The bill, known by its supporters as the Interim Therapeutic Restoration (ITR) Bill, was first introduced on March 26, and was assigned to the House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee. The bill had its first hearing on April 2. It’s next hearing was in front of the House Finance Committee on April 23. The bill passed out of the House on April 30, and with only 4 days left in the session, no one was confident that there would be time for the Senate to review it. The team had a brief burst of excitement when the bill was almost heard in committee last Friday night at 7:00pm, but it was postponed until this week.
The team was thrilled on Tuesday, May 5th when the bill successfully passed all committees and the Senate’s 2nd reading. All that remained was the final 3rd reading and the vote. Even though there was nearly unilateral support and further testimony had been tabled to speed up the process, no one was sure whether there would be enough time in the session to get it to pass.
Finally, on Wednesday May 6, we got the good word. With only hours left to go in this legislative session, HB 1309 passed its final Senate vote and was sent on its way to the Governor, where it is expected to be signed into law.
The SMILES Dental Project team would like to thank our team, partners, and legislators –especially the Colorado Dental Association who took the lead and brought the stakeholders together to introduce this legislation and the Bill sponsors Representative Joann Ginal (D) in the House and Senator Larry Crowder (R) -- for pulling together to pass this milestone on the way towards spreading innovate oral health care across Colorado! Thank you!
