Colorado § 2-3-505 - Requests for drafting bills and amendments - confidential nature thereof - lobbying for bills.

§ 2-3-505. Requests for drafting bills and amendments - confidential nature thereof - lobbying for bills.

(1) All requests made to the office for the drafting of bills or amendments thereto shall be submitted, either in writing or orally, by the legislator or by the governor or the governor's representative making the request, with a general statement respecting the policies and purposes which the person making the request desires the bill or amendment to accomplish. The office shall draft each bill or amendment to conform to the purposes so stated or to supplementary instructions of the person making the original request.

(2) (a) Prior to the introduction of a bill or amendment in the general assembly, no employee of the office shall reveal to any person outside the office the contents or nature of such bill or amendment, except with the consent of the person making the request. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the disclosure to the staff of any legislative service agency of such information concerning bills or amendments prior to introduction as is necessary to expedite the preparation of fiscal notes, as provided by the rules of the general assembly, but such staff shall not reveal the contents or nature of such bills or amendments to any other person without the consent of the person making the request.

(b) All documents prepared or assembled in response to a request for a bill or amendment, other than the introduced version of a bill or amendment that was in fact introduced, shall be considered work product, as defined in section 24-72-202 (6.5), C.R.S.

(c) (I) The final version of all documents prepared or assembled by the office for a member of the general assembly but not in response to a request for a bill or amendment and not containing legal analysis or expressing a legal opinion or conclusion shall not be considered work product as defined in section 24-72-202 (6.5), C.R.S. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph (e) of this subsection (2), the final version of such documents shall be a public record. These documents include, but are not limited to:

(A) Comparisons of existing law with the provisions of any bill or amendment, comparisons of any bills or amendments with other bills or amendments, comparisons of different versions of bills or amendments, and comparisons of the laws of this state with laws of other jurisdictions;

(B) Compilations of existing public information, statistics, or data;

(C) Compilations or explanations of general areas or bodies of law, legislative history, or legislative policy.

(II) Prior to delivery of the final version of such a document to the member who requested it, no employee of the office shall reveal to any person outside the office the contents or nature of the document, except with the consent of the member making the request.

(d) If a member of the general assembly requests a legal opinion or document from the office that is the same as or substantially similar to a legal opinion or document previously requested by another member, the office may produce an identical or substantially similar legal opinion or document for the second member. The office shall not disclose the identity of any member who made a previous request.

(e) A member may request that the final version of a document that would otherwise become a public record in accordance with paragraph (c) of this subsection (2) remain work product.

(3) No employee of the office shall lobby, personally or in any other manner, directly or indirectly, for or against any pending legislation before the general assembly.

Source: L. 68: R&RE, p. 141, § 178. C.R.S. 1963: § 63-3-5. L. 88: Entire section amended, p. 308, § 11, effective May 23. L. 96: Entire section amended, p. 1479, § 2, effective June 1. L. 97: (2) amended, p. 1103, § 1, effective August 6.