On January 31, 2008 the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee heard testimony on HB08-1123. However, they did not vote on the bill at that time. Here’s the status of the bill:

After the initial bill was introduced, there were two major amendments which needed to be added to the bill. A major player in the Colorado Funeral Service Industry submitted a multiple page amendment to the bill that would specifically address the issue of cremation including definitions, authorization to cremate, and cremation procedures. It was not submitted in time for the State bill writer to evaluate and include the amendments into the bill. The second amendments came by way of DORA, the Department of Regulatory Agencies. A representative from DORA took a position yesterday that they could not support the bill as written. Remember that DORA recommended a registration system, not licensure, which is what HB08-2133 recommends. There were also several pieces of technical language which DORA needed added to the bill before they would consider supporting it.

The State bill writer will add the appropriate amendments to the bill over the weekend, the amended bill will be delivered immediately to the committee members, and on Monday, February 3, 2008 at 1:30 P.M., the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee will review the final version of the bill and vote to pass or kill the bill.

Several people from the funeral industry testified in favor of the bill on January 31st . One piece of testimony given by Representative Stafford provided a staggering statistic. She stated that in 1982 when licensure of funeral service was sunsetted there were 175 registered funeral directors/embalmers. Currently the Colorado Office of Vital Records has 1,216 people registered as funeral directors able to sign death certificates.

Click here to read the fiscal impact statement on HB08-1123.