State & Federal Update – December 13, 2024

It’s Friday, December 13, 2024. The 2025 General Assembly will convene in 26 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. Healthcare is going to be a big topic at the State Capitol in 2025. Colorado’s hospital industry is gearing up for a political showdown to protect a federal drug discount program that has drawn the ire of the pharmaceutical sector. The 340B Drug Pricing Program, which benefits nearly 70 hospitals across the state, offers steep discounts on prescription drugs to health centers that serve low-income and uninsured patients. While hospitals argue that the program is vital for ensuring healthcare access to vulnerable populations, critics—primarily within the pharmaceutical industry—accuse large hospitals of exploiting the system for profit, often diverting savings away from patients. Meanwhile, state leaders in Colorado are bracing for broader changes to the healthcare system. During a recent panel discussion on healthcare options, concerns were raised about the growing number of Coloradans losing their Medicaid coverage. According to the Colorado Hospital Association (CHA), the state has become one of the worst in the country for Medicaid disenrollment following the COVID-19 pandemic. This has left many individuals without health coverage, despite being entitled to benefits under federal law. And in a move to expand healthcare access, Colorado is rolling out a new Medicaid program that will cover children and pregnant women regardless of their immigration status, starting January 1, 2025. The initiative, dubbed “Cover All Coloradans,” will provide prenatal and postpartum care, along with a full range of health services, including physical, dental, vision, and mental health care for children. And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg.
2. Also from under the Gold Dome – Polis cleans up. During a press event at the state capitol on Thursday, Governor Jared Polis symbolically took a table saw to 208 outdated executive orders, creating a cloud of shredded paperwork in his office. However, the actual action to remove them from the books was taken with his pen, as he signed a new executive order to repeal “irrelevant” directives from previous administrations. “These are redundant, unnecessary, and outdated orders,” Polis explained. “Some of them are already codified in law, so they don’t need to be executive orders. Others simply create unnecessary work for state agencies.” Among the outdated orders Polis cited as examples were a 1978 directive requiring all contracts to be signed by then-Gov. Dick Lamm, and a 1957 order establishing the Governor’s Committee to Improve Television Reception. If an executive order lacks an expiration date, it remains in effect until it is formally repealed. The oldest rescinded order came from 1920, when then-Gov. Oliver H. Shoup issued an executive order “Directing Adjutant General to maintain peace and good order.” Polis said he directed his team to begin reviewing executive orders six months ago to find unnecessary ones. While Thursday’s action did not correlate to cost savings — the legislature directs state spending — the effort aimed to remove old orders that nonetheless carried the force of law.
3. A rarity in Colorado – a possible regulation rollback. Colorado health officials are weighing the potential elimination of requirements to monitor and treat groundwater discharged from large commercial buildings, arguing that the regulations impose excessive costs on businesses and new construction projects, including affordable housing developments. This groundwater, often referred to as “dewatering,” can originate from various sources, including underground parking garages and elevator shafts. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, around 100 dewatering systems are currently in operation across the state, with most located in urban areas like downtown Denver and Cherry Creek. Environmentalists, however, are sounding the alarm, saying the water is often highly contaminated and, if it is allowed to percolate through soils without treatment, will make its way to rivers, such as the South Platte, causing more serious contamination by adding more pollutants to streams already tainted by arsenic and a group of chemicals known as PFAS. The push to eliminate the permitting requirement began earlier this year, according to Nicole Rowan, director of the Water Quality Control Division at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Several groups, including affordable housing developers and municipalities, approached the division, requesting the removal of treatment and monitoring requirements that were introduced in 2020, Rowan said. Gov. Jared Polis’ office has also been involved in the discussions. Last year, Polis directed all state agencies to assess their operations with the goal of reducing regulations that could drive up housing costs. Polis’ spokesman, Eric Maruyama, stated via email that the governor supports the health department’s efforts.

***Bonus Story – Small businesses get a win, at least for now. Millions of small-business owners were facing a looming deadline to report ownership information to the Treasury Department under the Corporate Transparency Act, but the new requirement is now in limbo following a court ruling. Last week, Judge Amos Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a nationwide injunction, halting the implementation of the new reporting rules. The rules mandated that businesses with fewer than 20 employees provide identifying information about their owners, including names, dates of birth, addresses, and other details. This move was part of a broader initiative by the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to combat money laundering and financial crimes. Under the original guidelines, existing businesses had until January 1 to submit this information. Unlike recent Biden-era workplace regulations that were struck down in court due to challenges over agency rule-making authority, the Corporate Transparency Act was passed by Congress in 2021 with bipartisan support. However, it has faced strong opposition from some small-business groups. Judge Mazzant described the law as “unprecedented,” noting that it marked a significant shift from historical practices by attempting to track companies created under state law, which traditionally offered a degree of anonymity.

