Two funeral home bills win unanimous support

By Marianne Goodland

Legislative reporter

Two bills designed to put oversight into the funeral home industry won unanimous committee approvals in the past week.

House Bill 1335, which won approval from the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee, is what’s known as a sunset bill. It’s designed to continue state law over an industry or occupation.

The measure would extend regulation of the funeral home industry — the business side — up to 2031. But it also adds new law about inspections of funeral homes, to hopefully prevent what’s happened in Colorado over the past decade.

In the last year, 189 decomposing bodies were found in the Return to Nature funeral home in Penrose; last month, more bodies, including one left in a hearse for two years, were found in a home in Denver operated by the owner of Apollo Funeral & Cremation Services, who had been evicted from the home. 

HB 1335 would allow for more routine and periodic inspections of funeral homes, something supporters said might have prevented both instances. Return to Nature’s state license had lapsed; Apollo’s was revoked. 

The Colorado Funeral Home Directors Association supports the measure, according to Javan Jones, the organization’s past president, as well as Yuma County coroner and owner of three funeral homes in northeastern Colorado.

HB 1335 doesn’t define “routine” or “periodic.” That will be left to the Department of Regulatory Agencies through its rulemaking process. But Jones testified during the committee hearing that inspections could “curb some of the problems that we have had that have arisen in the past couple years.”

A more proactive inspection schedule will help curb some of the atrocities that have happened in the past recent years, he said, as well as help build back consumer trust.

HB 1335 moves on to the House Finance Committee.

The second measure is another sunset, regarding the regulation of non-transplant tissue banks.

That law surfaced in 2018, after a funeral home in Montrose was found to be selling body parts without authorization of next of kin. 

House Bill 1254 will put more teeth into that 2018 law, requiring more disclosure, financial penalties and prohibiting a funeral home owner from having a direct financial interest in a tissue bank.

That was a big part of the Sunset Mesa situation in Montrose; the funeral home owners, a mother and daughter, also operated a non-transplant tissue bank out of the funeral home. Both were sent to federal prison.

The third bill, which hasn’t yet been heard, will address the occupation side of the industry. 

Colorado is the only state in the nation that doesn’t require any licensure or training of funeral home operators. That could change under Senate Bill 173. The bill requires those going into the funeral home industry — funeral home directors, cremationists, embalmers, mortuary science practitioners (a kind of catch-all for employees) and “natural reductionists” to obtain a license with proof of graduation from an approved mortuary science school, a one-year apprenticeship and passing a national exam. That goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026.

Those already in the industry would be required to demonstrate they have worked at least 6,500 hours with a one-year apprenticeship and pass a criminal background check. That would earn a provisional license that becomes permanent after two years, so long as there’s no complaints. This part of the bill goes into effect with the signature of the Governor.

The funeral home directors sought the changes through a review they requested from DORA. They’ve been warning the state for years that bad actors would flout Colorado’s lax laws around funeral home regulation.

The legislature deregulated the funeral home industry in the 1980s; an effort to put it back under regulation passed the legislature in 2006 but was vetoed by Governor Bill Owens, at the behest of some of the industry’s biggest companies.

The bill is not without its detractors. Service Corporation International, which operates 28 funeral homes and crematoriums in Colorado, has called on lawmakers to take out the requirements for funeral home directors, claiming they are more like event planners rather than employees handling bodies. If a funeral home is a one-person operator, they would be covered under the bill’s provisions on mortuary science practitioners or cremationists.

This week is the week for gun control bills at the State Capitol, with one bill awaiting a final House vote before heading to the Senate and three more on committee agendas.

House Bill 1174 would put more requirements into concealed carry permits. It’s sponsored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran, who said she’s been working on this measure for six years.

Currently, those who apply for a concealed handgun permit must show competence with a handgun, which can be done through a handgun training class offered by a certified instructor.

The law requires those classes to be done in person, beginning July 1, 2025 and with a list of what’s required in those courses, such as safe storage of firearms and child safety, instruction on federal and state laws on purchase as well as state laws on the use of deadly force and de-escalation techniques. The classes must be at least eight hours, although an amendment does not require the class to be all in one day. That was an amendment offered by House Republicans. The bill was also amended with suggestions from the National Shooting Sports Association.

Students must pass a written concealed handgun competency exam and a live-fire exercise with 50 rounds, which can be held in conjunction with the eight-hour class.

A refresher class must include at least two hours of instruction, including the live-fire exercise and written exam.

Not surprisingly, the bill garnered opposition from gun rights organizations and a big fight from House Republicans when it was debated by the full House on March 8.

Duran said amendments offered during two committee hearings brought the county sheriff’s association to a neutral position. Much of the bill puts the onus on sheriffs to carry out the changes, such as requiring they verify the concealed carry instructors within their jurisdiction, maintain and post a list of instructors and set up a fee for verifying instructors.

Duran, who holds a concealed carry permit for protection, said the bill will ensure those with permits are properly trained and understand current law. She said she’s seen that instruction can be inadequate.

One person who testified during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in February said she was given a book by the instructor, told to take out a highlighter pen and highlight the sentences that would be on the test.

"At the end of the course, we had an open book test, which we graded ourselves. We turned them in and we got our certificates," Mary Parker said.

Those opposed to the bill point out it will add cost to the permit process, raising it from about $200 to at least $500 or even $1,000, to cover the cost of ammunition, for example.

Rep. Ryan Armagost, R-Berthoud, who is a firearms instructor and authored one of the amendments on the classes, said the concessions made by the sponsors and the sheriffs were favorable. “I wish we could do more legislation like that,” he said. But it doesn’t take away from the fact that the bill is an overregulation for law-abiding citizens attempting to acquire concealed carry permits, he explained.

Armagost was a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill to increase the penalties for stealing firearms that failed to win approval from the House Judiciary Committee. Current law requires penalties for theft, except for motor vehicles, to be based on the value of the item stolen. Firearms would have been exempted from that section of law, and to make such thefts a class six felony. A subsequent violation would be a class five felony.

HB 1174 is up for its final House vote this week, is likely to pass and then head to the Senate.

In committee this week:

House Bill 1348, which creates a $500 penalty when a firearm in a motor vehicle is in plain sight or not otherwise locked up, will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

On Thursday, the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee will take up two bills: House Bill 1353, which sets up a state firearms dealer permit, with a penalty of $250,000 for selling without the permit. House Bill 1270 requires any firearms owner to hold liability insurance for injuries suffered as a result of any accidental or unintentional discharge of a firearm.

The last bill, Senate Bill 131, bans the carrying of a firearm, including with a concealed weapons permit, in “sensitive” places, which under the bill includes public parks, recreation facilities; marches, rallies and protests; healthcare or other medical facilities, churches or other places of worship, sports stadiums, amusement parks and zoos, public libraries and college campuses. The bill is in the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.