It’s just the second full week of the Colorado General Assembly, but the drama is quickly ramping up.

On Monday morning, House Minority Leader Mike Lynch survived a no-confidence vote prompted by his secretive handling of a drunken driving arrest, but just barely — raising the possibility his Republican colleagues will try again to oust him.

Aside from leadership squabbles, there’s already a bill that’s crossed chambers. Lawmakers have worked quickly to undo, and then redo, a law that they passed two months ago, during the November special session. It doubled the state’s match of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit as part of a package of property tax and housing cost relief bills.

A Republican member of the House then sued, arguing the EITC bill was passed unconstitutionally. The House passed the new version of the bill last week, and the full Senate is set to consider the measure, HB24-1084, on Tuesday.

Otherwise, the legislature is beginning work on a bevy of other bills, though few of them are the sweeping priority bills that were previewed by leadership ahead of the session.

Here’s what to expect at the Capitol for the rest of this week:

Recidivism and criminal justice on the agenda

A trio of bills from the Recidivism Interim Study Committee will get a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday afternoon. The three bills, if passed, will prompt deeper looks at different parts of the criminal justice system.

One would require the Colorado Department of Public Safety to define the term “recidivism” for use by the state; the second would create a working group to develop alternative metrics for measuring outcomes from the criminal justice system, aside from recidivism; and a third would require a study of how individuals move through criminal justice proceedings.

All three bills are sponsored by Sens. Julie Gonzales and Robert Rodriguez, both Denver Democrats who serve on the interim committee.

The House Judiciary Committee, meanwhile, will take a look Wednesday at bills regarding privacy protections for criminal justice records, recommendations for the jail standards commission and a measure that would prohibit law enforcement officers from putting a person who’s in protective custody in jail.

Constitutional measure on abortion rights

A campaign to enshrine abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution will officially kick off at the Capitol on Monday, with a slew of events planned from Greeley to Montrose. Proponents hope to put the measure in front of voters this November but first must collect signatures across the state to get it on the ballot.

Last week, lawmakers passed a resolution commemorating the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which recognized the right to an abortion for a generation before it was struck down in summer 2022. The anniversary of the court’s Roe decision is Monday.

Also going on

Elsewhere, housing advocates and supportive legislators are expected to unveil some of their key legislation this week. A bill that would allow local governments to enact rent control  — after failing last year — is unlikely to come back again, but a separate measure to limit evictions and displacements (which also failed) has already been previewed by supporters.

In case you missed it

Colorado House GOP leader barely survives no-confidence vote over handling of drunken driving arrest

The Colorado House’s top Republican narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence by his fellow Republican legislators Monday morning, five days after news broke that he was arrested for drunken driving in 2022.

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