The days are literally flying by now. Only 26 days left in the session and bills are still being introduced. The House is spending most of its days (and early evenings) in budget caucus, conference committees and doing floor work.

The budget process was a little different this year. The Long Appropriations Bill (HB 1451 or budget bill) came to the House first for review and amendments. It is amazing how the 674-page budget is placed on your desk some time during floor work on Monday morning and we are debating it in caucus the following day. This means that many legislators are up most of the night poring through both the bill and the accompanying narrative to find and mark those areas they are trying to increase or, in some cases, decrease. Then the Republicans and Democrats meet in separate caucuses to discuss their various amendments and a "sense of the caucus" vote is taken. It is no longer legal to bind a caucus, meaning that you "lock in" the vote by party majority. A "sense of the caucus" vote only gives the Joint Budget Committee members who will be presenting the budget to the House an idea of where support is on various adjustments/amendments.

The Senate has now reviewed (and in many cases, rejected) the House amendments. The House parties again meet in separate caucuses to discuss the Senate amendments to the House amendments. As it turned out, the split on accepted and rejected amendments was about 50/50. The Senate is now finishing up on the last exchange and the vote on "concurrence to Senate amendments" should be early next week. My amendment to adjust the rates within the existing allocation for home health and assisted care facilities will not be in the budget.

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I had the pleasure of being the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole again. The Committee of the Whole is when the House debates bills that have made it through the committee process. This is called Second Reading and appears to the unknowing eye to be chaotic and unorganized. This time I was much better prepared and ran the committee with precision and fairness. This is not to brag but to point out the importance of trying to remain true to the process instead of playing partisan politics. And one can only remain true to the process by being prepared on the bills being heard.

The Chairman decides how the voice vote is to be decided. Most of the time there will be a voice vote that is clearly a majority of those in the chamber. Naturally, one would think that the Chairman would drop the gavel and announce that the louder of the "aye" and "no" votes had succeeded. Not so. Many times the person sitting in the big chair (or standing as I do), seems to develop a definite hearing problem and will rule against the louder vote. This partisan game-playing not only frustrates and bastardizes the process but also causes for many good measures to be lost based solely on the opinion of the Chairman.

Accordingly, I chaired the committee true to the intended traditions and, consequently, upset a few members. One member accosted me after the session and demanded to know why I didn't pass her amendment. My answer was simple: "You didn't have the votes." As it turned out, her amendment also failed when she attempted an amendment to the Committee of the Whole report on the day’s work.

I am seeing more and more the need to assure that the politics that get in the way of a fair and functioning process must be exposed for what they are; placing egos and agendas above respect for true representative government.

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Friday the legislature was treated to the annual appearance of the University of Northern Colorado Trumpet Choir. This is one of the highlights of the session. The House chamber resounds with the excellently orchestrated and well-practiced musicians playing "America, the Beautiful" and other classics. It is also the annual time for your representative to break out the handkerchief as the tears of pride well up. This music, the setting and the quality of the 30 young musicians stirs the soul and inspires one’s spirit in this great country. It is moments like this that make me so thankful to be your representative.