***Bonus, Bonus Story – An immigration plea in Washington DC. Jose Cabrera took time off from his landscaping job to join three Latino Democratic senators at a press conference on Wednesday, urging the Biden administration to renew protected statuses like his before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House. Cabrera, a Montgomery County, Maryland resident, has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years. He holds Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which shields him from deportation and grants him work permits, as El Salvador is considered too dangerous for return. Cabrera, along with other legally residing immigrants, fears that losing TPS could make them vulnerable to mass deportations, a promise Trump made during his campaign. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Alex Padilla of California, and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico are calling on the Biden administration to extend TPS protections for nationals from Nicaragua and El Salvador, and to grant TPS to people from Ecuador. TPS for El Salvador expires in March, and for Nicaragua, it ends in July—just months after Trump takes office on January 20. “We know the incoming administration will try to implement chaotic immigration policies that will tear our families apart,” said Cortez Masto. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus also emphasized the need for the White House to instruct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to expedite renewal applications for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “It’s time for this administration to ensure that DACA status renewals happen now, before they come under threat from the Trump administration,” Cortez Masto added. The White House could not be immediately reached for comment.

And now, more news…

From Denver…Cartel-connected auto theft ring dismantled in Denver.

Vai Axios, a yearlong investigation into an auto theft ring plaguing the Denver metro has led to the indictment of 17 suspects tied to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, one of the world’s most powerful criminal mafias.

Authorities say catching the culprits will make the state significantly safer. The indictment also marks a major feat for outgoing Denver District Attorney Beth McCann, who steps down next month after eight years in office. Although most of the suspects have been arrested, the alleged ringleader, Joaquin Orozco-Ponce, and five others remain at large in Denver, Texas or Mexico, according to investigators. From September 2022 to February 2024, the 17 suspects allegedly stole 190 vehicles worth nearly $10 million, often targeting high-end pickup trucks at Denver International Airport, per the indictment.

You can read more from Axios here.

Also from Denver…Denver is modifying landmark greenhouse gas rules after landlord protests.

According to The Colorado Sun, Denver’s climate change and energy officials are modifying a landmark set of greenhouse gas reduction rules for big buildings after sharp challenges from landlords, but trade groups say the updates don’t go nearly far enough.

The clashes between business and regulators will only get harder as a host of climate rules across multiple sectors of the economy kick in and business owners start seeing the bills come due. Even in good times, owners and managers of big buildings are wary of new laws that raise their costs, whether adding recycling options for apartments or updating fire codes or telling them their lawn mowing equipment must be cleaner.

The biggest property owners on the Front Range are fighting hard to lighten big mandates on how they do business, in the form of greenhouse gas reduction and energy efficiency standards from state and city governments.

Similar to Colorado state rules covering large buildings statewide, Denver in 2021 passed “Energize Denver,” with a target of 30% cuts to Denver buildings’ “energy use intensity” by 2030 and net zero on carbon from building energy in 2040. The city law, which started in 2023, requires owners of large buildings to get extensive energy audits and come back with plans to reduce energy use and carbon output against a 2021 benchmark.

Though property owners had input all along the way at the state and city level, they started legal pushback against the rules as soon as they went into effect.

You can read more from The Colorado Sun here.

Around the city…Inflation around Denver stabilized in 2024, but not for everything.

Via Colorado Politics, as the year comes to a close, prices in the Denver metro region are rising at slower levels not seen since before the pandemic.

Inflation in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan area was at 2% from November 2023 to 2024, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Thursday, below the national average of 2.7%. In August, Denver’s inflation fell below the Federal Reserve’s target rate for a healthy economy of 2% for the first time since 2021. It has stayed near that level over the last four months.

Recent numbers show that Denver’s inflation is returning to some normalcy after recording 5.2% inflation in 2023 and 8% in 2022, according to federal data. But the stabilization hasn’t been even — and the high prices spurred by the period of inflation surging may be a new normal. Federal inflation data is heavily weighed by housing costs, accounting for 45% of the consumer price index.

You can read more from Colorado Politics here.

