Editing Colorado General Assembly (section)

==Procedure and powers==
With the notable exceptions listed below, the Colorado General Assembly operates in a manner quite similar to the [[United States Congress]].<ref name="billprocess">[http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1224913761903&ssbinary=true How a Bill Becomes Colorado Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010202547/http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1224913761903&ssbinary=true |date=October 10, 2015 }}, Office of Legislative Legal Services, October 2001 (accessed April 29, 2013)</ref>

Regular sessions are held annually and begin no later than the second Wednesday in January. Regular sessions last no more than 120 days. Special sessions may be called at any time by the [[governor of Colorado|governor]] or upon written request of two-thirds of the members of each house, but are infrequent. Some committees of the General Assembly work between sessions and have limited power to take action without General Assembly approval between legislative sessions.

Joint procedural rules of the two chambers require most legislation to be introduced very early in the legislative session each year, and to meet strict deadlines for completion of each step of the legislative process. Joint procedural rules also limit each legislator to introducing five bills per year, subject to certain exceptions for non-binding resolutions, uniform acts, interim committee bills and appropriations bills.<ref>''Colorado Legislative Rules : Research Publication No. 774'', 2022, pp. 117–117. Retrieved from https://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/cslFrontPages.nsf/FileAttachVw/2022Rules/$File/2022CombinedRules.pdf .</ref> Most members of the General Assembly decide which bills they will introduce during the legislative session (or most of them) prior to its commencement, limiting the ability of members to introduce new bills at constituent request once the legislative session has begun.
[[Image:ColoradoStateCapitolSenateChamber gobeirne.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Senate Chamber]]
Most bills adopted by the General Assembly include a "safety clause" (i.e. a legislative declaration that the bill concerns an urgent matter) and take effect on July 1 following the legislative session unless otherwise provided. Some bills are enacted without a "safety clause" which makes it possible to petition to subject those bills to a referendum before they take effect, and have an effective date in August following the legislative session unless otherwise provided.<ref name="billprocess"/>

Colorado's legislature does not have an analog to the [[filibuster]] in the [[United States Senate]] requiring a supermajority for approval of any matter. The lieutenant governor does not have the power to preside or break tie votes in either house of the General Assembly.<ref name="cogov"/> All new executive branch rules are reviewed annually by the legislature and the legislature routinely invalidates some of them each year.

The General Assembly does have subpoena power,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Joint Rules {{!}} 33. Subpoenas |url=https://www.leg.state.co.us/inethsr.nsf/Rule.xsp?id=JNTRULES.33&catg=Joint&pg=4.0 |website=leg.state.co.us}}</ref> However this power is rarely used.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://coloradosun.com/2023/03/17/colorado-lawmakers-simplify-legislatures-ability-subpoena-power/|title=Two Colorado lawmakers want to simplify the legislature's ability to wield its rarely used subpoena power|first=Elliott|last=Wenzler|date=March 17, 2023|website=The Colorado Sun}}</ref>

The General Assembly does not have a role in the appointment or retention of state judges, although it must authorize the creation of each judgeship.

Many state agencies and programs are subject to "sunset review" and are automatically abolished if the General Assembly does not reauthorize them.