HB26-1426 is a broad Department of Law “legislative report” bill that implements a package of recommendations from the Attorney General’s 2026 report to the General Assembly. The measure makes numerous changes across Colorado law, especially in the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (CCPA), and also updates related statutes governing health care billing, privacy, real estate, charitable solicitation, debt collection, and state enforcement procedures. It creates several new advisory councils within the Department of Law, requires sunset review of those councils and certain title/degree protections, and adds new rulemaking, reporting, and interagency coordination duties for the Attorney General and the Department of Law.
A major portion of the bill revises the CCPA’s definitions, enforcement tools, and penalty provisions. It expands the unfair or deceptive trade practice framework to cover, among other things, practicing a profession or occupation without the required qualifications, clarifies and consolidates overlapping violations, updates subpoena and injunction authority, and adjusts civil penalty provisions for certain products such as bath salts and synthetic cannabinoids. It also adds or updates consumer-protection-related provisions for medical debt interest, title and degree claims, immigration-related services, health clubs, no-call list enforcement, social security number confidentiality, breach notification, and several health-care disclosure statutes that are tied back to the CCPA as unfair or deceptive trade practices.
The bill also changes how the Department of Law operates. It authorizes interagency agreements for complaint referral and information sharing, creates a process for the Attorney General to notify the Joint Budget Committee about litigation that could affect the state budget, and allows executive-session discussions of those litigation impacts. It directs the Department of Law to review its rules, accept petitions to review or initiate rulemaking, and adopt rules governing opinion letters and a good-faith reliance framework. In addition, it creates a new procurement framework for the department and authorizes recovery and reinvestment of costs associated with Medicaid false claims enforcement into a new recovery fund.
The overall sentiment reflected in the voting history appears generally favorable, with the bill advancing through both chambers and final concurrence on Senate amendments. However, the recorded votes show some opposition at key stages, including a 43-16 House third-reading vote and a 24-10 Senate third-reading vote, suggesting that while the bill had majority support, it was not unanimous. The lack of committee transcript material limits insight into specific debate, but the structure of the bill indicates it was viewed as a substantial policy and administrative package rather than a narrow technical cleanup measure.
Notable points of contention likely centered on the bill’s expansion of enforcement authority, the creation of new advisory and reporting structures, and the new litigation-budget notification process. The bill also touches politically sensitive areas such as professional licensing, real estate broker obligations, medical debt, health-care billing, and Medicaid fraud recovery, any of which could draw concern from regulated industries or lawmakers wary of expanding state enforcement powers. At the same time, the bill’s many nonsubstantive updates and conforming amendments suggest a significant portion of the package was aimed at modernization and statutory cleanup rather than new substantive regulation alone.
HB26-1426 makes extensive amendments to Title 6 and several related titles of the Colorado Revised Statutes, primarily by expanding and reorganizing the Department of Law’s consumer-protection and enforcement authorities. It creates new advisory councils, adds sunset-review and reporting requirements, authorizes interagency complaint-sharing agreements, revises CCPA definitions and remedies, and links multiple health, privacy, real estate, and consumer-finance violations to CCPA enforcement. It also creates or revises state funds for litigation-related recoveries, including a false Medicaid claims recovery fund, and updates procedures affecting the Attorney General, district attorneys, and regulated businesses and professionals.
The bill appears to have received broad but not unanimous support. It passed House and Senate third readings and the House concurred in Senate amendments, but several recorded votes show meaningful minority opposition. That pattern suggests the bill was generally acceptable to a majority as a Department of Law policy package, while still drawing concern from some legislators about its scope and the expansion of enforcement and administrative authority.
The main likely points of contention were the bill’s expansion of the Attorney General’s and district attorneys’ enforcement powers, especially the new unfair-trade-practice coverage for unlicensed professional activity and the broader subpoena, injunction, and litigation-budget provisions. Regulated industries affected by the bill—such as real estate brokers, health-care providers, debt collectors, and businesses subject to consumer-protection rules—may have objected to added compliance obligations and enforcement exposure. The creation of new advisory councils and the consolidation of CCPA violations may also have raised questions about administrative burden, rulemaking authority, and whether the bill goes beyond a report implementation measure into substantive policy change.