Around the metro…Aurora officials push to close 2nd apartment complex earlier targeted by Venezuelan gang.

As reported by The Denver Gazette, the City of Aurora is pushing to close a second troubled apartment complex that became the focal point of America’s debate on illegal immigration and took the limelight in the presidential race after a video surface of alleged Venezuelan gang members barging into a unit.

The apartment owners — according to city officials — agreed the Edge at Lowry should be closed. CBZ Management owns 11 properties in Colorado, including three in Aurora. In August, city officials boarded up Aspen Grove — a 99-unit apartment complex on Nome Street — citing a litany of health and safety violations that included rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups. Emails from the attorney representing CBZ Management showed the closure was meant to thwart the Venezuelan gang that had taken over Aspen Grove through threats and intimidation.

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a Venezuelan prison gang with tentacles in the U.S. and Denver and is linked to various criminal activities.

You can read more from The Denver Gazette here.

More from around the metro…Neighbors of Fort Logan cemetery in Denver decry impact of VA’s expansion decision.

According to The Denver Post, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs proposed a plan that would impact an estimated 20 acres by building 9,100 burial areas for casketed remains and add more than 19,000 markers for cremated remains as well as 7,500 columbarium niches, which hold burial urns, according to government documents.

The plans include a columbarium wall that’s about 9 feet tall and around a half-mile long, according to the VA’s required environmental assessment for the project. It is set to be built on the cemetery’s south side, which borders 20 houses in Pinehurst Estates. According to the VA, money for the project was appropriated by Congress in the 2022 fiscal year budget. The VA says the draft environmental assessment was available for public review in September 2022, but received no comments. And a notice of availability was published in the Denver Herald Dispatch, an online newspaper.

Still, residents remained unaware of the documents.

You can read more from The Denver Post here.

From the Gold Dome…Hospitals move to defend drug discount program that pharmaceutical industry says is rife with abuse.

Via Colorado Politics, the trade group of Colorado hospitals is preparing for a political battle at the state Capitol to maintain a federal drug discount program that the group says benefits nearly 70 hospitals statewide.

Critics of the program known as 340B argue it has been widely abused and misused, particularly by large hospitals.  While it is a federal program, Julie Lonborg, senior vice president of Colorado Hospital Association, said her group will turn to the Colorado state legislature next year to push legislation to protect hospitals from losing funding. The program, she said, is under attack by the pharmaceutical industry. The group and officials from several hospitals hosted a virtual roundtable on Dec. 10 to discuss maintaining funding they argued is needed to keep hospitals on track. In the meeting organized by the trade group, Lonborg said 68 of the state’s 88 hospitals qualify for the 340B program.

You can read more from CoPo here.

Als from the Gold Dome…Colorado leaders prepare for changes in health care systems, discuss options

As reported by CBS Colorado, leaders in Colorado are trying to prepare for changes they claim are on the way for health care systems. The issue impacts most people and families in the state.

Some of them gathered for a panel to discuss protecting health care options in Colorado. The main topics center around making sure everyone had access to health care and that included a focus on Medicaid disenrollment. According to the Colorado Hospital Association, Colorado is among the worst states in the country for disenrolling Medicaid members following the COVID-19 pandemic. This means Coloradans have lost their Medicaid coverage and are denied health care benefits which they are entitled to under federal law.

The loss of Medicaid increases the number of people who are uninsured. The Colorado Hospital Association said if policymakers don’t act, the state will lose critical healthcare infrastructure that will be costly to rebuild. “We are engaged in an effort to do what many other states across the country have done to improve Medicaid reimbursement for providers who are drawing down additional dollars that are available. So we are working on that. And of course, trying to partner with other counties to improve the enrollment situation,” said President and CEO of Colorado Hospital Association Jeff Tieman.

You can read more from CBS Colorado here.

More on Medicaid…New Colorado Medicaid program covers children and pregnant women, no matter immigration status.

Via CBS News, Starting January 1, 2025, a new law will help children and expecting moms get health coverage – no matter their immigration status.

The program called “Cover All Coloradans” makes state Medicaid available for prenatal and postpartum care and covers physical, dental, vision and mental health care for children. Organizations serving immigrants are working to enroll families now, and to battle fears some may have about divulging information to the government. On a food distribution day at ReVision in Denver’s Westwood neighborhood, Denver Health is offering care via its mobile clinic. ReVision is a nonprofit trusted by many newcomers to Denver.

