.

Commissioner Jessica Berman broke the news during her state of the league press conference in Kansas City Friday, saying the league would have more news to share in the coming weeks. The league’s 16th franchise is expected to debut in 2026 alongside a previously rewarded franchise recently named BOS Nation FC. In addition to the news about the narrowing of the field, Sports Business Journal has identified previously unreported financial backers of the Cleveland and Denver bids.

You can read more from Denver Business Journal here.

Around the metro…New homelessness response plan for Colorado Springs includes 60 actions..

Via Colorado Politics, getting a clearer idea of the scope of homelessness in Colorado Springs is one of the next steps that will come out of the new Homelessness Response Action Plan that Mayor Yemi Mobolade released Thursday.

Whether he’s speaking with residents, business owners or service providers, “the concern is clear,” the mayor said while mentioning highlights of the document at his monthly press briefing. The issue of homelessness is complex, Mobolade said, and “weighs heavily on our community.” The six-pronged plan seeks to balance compassion with public safety, he said, and builds on past community efforts that have expanded facilities and programs.

You can read more from CoPo here.

More from Colorado Springs…Mayor says zoning plan for recreational marijuana in Colorado Springs could take until 2025.

From Colorado Politics, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade said Thursday that the city may take until the start of 2025 to figure out what the voter-approved recreational marijuana ballot measure will look like in practice.

City voters in November’s election approved Question 300, which would allow the existing medical marijuana stores to opt into selling recreational marijuana, as well. In his first monthly press briefing since the election, Mobolade said city staff was working on how the ballot measure would be implemented. “This is an unprecedented update. We want to be sure that we get it right,” Mobolade said.

The City Council-backed ballot measure 2D, which would have amended the city’s charter to ban recreational sales, is set to be narrowly rejected by voters in the election.

You can read more from CoPo here.

Under the Gold Dome…3 Colorado senators are expected to resign, prompting calls for vacancy reform

According to Colorado Politics, two Democratic state senators re-elected on Nov. 5 are expected to resign on Jan. 9, prompting calls to reform the vacancy process for selecting replacements.

Sen. Chris Hansen, D-Denver, is expected to resign on Jan. 9. Hansen won re-election with better than 80% of the vote. His only opponent for his Senate District 31 seat was a Libertarian. Hansen has been hired as the CEO of Durango-based La Plata Electric, a co-op that will pay him at least $500,000 annually. Sen. Janet Buckner, D-Aurora, announced Thursday she will step down on Jan. 9. Buckner ran unopposed in the Nov. 5 election. She’s retiring to focus on family and travel and mentor young community leaders. A third member of the state Senate, Sen. Kevin Van Winkle, R-Highlands Ranch, was elected to the Douglas County Board of County Commissioners on Nov. 5 but has not yet announced when he will step down.

Vacancies in the state legislature are a growing problem. In the 2023-24 session, 28 lawmakers out of 100 gained their seats through the vacancy process at some point in their legislative history. That included Buckner, Hansen, and Van Winkle.

You can read more from CoPo here, Denver7 here, and The Denver Post here.

More from the Gold Dome…Jena Griswold questioned by Colorado lawmakers over voting systems password leak.

Via Colorado Newsline, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold told a panel of state lawmakers that her office delayed telling county clerks about a voting equipment password leak last month because she wanted to know more about the scope and impact of the situation first.

Instead, many clerks learned about the password breach when the state Republican Party publicized it and the media began reporting on it.

“The department was focused on determining the full scope of the issue and finalizing a plan for our technical and outreach strategy before sharing it, to avoid fueling the major disinformation environment that surrounds our elections (and) has real effects on election workers all across the state of Colorado,” Griswold told the Joint Budget Committee on Thursday. “I regret that the clerks learned about this issue from a party that was not us before we had completed our assessment.”

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here and CBS here.

Also from the Colorado Capitol…Colorado Democrats form legislative caucus to boost Muslim, Middle Eastern voices.

According to Colorado Newsline, a new legislative caucus in the Colorado House of Representatives seeks to elevate the concerns of the Muslim, Middle Eastern, Northern African and South Asian communities in Colorado as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

“This past year and an impending Trump administration has underscored the need to create a united caucus that ensures our community’s representation and presence is elevated and has an uncompromising agency at the Capitol,” Democratic Rep. Iman Jodeh, an Aurora Democrat, said in a statement announcing the caucus formation. Jodeh is the first Muslim and first Palestinian American elected to the Colorado Legislature. She won a third term to House District 41 with over 60% of the vote earlier this month. She has been a member of the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus since 2020. She is joined by Rep.-elect Yara Zokaie, the first Iranian American elected to the Legislature. Zokaie will represent House District 52, south of Fort Collins.

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here.

In transportation news…RTD considers cuts as cost of Access-on-Demand skyrockets.

