Pandemic bill, Sonnenberg's SB 53, gains approval in State Senate

Emotional stories from Democratic lawmakers who lost loved ones to COVID-19 was enough to garner a preliminary voice of approval on March 25 on a hospital visitation bill from Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling,

Senate Bill 53 was approved on a voice vote in the state Senate and is currently awaiting a final vote. Sonnenberg told this reporter he believes the vote will be very close.

The bill would grant one visitor of a patient’s choosing the right to visit that patient in a nursing home or hospital during a pandemic. Those facilities would still have the right to enact policies on restrictions based on guidelines from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, including requiring waivers and use of personal protective equipment. However, the facility cannot ban visitors solely based on a pandemic, according to the bill.

Sonnenberg told this reporter that he’s listened to the medical community on their concerns and incorporated their requests, save for killing the bill itself, including limitations on visitation, up to and including blocking visitors if PPE isn’t available, waiver from liability in case a visitor catches an illness and protection from verbal and physical abuse. 

“They still have the power to screen and put procedures in place,” Sonnenberg said. “They just can’t keep one family member from a patient. If I have to wear a hazmat suit, I’ll do it in order to hold my wife’s hand if she needs me,” he said. 

But it was stories from an unexpectedly long list of Democratic senators in support of the bill that made the difference Friday. 

Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont, who voted against the bill in its Feb. 1 committee hearing, changed to a “yes” for the bill’s final vote. Hospitals and health care workers must be protected, but she added that Sonnenberg had worked hard to address the concerns of the medical community. “We’ll have families able to see patients,” she said.

Another changed vote came from Sen. Kerry Donovan of Vail. “I read it wrong,” she told the Senate. “I began to better comprehend what the bill said,” and said that the policy is a good one. 

“Some of us experienced this pandemic very personally,” Donovan said through tears, talking of her grandmother, who was dying, refusing to eat or drink because she was not able to have contact with family. Because she has a granddaughter who was a State senator, Donovan’s mother was able to see her mom and get her to eat and drink, which began to pull her back, Donovan said.

This bill says, “let’s figure this out, hospitals,” Donovan said. “This is a power struggle on paper, yet we’re forgetting about the power of personal touch … we have to find the areas of compassion in these moments and treat people the best we can and medical care sometimes means having a family member there.”

Sen. Chris Kolker, D-Centennial, talked of his father’s struggle with leukemia and that he was able to see his dad during COVID. “I was a ‘no’ coming into this day. I’m scared of the next pandemic, which could be worse,” he said, also through tears . But the point of the bill is to find the flexibility to allow visitors, Kolker added.

Should SB 53 win final approval, it will head to the House, which has rejected visitation bills on several occasions, including a bill last week from Representative Tim Geitner, R-Falcon. But Sonnenberg said those previous House bills did not incorporate the language requested by the hospitals and nursing facilities. The bill would be sponsored in the House by Rep. Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells.

In other news:

A bipartisan bill that intends to deal with the state’s fentanyl crisis was announced this week by Governor Jared Polis, its bipartisan sponsors and district attorneys from around the state, including District Attorney Travis Sides of the 13th Judicial District, which covers 10 northeastern Colorado counties.

House Bill 1326 ramps up criminal penalties for distribution of fentanyl, which sponsors said can be found in virtually every street drug, including heroin, meth, cocaine, even black-market Percocet, Oxycontin and marijuana. The bill adds to State law a felony 1 drug charge for distribution resulting in death, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years, with the possibility of 32 years in prison. That same penalty applies to dealers caught with the tools for making fentanyl, including pill presses, and anyone caught with more than 50 grams of fentanyl, even if it’s a compound mixture. Harsher felony penalties also address lesser amounts of fentanyl possession with intent to distribute.

The bill, however, does not change state law on simple possession of fentanyl, a change enacted through a bipartisan bill in 2019 that lessened the charge for those caught with less than four grams of fentanyl and other Schedule II drugs (heroin, cocaine and meth) to a misdemeanor. 

That’s not sitting well with sheriffs or other law enforcement officers, who are pleading for tougher charges for simple possession.

Sides told this reporter the bill will help with its increase in penalties . The bill isn’t perfect, he said, adding he’s already hearing from sheriffs in the district that they aren’t happy about the bill not addressing the simple possession issue. By making any possession just a misdemeanor, it hinders his ability to prosecute these cases, Sides said, but he’s hopeful that the bill will be changed in the coming weeks to address those concerns.

As to the fentanyl problem in northeastern Colorado, Sides said what they typically see is “‘blues,’ counterfeit oxycodone pills manufactured in Mexico. There have been several overdose deaths due to fentanyl in the district, he added, but the biggest cases have to do with those who are importing fentanyl along the I-70 corridor heading east into Kansas.

“Our legislature has done lots of things to hurt our efforts” in arresting and prosecuting those with fentanyl, but this is a step in the right direction, he said. “If you’re selling fentanyl and you’re causing someone’s death, this increases the penalties … and we can hold people to higher prison sentences. That’s a necessary thing,” Sides added.

The bill also directs $20 million into the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment for purchase of test strips and opiate antagonists, such as Narcan and Naloxone, that help deal with overdoses. Those tools would be made available to the public through schools, colleges and universities and community and religious organizations that choose to obtain it from CDPHE. 

HB 1326 also includes an education program; sponsors said the public needs to be aware that every street drug now contains fentanyl and even one pill can be fatal.

Finally, the bill sets up mandatory treatment for those caught with fentanyl, even on the lesser misdemeanor charge. 

The bill is sponsored by Speaker of the House Alec Garnett, D-Denver and Rep. Mike Lynch, R-Wellington; and in the Senate by Sen. John Cooke, R-Greeley, a former Weld County sheriff; and Sen. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood. Its first hearing, with the House Judiciary Committee, is not yet scheduled as the House will be working on the 2022-23 state budget in the coming week.