Denver Health Program Manager Bryan Rodriguez says an effort is under way to educate immigrants about the new Medicaid coverage, “So we have started to hear from the community some concerns about what the implications may be in the future with the new administration that will come in in January.”

You can read more from CBS here.

From Colorado Courts…Colorado Supreme Court wary of requiring child welfare workers to give Miranda warnings prior to interrogations.

As reported by Colorado Politics, members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed hesitant on Wednesday to endorse the idea that child welfare workers must provide a Miranda warning before interrogating a parent in custody, even if the conversation will later be used in a criminal prosecution.

The state’s Court of Appeals previously upheld the murder convictions of two men, both of whom spoke to a caseworker while under arrest. In each instance, they were not informed of their constitutional rights to remain silent and to consult with an attorney first. Both defendants had their statements used at trial. Although such advisements, named after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona, are required when law enforcement interrogates a person in custody, a Miranda warning is also necessary when a third party acts as an agent of law enforcement.

You can read more from Colorado Politics here.

From the Governor’s Office…Polis signs executive order to repeal over 200 other executive orders

According to CPR, during a press event at the state capitol Thursday, Governor Jared Polis literally took a table saw to 208 old executive orders, filling the air of his office with a cloud of shredded paperwork.

But the tool that actually took them off the books was his pen, as he signed a new executive order to repeal “irrelevant” orders from past administrations. “They’re redundant, unneeded paperwork, outdated for many different reasons,” Polis said. “Some of them are in law, so they don’t need to be executive orders. Some of them put extra work on agencies.” The governor listed a few outdated orders as examples of those on the chopping block, orders like the one from 1978 stating all contracts must be signed by then-Gov. Dick Lamm, or the Governor’s Committee to Improve Television Reception from 1957.

If an executive order does not have an expiration date, it stays enacted until it is repealed.

You can read more from CPR here.

New election numbers…2024 state campaign spending hit $121M in Colorado.

Via Axios, the Proposition 131 campaign to overhaul Colorado elections spent $15 for every vote it received — and still lost by a wide margin on Election Day.

The cost-per-vote is relatively high, an exclusive Axios Denver analysis finds, and underscores how big-moneyed interests pushed the far-reaching measure to the ballot. Total spending in the 2024 election reached $121.6 million, according to the latest campaign finance reports filed Tuesday. Big spending didn’t necessarily lead to big wins.

Prop. 131 easily stood as the most expensive fight at $21 million. Most of that total came from supporters who pumped $20.5 million into the contest. It lost by 7 percentage points. Other big-dollar spending came from dark-money political committees supporting Republican candidates for the state Senate. The party failed to pick up any seats. The supporters behind a ballot measure to ban hunting of big cats also lost their bid and raised the majority of the $ 6.4 million spent in the campaign.

Only three of the top 10 donors saw wins after their big spending: the National Education Association, which opposed a school choice measure; abortion rights group Cobalt Advocates; and the Dumb Friends League, which supported a new veterinary assistant position. The top spender in the election was Kent Thiry, the former DaVita CEO who led the Prop. 131 campaign. He spent $7.6 million but did get back an $887,000 loan repaid by the committee.

You can read more from Axios here.

From out of this world (right here at home)…Aerospace companies choose Colorado over Utah, California for expansion.

As reported by The Denver Post, a California aerospace company that develops micro-satellite systems and infrastructure is expanding its operations to Littleton and is expected to create 141 net jobs.

Astro Digital, which also considered locating in Utah, provides satellite mission and flight support for such applications as Earth observation and communications. Thursday’s announcement is the second in 10 days about an aerospace company expanding into Colorado. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, OEDIT, announced Dec. 3 that Safran Electronics & Defense, a global equipment supplier for defense and space, will open a manufacturing facility in Parker to produce electric propulsion thrusters and locate a workshop for space telemetry ground equipment.

Colorado’s aerospace industry is the country’s second-largest, behind California’s. Colorado has the highest per capita concentration of people in the aerospace industry, with 55,000 direct employees and another 184,000 employees who indirectly support the industry, according to OEDIT. “Colorado is at the center of the space ecosystem, and companies like Astro Digital advance our leadership every day,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. The company expects to create 141 net new jobs at an average annual wage of $126,589, or 170% of the local average annual wage.

You can read more from The Denver Post here and Denver Business Journal here.

On regulation…Rule requiring new buildings in Colorado to treat groundwater discharge could be stripped.

