Colorado lawmakers reversed course on Wednesday and decided to keep in place a at the Capitol 鈥� with a big caveat.
The Colorado Youth Advisory Council will no longer have the power to draft bills for the legislature鈥檚 consideration.
The General Assembly planned to ax the Colorado Youth Advisory Council 鈥� known as COYAC 鈥� to save $50,000 annually as lawmakers try to close a . Republicans also complained that the council had become too liberal.
Sen. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, attempted Wednesday on the Senate floor to keep the council operating as-is, but an amendment she offered to , which will end a number of interim committees to save money, failed.
Winter then huddled with Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, landing on a compromise that the program would continue without bill-drafting power.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to let COYAC continue to meet, but we鈥檙e going to change the future of COYAC and how it interacts,鈥� Lundeen said on the Senate floor Wednesday. 鈥淚nstead of acting as a group of sub-legislators having drafting authority, we鈥檒l remove all drafting authority from COYAC in perpetuity.鈥�
Winter said 鈥渉aving COYAC move forward, allowing them to get the benefits of meeting with legislators, talking about policies, proposing ideas鈥� without drafting authority is 鈥渃ompletely acceptable.鈥�
The cost of the program will remain the same even as COYAC loses its bill-drafting power.
COYAC never had the power to send bills directly to the legislature for consideration. Instead, their policies 鈥� a handful each year 鈥� were vetted through the Executive Committee of the Legislative Council, a panel of top statehouse Republicans and Democrats.
Sometimes their measures advanced; sometimes they were rejected.
In recent years, COYAC has drafted legislation to require school staff to address students by , , in public schools and get in environmental justice.
The Colorado Youth Advisory Council was created in 2008 and is composed of 40 junior high and high school students representing each of the state鈥檚 35 Senate districts, as well as the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute tribes. Teens serve two-year terms on the council.
COYAC was founded through legislation brought by a Republican, then-state Sen. Ellen Roberts of Durango. The panel that reviews COYAC鈥檚 work is named after the late House Minority Leader Hugh McKean, another Republican.
The $50,000 appropriated annually to the council pays for an overnight retreat, annual visit to the Capitol, send-off dinner for high school seniors, committee meetings with legislators and for a professional facilitator to run the program.
Current and former members of COYAC petitioned lawmakers not to cut the program, saying it鈥檚 imperative that youth voices be heard at the Capitol.
Senate Bill 199 passed the Senate on a voice vote Wednesday. It needs a final vote in the chamber before heading to the House for consideration.
The legislature is expected to debate the full state budget in the coming weeks.