DENVER (AP) - Your weekly look at what’s coming up at the Colorado Legislature:
LONG DAYS AHEAD
It’s the last full week for the 2014 Legislature, and big decisions loom. Expect long days on the floor and intense lobbying to get favored bills through. House Speaker Mark Ferrandino has warned his chamber to be prepared to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Capitol until the final gavels fall on May 7.
MARIJUANA QUESTIONS
Among the biggest items lawmakers will decide in the final sprint is how to spend new recreational marijuana tax revenues. A $23 million spending plan has been approved by the Joint Budget Committee and hits the Senate this week. Also, a House committee starts work Monday on a proposal to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of ailments eligible for medical marijuana clearance. And new limits on edible and concentrated pot are scheduled for Senate hearings.
SCHOOL SPENDING
A pair of House bills to pump hundreds of millions to K-12 education should be finalized in the Senate this week. But that just sets up the next round of intense lobbying because the House and Senate differ on some significant aspects, including how much to give schools to backfill recession-era budget cuts.
INVESTIGATIONAL DRUGS
A proposal to make it easier for the terminally ill to access investigational drugs faces its first test in the Senate Health & Human Services Committee on Wednesday.
HAIL MARY TIME
The closing days of session typically see the introduction of big ideas lawmakers are hoping to rush through the Legislature during the hurly-burly of the final hours. Expect to see a controversial measure to change the state’s construction-defects law, along with potential legislation on hydraulic fracturing and expunging criminal records for marijuana convicts.
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