Via The Colorado Sun, Colorado health officials are considering whether to eliminate requirements to monitor and treat groundwater now being discharged from large commercial structures, saying the regulations add too much cost to business operations and to new construction projects, including affordable housing developments.

The water can come from a variety of sources, including underground parking structures and elevator shafts.

Roughly 100 such “dewatering systems,” as they are called, now operate in the state, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, with the majority in urban areas, such as downtown Denver and Cherry Creek.

Environmentalists, however, are sounding the alarm, saying the water is often highly contaminated and, if it is allowed to percolate through soils without treatment, will make its way to rivers, such as the South Platte, causing more serious contamination by adding more pollutants to streams already tainted by arsenic and a group of chemicals known as PFAS. “The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Josh Kuhn, senior water campaign manager for Conservation Colorado. “Unchecked pollution damages the environment, and health and livelihood of downstream communities.”

You can read more from The Colorado Sun here.

Around the state…Colorado’s business growth marred by fraud.

As reported by Axios, Colorado is a hot spot for new businesses, but behind the numbers is a troubling trend.

Fraudulent business filings are increasing at a “pretty dramatic” pace in Colorado and across the nation since the pandemic, Secretary of State Jena Griswold recently told state lawmakers. “We have received far more complaints than anticipated,” she said. “Which shows on one hand we were either underestimating the amount of fraudulent activity or the fraudulent activity really upticked.” The nefarious activity undercuts Colorado’s status as a national leader in new business applications.

The Secretary of State’s Office has received more than 3,100 complaints about fraudulent business registrations, the latest numbers through Wednesday show. Of the 1,703 cases processed, 1,300 were marked as bogus. The fraudulent ones are sent to the Attorney General’s Office for potential criminal prosecution. In some cases, the filings duplicate existing legitimate businesses in an attempt to use them as covers for fraudulent activity.

You can read more from Axios here.

Also from around Colorado…Low-potency pot sees high demand in Colorado

From Axios, demand for low-potency pot is taking off in Colorado, some cannabis companies say.

As the marijuana industry continues to see sliding sales and shuttered dispensaries, lower-THC products are attracting new consumers and sparking a glimmer of hope. Local dispensaries like Terrapin Care Station report a growing interest in weaker weed, per 9News. That’s especially true for older customers who want to mellow out without feeling out of control. “People are looking for more functionality. Truthfully, throughout the day, [they’re] not looking for that completely blitzed-out feeling where they can’t get things done,” Adam Shepler, Terrapin’s area manager, told the news station.

You can read more from Axios here.

In federal policy (with a local impact)…Union leaders fear federal prison staff levels in Colorado could drop after proposed bonus cuts.

As reported by Colorado Newsline, the Bureau of Prisons intends to cut retention bonuses by 10% for federal prison staff in Colorado, according to union leaders who represent staff members. The bonus cuts raise concerns for union leadership that the prisons will be unable to maintain adequate staffing levels.

In September 2023, all staff at the Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, which includes the most secure federal prison in America, started earning 25% retention bonuses with each paycheck. The “supermax” prison has worked through staffing difficulties for years, with high turnover amid difficult working conditions and forced overtime.

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 1169, the union that represents about 640 members employed at FCC Florence, advocated higher retention bonuses for all new employees since a federal hiring freeze during the pandemic in 2020. U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood, as well as U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, all supported 25% retention bonuses for FCC Florence last year.

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here.

Around the country…Court strikes down major new reporting requirement for businesses. Here’s what it means.

According to Denver Business Journal, millions of small-business owners had been staring down a deadline to report ownership information to the Treasury Department as part of the Corporate Transparency Act, but that requirement is now up in the air after a court’s intervention.

Judge Amos Mazzant III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday issued a nationwide injunction halting the implementation of the new requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act. The requirements called for businesses with fewer than 20 employees to provide names, dates of birth, addresses and other identifying information about its owners.

The move was part of a larger effort by the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to crack down on money laundering and other financial crimes. Existing businesses had until Jan. 1 to report such information.

You can read more from DBJ here.

From Washington DC…Biden urged to ensure immigrants’ temporary legal status before Trump mass deportations.

Via Colorado Newsline, Jose Cabrera took off work from his landscaping job to join three Latino Democratic senators for a Wednesday press conference urging the Biden administration to renew protected statuses, like his, before the return of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.

