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2020 Op. Colo. Att'y Gen. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.sag/sagco2020 and id is 1 raw text is: PHIL WEISER Attorney General NATALIE HANLON LEH Chief Deputy Attorney General ERIC R. OLSON Solicitor General ERIC T. MEYER Chief Operating Officer STATE OF COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF LAW RALPH L. CARR COLORADO JUDICIAL CENTER 1300 Broadway, 10th Floor Denver, Colorado 80203 Phone (720) 508-6000 Office of the Attorney General FORMAL ) OPINION ) No. 20-01 ) OF ) ) December 4, 2020 PHILIP J. WEISER ) Attorney General ) Patty Salazar, Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies and designee of Governor Jared Polis, requested this Formal Opinion on behalf of the Governor under § 24-31-101(1)(d)(II), C.R.S. (2020). QUESTIONS PRESENTED AND SHORT ANSWERS Questions Presented. (1) When the effective date of enacted legislation to renew a regulatory program that is scheduled for sunset repeal falls on a date subsequent to the repeal date listed in the regulatory program's organic act, but within the one-year wind-up period following that repeal date, is the enacted legislation effective as a matter of law in renewing the regulatory program? (2) Is the Occupational Therapy Practice Act at § 12-270-101, et seq., C.R.S., as amended by House Bill 20-1230, effective as a matter of law, despite having been legislatively renewed by House Bill 20-1230 which held an effective date falling after the Acts statutory sunset repeal date on September 1, 2020? Short Answers. (1) Yes. Because the provisions of § 24-34-104(2)(b), C.R.S., ensure that any regulatory program scheduled for sunset repeal shall continue for one year following the program's scheduled sunset repeal date, that regulatory program's organic act remains in effect as a matter of law for one year after the formal date set for sunset repeal. The General Assembly, therefore, is free to amend that organic act at any time during the one-year wind-up period without engaging in a full-text, omnibus reenactment of the entire organic act that otherwise would be required when a statute has expired and is no longer law.