As reported by The Denver Post, when National Federation of the Blind Colorado director Jessica Beecham settled into her Uber ride recently, the driver refused service. She objected to Beecham’s guide dog, Prada, a 70-pound German Shepherd. Beecham stayed put. The driver called the police. A Littleton officer forced Beecham and Prada out, apparently misunderstanding federal law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.  A sergeant later called Beecham and apologized.

It’s a clash reflecting the pervasive obstacles people with disabilities face as they move around Denver and other U.S. cities.  Four years ago, the Regional Transportation District launched a pioneering program to improve that mobility, building on an existing “paratransit” minibus system, by giving thousands of metro Denver residents with disabilities free taxpayer-subsidized rides on Uber and other commercial services.

But, in the face of rising costs, RTD managers have begun cutting the Access-on-Demand program and are considering deeper cuts.

You can read more from The Denver Post here.

In regulation…Major Colorado commission will hold hearings under new procedural rules.

Via The Sum & Substance, in an effort to create more public participation in rulemaking and to improve transparency in the process, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted Friday to overhaul its procedural rules for the first time since 1998.

The new rules will extend from three months to four months the average time around most rulemakings, will restructure the way that parties to such hearings file motions and will attempt to define the scope of rulemakings more clearly from the start. They will become applicable in August, meaning that business and environmental groups that interact frequently with the AQCC will see the first changes by February or March in preparation for hearings later in the year.

You can read more from TS&S here.

More in energy regulation…Colorado eyes stricter limits on ‘ozone precursors’ from oil and gas operations.

From Colorado Newsline, Colorado air quality regulators will consider a proposal early next year for stricter rules on hazardous emissions from the oil and gas industry, as the state continues to struggle to rein in its long-running ozone pollution problem.

The Colorado Air Quality Control Commission voted unanimously last week to move forward with the changes to state air quality rules proposed by the Air Pollution Control Division, an arm of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The so-called Regulation Number 7 revisions will be taken up by the AQCC at its monthly hearing in February.

The new rules would require the use of improved equipment for preventing and detecting leaks at thousands of oil and gas facilities across the state, with a particular focus on a nine-county region known as the Denver Metro/North Front Range Nonattainment Area, which has for decades been out of compliance with Environmental Protection Agency standards for ozone, a hazardous air pollutant.

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here and Kiowa County Press here.

On energy…Once Xcel’s last coal plant in Colorado closes, is nuclear energy an option to replace its jobs, electricity?

Via The Denver Post, for decades, Xcel Energy’s sprawling Comanche Station coal facility near Pueblo has generated power for customers across the utility’s service territory in Colorado — and has generated thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for local governments, schools and special districts.

As part of the state’s transition to powering the electric grid with mostly renewable energy, Xcel will close the third unit on the roughly 700-acre Comanche campus by 2031, shuttering all the company’s coal facilities in Colorado. Xcel, the state’s largest electric utility, has filed a proposal to replace the coal-fired power with wind and solar energy as well as natural gas.

Pueblo-area residents are bracing for their own transition. An advisory committee of labor, business and civic leaders has recommended that Xcel consider replacing the coal plant with small, modular nuclear reactors advanced by the Department of Energy as a zero-emission energy source. A gas plant or more renewables won’t make Pueblo “whole” when it comes to employment and tax revenue, the committee says.

You can read more from The Denver Post here.

On the environment…How much climate change shortens the ski season.

According to Axios, if Aspen Skiing decides to sue polluters for damages related to climate change, it now has the receipts.

The company funded a groundbreaking research project to determine the cost of climate change to the ski industry, a baseline that could be used in court. The study, published in the journal Current Issues in Tourism earlier this year, found that U.S. ski areas lost $5 billion from 2000 to 2019 due to human-caused climate change. The damages could reach $1 billion annually by the 2050s if emissions are not curbed.

“Sport is often something people care about,” Daniel Scott, a scientist at the University of Waterloo and study co-author, told the Associated Press. “And they can see some of these changes happening.”

You can read more from Axios here and here.

Around the country…How universities cracked down on Pro-Palestinian activism.

Via NYT, colleges and universities have tightened rules around protests, locked campus gates and handed down stricter punishments after the disruptions of pro-Palestinian demonstrations and encampments last spring.

The efforts seem to be working. Universities have seen just under 950 protest events this semester so far, compared to 3,000 last semester, according to a log at the Nonviolent Action Lab at Harvard University’s Ash Center. About 50 people have been arrested so far this school year at protests on higher education campuses, according to numbers gathered by The New York Times, compared to over 3,000 last semester.

When students have protested this fall, administrators have often enforced — to the letter — new rules created in response to last spring’s unrest. The moves have created scenes that would have been hard to imagine previously, particularly at universities that once celebrated their history of student activism.

