Colorado’s 2022 legislative session ends this Wednesday, May 11th, and your voice is needed now more than ever to get bills that will support our state’s kids and families over the finish line! We’ve put together a list of bills that are still moving and ways you can advocate for them in the last few days of this session. Bills move quickly at this point during the legislative session, so it’s important that you take action NOW before the advocacy opportunities below expire!

HB22-1259 Modifications To Colorado Works Program

This bill makes critical improvements to the Colorado Works program (our state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program). The TANF statute has not been meaningfully updated in roughly 15 years. At only $508 per month for a family of three, the program’s basic cash assistance (BCA) payments have not kept up with inflation or the high cost of living in Colorado and are worth far less today than they were in 1996 when the program began. This bill will increase BCA, ensure that it keeps up with the cost of living, and improve the ways TANF serves its participants so that all kids and families in Colorado can achieve economic prosperity. Learn why Illuminate supports this bill.

HB22-1289 Health Benefits For Colorado Children And Pregnant Persons

This bill will increase access to health coverage for low-income children and pregnant people regardless of immigration status and make many other critical investments in perinatal services across the state. This bill will be a step forward in protecting the basic right of health care for all Coloradans and supporting all of our families during and after pregnancy. Learn why Illuminate supports this bill.

Healthy Meals for All Public School Students

Thanks to federal waivers, schools have been able to provide meals to all students and receive additional assistance to deal with supply chain challenges, staffing constraints and rising food costs during COVID-19. But those waivers will expire June 30th. There are two ways to make sure all students can continue to access meals at school. Learn why Illuminate supports these policies.

Take Action!

Please reach out to your legislators, share why school meals are crucial to your community, and ask them to:

• • Use one-time funding in Colorado’s budget to continue school meals for all students for the upcoming school year.
  • Ensure students have long-term access to school meals by voting ‘yes’ on HB22-1414 Healthy Meals For All Public School Students, which will ​​refer a question to voters in the fall to provide long-term funding for Healthy School Meals for All by limiting state income tax deductions for people earning more than $300,000 a year.

HB22-1240 Mandatory Reporters

This bill would establish a Mandatory Reporter Task Force charged with analyzing best practices and recommending changes to training requirements and reporting procedures and analyzing the effectiveness of mandatory reporting and its relationship with systemic issues, including the disproportionate impact of mandatory reporting on under-resourced communities, communities of color, and persons with disabilities. Learn why Illuminate supports this bill.