D688E20A3DD57B2F87258C2F0070D31C Hearing Summary

The committee was placed in a brief recess.

The committee came back to order.

The prime bill sponsors,
Representatives Brown and Froelich, introduced House Bill 25-1154 to the
House Health and Human Services Committee. The bill creates the Communication
Services for People with Disabilities Enterprise (enterprise) in the Department
of Human Services (CDHS) to provide services and resources for individuals
who are blind, print-disabled, deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind. The
bill moves programs and services currently managed by the State Librarian
in the Department of Education (CDE) and the Colorado Commission for the
Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deafblind (commission) in CDHS to the enterprise.
Specifically, CDE’s Reading Services for the Blind program and all of
the commission’s programs and services are transferred to the enterprise.
The enterprise is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor
by June 1, 2025. It is designated as an enterprise for the purposes of
TABOR and any fee revenue collected is required to be less than $100 million
over its first five years of operation, which means voter approval is not
required.



The bill sponsors
provided a handout to the committee (Attachment A).

Hillary Jorgensen,
representing Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, testified in support
of the bill.



Jack Johnson,
representing Disability Law Colorado, testified in support of the bill.



Dr. Katie Cue,
representing Colorado Department of Human Services, testified to amend
the bill.



Tricia Leakey,
representing Colorado Department of Human Services, testified to amend
the bill.

The panel responded to questions from the committee.

Ms. Meredith Henry,
representing The Arc of Colorado, testified in support of the bill.



Curtis Chong,
representing National Federation of the Blind of Colorado, testified in
support of the bill.



Cynde Vaughn,
representing themself, testified in support of the bill.

The panel responded to questions from the committee.

Ms. Kim Wardlow,
representing Aftersight, testified in support of the bill.



Penn Street, representing
themself, testified in support of the bill.

The panel responded to questions from the committee.

Ms. Alyssa Pearson,
representing Colorado Department of Education, testified to amend the bill.



Carson Covey,
representing Family Voices Colorado, testified in support of the bill.



Wynne Whyman,
representing themself, testified in support of the bill.



Mr. Dan Burke,
representing NFB of Colorado, testified in support of the bill.



Ms. Holly Bise
, representing Public Utilities Commission, was available to answer committee
questions.



Additional written
testimony was submitted to the committee (Attachment B).

The panel responded to questions from the committee.

The bill sponsor provided closing comments on the bill and asked that it be laid over.