The primary bill sponsors, Representatives Brown and Froelich, introduced House Bill 25-1154 to the House Health and Human Services Committee. The bill creates the Communication Services for People with Disabilities Enterprise (enterprise) in the Department of Human Services (CDHS) to provide services and resources for individuals who are blind, print-disabled, deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind. The bill moves programs and services currently managed by the State Librarian in the Department of Education (CDE) and the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Deafblind (commission) in CDHS to the enterprise. Specifically, CDE’s Reading Services for the Blind program and all of the commission’s programs and services are transferred to the enterprise. The enterprise is governed by a Board of Directors appointed by the Governor by June 1, 2025. It is designated as an enterprise for the purposes of TABOR and any fee revenue collected is required to be less than $100 million over its first five years of operation, which means voter approval is not required.

The sponsors provided a handout to the committee (Attachment B).

The bill sponsors provided closing comments on the bill.