You can read more from The New York Times here.

From Washington…What are Trump’s plans for the Department of Justice?

According to The Hill, during an election year in which Donald Trump promised Americans he would dramatically overhaul the federal government, the Justice Department stood out.

Yes, Trump, now the president-elect, vowed to eliminate the Interior and Education departments, which would indeed be dramatic if Congress went along with it. And firing four-star generals and erasing U.S. military assistance abroad, including support for Ukraine, as Trump vowed, would prompt tremors globally.

But the incoming president’s public promises to target Justice’s prosecutors, President Biden, the department’s career employees and other law enforcers he’s criticized has attracted much attention.

Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and Trump loyalist nominated to lead the department (after the withdrawal last week of initial nominee Matt Gaetz), will face questions during her confirmation hearing about how she would handle White House political influence, if she becomes the nation’s top law enforcer.

Senators already are mulling those questions. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that it’s too early “to know one way or another” if the Justice Department will encounter political interference from the White House under Trump.

You can read more from The Hill here.

More from Washington…Trump unveils his lineup for FDA, CDC and surgeon general.

Via Colorado Newsline, President-elect Donald Trump announced his choices to lead two of the country’s top public health agencies late Friday, as well as his pick for surgeon general.

Former Florida Congressman Dave Weldon will be tapped to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Marty Makary will be nominated for commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat was put forward as the next surgeon general. All three positions require Senate confirmation.

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here.

On the economy…Scott Bessent sees a coming ‘global economic reordering.’ He wants to be part of it.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Scott Bessent spent the past 40 years studying economic history. Now, as Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Treasury Department, he has the chance to make his mark on it.

As a hedge-fund manager, first at George Soros’s firm and later at his own, Bessent specialized in macroinvesting, or analyzing geopolitical situations and economic data to wager on big-picture market moves. He generated billions of dollars in profits betting on and against currencies, interest rates, stocks and other asset classes around the world.

He was motivated to step out from behind his desk and get involved with Trump’s campaign in part because of a view that time is running out for the U.S. economy to grow its way out of excessive budget deficits and indebtedness.

You can read more from WSJ here.

From the election…How immigration swung voters of color to Trump.

This from 538, President-elect Donald Trump’s relatively strong showing among voters of color has been one of the most striking takeaways from the 2024 election. According to data from AP VoteCast, the Associated Press’s next-generation spin on the traditional exit poll, Trump’s share of the Black and Latino vote increased by 8 points each between 2020 and 2024.

Analysts have proposed several different explanations for those shifts, including sexism within communities of color, pessimistic views of the economy and inflation, disinformation, social class and the ongoing ideological sorting of nonwhite conservatives into the Republican Party. While there’s probably merit in some of these, my analyses suggest that one of the biggest factors behind Trump’s growing support from nonwhite voters may be opposition to immigration.

There are two main reasons for this. First, nonwhite Americans’ attitudes about immigration moved sharply to the right during President Joe Biden’s term. That resulted in a much larger pool of Black and Latino voters who were receptive to Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. Second, voters of color with conservative immigration attitudes were especially likely to defect from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024 — even after accounting for other plausible reasons for these changes.

You can read more from 538 here.

In national news…Half a loaf, at best, from the climate talks.

Via The Economist, the sense that the COP29 climate talks were outstaying their welcome in Baku was tangible through growing absences. Over the 30 hours between the scheduled end on Friday and the final gavel in the early hours of Sunday morning first food, then water, then toilet paper ran out; finally fire extinguishers were slowly removed. A few dozen countries walked out, too—but they came back in time for a conclusion which, if far from inspiring, was at least better than the total breakdown that threatened.

The main purpose of the meeting was to put to bed a couple of issues left over from COPs past. In 2015, the Paris agreement struck at COP21 said the UN system needed new rules for trading carbon credits. In 2021 in Glasgow the attendees committed themselves to a “New Collective Quantified Goal” for climate finance that would go beyond Paris’s $100bn a year from north to south.

You can read more from The Economist here.

And around the globe…Israeli prime minister approves Lebanon ceasefire deal ‘in principle,’ source says.

As reported by CNN, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the emerging ceasefire deal with Hezbollah “in principle” during a security consultation with Israeli officials Sunday night, a source familiar with the matter said.

Israel still has reservations over some details of the agreement, which were expected to be transmitted to the Lebanese government on Monday, the source said. Those and other details are still being negotiated and multiple sources stressed that the agreement will not be final until all issues are resolved. A ceasefire agreement will also need to be approved by the Israeli cabinet, which has not yet occurred.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said talks appear to be moving positively toward an agreement, but acknowledged that as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, one misstep could up

You can read more from CNN here.

That’s all for today! Have a wonderful start to your week!

Best,