Cabrera, of Montgomery County, Maryland, has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, and is protected from deportation and allowed work permits. His home country of El Salvador is deemed too dangerous to return, giving him a designation of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.  He and other immigrants living legally in the United States fear if they lose their protected status, they will be swept up as Trump implements his campaign promise of mass deportations.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Alex Padilla of California and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico are pressing the Biden administration to redesignate TPS for nationals from Nicaragua and El Salvador and to also designate TPS for people from Ecuador. TPS for El Salvador ends in March and TPS for Nicaragua ends in July, after Trump takes office on Jan. 20. “We know the incoming administration is going to try to implement chaotic immigration policies that tear our families apart,” Cortez Masto said.

The members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus also stressed that the White House should direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s immigration agency to speed up renewal applications for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. “It’s time for this administration to ensure that we can renew their DACA status now, before they come under threat from the Trump administration,” Cortez Masto said.

The White House could not be immediately reached for comment.

You can read more from Colorado Newsline here.

From Congress…Senate Democrats livid with exiting Sinema, Manchin.

According to The Hill, Senate Democrats were livid after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), two longtime members of their caucus, voted Wednesday to block President Biden’s nominee, Lauren McFerran, to serve another five-year term on the National Labor Relations Board.

Senate Democrats blasted their votes to sink Biden’s nominee and hand Republicans a major victory as “pathetic” and “disappointing.” Some angry Democratic senators went even further by saying they’ll be happy when both Sinema and Manchin are finally out of the Senate next year.

“I think people are not sorry to see them go,” said one Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the lingering resentments over Sinema’s and Manchin’s habit of bucking the party. Had either Sinema or Manchin voted yes, the nominee would have likely passed 50-49 and given Democrats a majority on the agency tasked with safeguarding employees’ rights to organize until 2026. Some Democrats thought Sinema might miss the vote, as she was absent from floor votes on Monday and Tuesday, while Manchin was off campus during the vote, giving them hope that they might be able to slip McFerran through.

You can read more from The Hill here.

Also from Congress…Johnson takes hands-off approach to picking his policy leaders.

Via Politico, Speaker Mike Johnson is taking a hands off approach as he finally puts his stamp on the House Republicans who will shape his conference’s policy ambitions — a break from his predecessors that has some lawmakers struggling to intuit his preferences.

On Thursday, the Republican Steering Committee finished selecting committee chairs for next year, minus the few who Johnson gets to pick unilaterally. It was his first time driving the selection process for panel leaders, which involves the Steering panel recommending chairs who are typically approved by a full conference vote. His allies have privately kvetched over the past year that he was being forced to operate in a Kevin McCarthy-organized House.

You can read more from Politico here.

In criminal justice news…Biden commutes sentences of nearly 1,500 people, pardons 39 in historic clemency action.

As reported by Colorado Newsline, President Joe Biden Thursday commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were placed in home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, and granted pardons for 39 individuals with convictions for nonviolent crimes.

“America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances,” Biden said in a statement. He noted many of the 1,500 were serving long sentences that would be shorter under current laws, policies and practices. As the Biden administration winds down, it’s the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern day history. The president added that his administration will continue to review clemency petitions before his term ends on Jan. 20. There are more than 9,400 petitions for clemency that were submitted to the White House, according to recent Department of Justice clemency statistics.

“As President, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for non-violent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenses,” Biden said.

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

Around the world…Joyous Syrians overflow mosques for 1st Friday prayers since al-Assad’s fall.

Via NYT, jubilant crowds gathered in cities across Syria for the first Friday Prayers since rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad, including at the historic Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, where civilians and fighters worshiped side by side and joyful chants erupted over the collapse of a long authoritarian dynasty.

People waved revolutionary flags, posed for photographs with friends and shouted, “God is great!” as one of the largest crowds in memory filled the marble courtyard of the mosque, where the Assad security forces had long suppressed antigovernment demonstrations with brutal violence. Not all the chants were religious, reflecting the country’s newfound sense of liberty, as some outside the mosque sang, “Hold your head high, you are a free Syrian!”

You can read more from The New York Times here.

That’s all for this week! Have a fantastic Friday!

Best,

Confidentiality Notice and Disclaimer:  The information contained in this e-mail may contain privileged and/or confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above.  If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or other use of this e-mail is strictly prohibited.  If you have received it in error, please immediately notify us by telephone (303-333-9810) or e-mail, and delete this message.  Although this e-mail and any attachments are believed to be free of any virus or other defect that might affect any computer system into which it is received, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure it is virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Foster Graham Milstein & Calisher, LLP for any loss or damage arising in any way from its use.