Legislative Records

Do I need to have a recording of Colorado General Assembly legislative audio?

Can I just get a transcript instead?

How many hours of recorded material are there for the bill I'm interested in?

How much do legislative audio recordings cost?

How long will it take to receive my recording?

I’m interested in the legislative history of a section of the Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS). How do I find do this?

How do I request a recording of legislative audio?

Do I need to have a recording of Colorado General Assembly legislative audio?

1973-2011               Yes. Due to obsolete formatting and deterioration of the physical tapes over time, un-transferred hearings must be transferred to an accessible digital format by trained archival staff before listening. If the bill in question has already been reformatted, then you can contact us to schedule an appointment to listen for free in the Archives' public research room. 

2012-present          No. Listen online on the General Assembly's webpage.

Can I just get a transcript instead?

There are no prepared transcripts available for General Assembly proceedings at the Archives. If a transcript is required for an accessibility accommodation, please notate that when submitting a formal request. There is no additional costs for accessibility accommodations (per HB2021-1110 and 8 CCR 1501-11 Technology Accessibility Rules), however this will add to the turnaround time. Transcription services will be outsourced, and the amount of time the transcription process will take will be dependent on the length of the audio files. 

How many hours of recorded material are there for the bill I'm interested in?

The short answer: if it hasn't been recorded yet, we don't know.

Once we know the bill number we have to find out the committee the bill was assigned to as well as the date and time it was discussed there. Then, if applicable, we do the same for the committee in the opposite house. Using Committee Summary Reports we can find out precisely how long the bill was discussed in committee. Floor debate in the House and Senate is harder to pin down. There are no timestamped records of the proceedings, so we never know with 100% certainty how long the recording of the floor debates will be. That said, there is a reliable rule of thumb: one hour in committee usually means 10-15 minutes of floor debate.

If you have access to Daily Status Sheets and Committee Summaries you can estimate the amount of time your bill was discussed using the same process described above.

We would be glad to provide you with an estimate of how long a recording will be after a formal request is made.

How much do legislative audio recordings cost?

Please see our current fee schedule.

How long will it take to receive my recording?

If the bill you are researching has been reformatted, it will be 7 business days or less to receive. 

If the bill you are researching is from 1973-1980 and has not been reformatted, it will take between 2 weeks to a few months due to the obsolete technology.

If the bill you are researching is from 1981-2011 and has not been reformatted, it generally takes 2-4 weeks. 

These requests are time-intensive projects. Any adjustments to the timeline will be brought to your attention as soon as possible.

All requests are handled on a first come, first served basis. Rush services are not available.

I’m interested in the legislative history of a section of the Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS). How do I find do this?

All legislative resources at the State Archives are organized by bill number. You will need the annotation from the CRS section of interest, which will enable you to track the history of the section to session law and other relevant resources. 

We have compiled a guide on how to find the bill number using a C.R.S. notation to assist with this process. 

How do I request a recording of legislative audio?

A formal request can be submitted by mail, email, or an online form. Please see the Make a Request page on our website for more information. After a request is made and the fees are paid, recordings will be sent via a Google Drive link to the requester's email which provides MP3 files of the recordings and PDF files of the committee summaries and bill write-up. Other options to share audio files include a mailed USB or CD and can be provided upon request. Audio files that have already been reformatted may be listened to in our public research room via an appointment.