Richardson - Colorado HD56 Representative

06/01/2026

The Legislature may be out of session, but oversight does not stop.

This week’s Richardson Report looks at Colorado’s major OIT restructuring and asks a simple question: if poor service to government agencies demands bold action, why doesn’t poor service to Colorado citizens demand the same?

I’ll be digging into these issues throughout the legislative off-season.

Read the full report here:

“It’s an honor to serve the hardworking citizens of Colorado’s central Eastern Plains. This weekly newsletter is my way of keeping you informed, engaged, and empowered as we work together to protect our values, our freedoms, and our way of life.” 

06/01/2026

When Protection Becomes Overreach
New law risks silencing therapists and limiting adult patient choice.

The Governor’s press release (see link below) frames HB26-1322 as a compassionate response to real concerns about harmful or coercive therapy. I do not dismiss those concerns. No licensed professional should abuse a patient’s trust, engage in fraud, or inflict harm under the banner of mental-health care.

But good intentions do not make a flawed bill good law.

HB26-1322 goes far beyond addressing clearly abusive conduct. It creates an open-ended civil liability scheme against current and former licensed mental-health professionals, allowing claims to be brought at any time without limitation. That is an extraordinary departure from ordinary malpractice law and even from the limitation periods applied to many serious crimes.

The bill also raises serious constitutional concerns. The U.S. Supreme Court has already made clear that Colorado cannot avoid First Amendment scrutiny simply by labeling therapeutic speech as professional conduct. A law that creates civil liability based on conversations in a counseling session remains vulnerable when it burdens protected speech, viewpoint, conscience, and patient-directed discussion.

One of the most troubling flaws is that HB26-1322 fails to protect the autonomy of adults seeking counseling for detransition. If an adult patient says, “I transitioned, I regret it, and I want professional help pursuing detransition,” the bill provides no clear safe harbor for that patient-directed goal. Its broad language against any “predetermined” gender-identity outcome could place the therapist at legal risk simply for helping the patient pursue the outcome the patient freely chose.

Detransition clearly exists. Its prevalence is uncertain, but this population has documented psychological, medical, emotional, and social-support needs. Colorado law should not chill therapists from helping adults who voluntarily seek counseling related to detransition, transition regret, faith, family, identity distress, or recovery from difficult medical decisions.

The bill also lacks meaningful damages limits, does not clearly bar class-action attempts, and allows claims to survive a patient’s death, creating potential estate litigation years or decades later.

Protecting vulnerable Coloradans matters. But protection must be precise, constitutional, and fair. HB26-1322 fails that test. Regardless of subject matter, it adds yet another legal risk to businesses seeking to provide services in Colorado. It did not deserve a celebration, it deserved a veto.

Governor's Press Release: https://buff.ly/Sl6pXey

05/28/2026

Colorado Roads Need More Than More Money

Prop 175 reflects public frustration, but taxpayers also deserve real reform inside CDOT

Colorado taxpayers are frustrated with the condition of our roads, and that frustration is exactly why citizen-led efforts like Proposition 175 are gaining traction. Proposition 175 reflects a simple demand: taxes and fees already paid for roads should actually support roads. People across this state can see the reality for themselves: worsening congestion, deteriorating pavement, aging bridges, and growing difficulty moving people and commerce efficiently across Colorado.

But taxpayers must also demand something else: better management, clearer priorities, and measurable results.

Colorado ranks near the bottom nationally in rural interstate pavement condition despite years of new fees, federal infrastructure dollars, and increasing transportation revenues. CDOT’s own planning documents show the state struggling to maintain existing infrastructure while population growth and traffic demands keep increasing.

At the same time, CDOT leadership has embraced a “cutting edge” transportation philosophy centered on greenhouse gas reduction, reduced vehicle miles traveled, transit expansion, and mode-shift policies. Transit may make sense in dense urban corridors, but Colorado remains heavily dependent on highways for agriculture, freight, tourism, emergency response, and daily commuting. Coloradans are right to ask why basic road conditions are falling behind while leadership pursues theories about how people should travel.

The Governor’s recent restructuring of the Office of Information Technology is instructive. The stated reason was performance failure, not simply budget cutting or AI replacement. OIT had received negative feedback from the State Auditor, legislative oversight, and customer agencies. Its customer-satisfaction scores reportedly improved only from 31% to 36%, far short of the former director’s 67% goal. That was enough to trigger major leadership change, layoffs, restructuring, and a new operating model.

That same political will needs to be applied to CDOT.

CDOT has also faced repeated audit concerns involving project oversight, procurement, transparency, consultant dependence, contract administration, and cost control. Prior reviews have identified weak risk management, incomplete documentation, delayed project closeouts, inconsistent project management practices, and potential savings through better oversight alone.

If poor performance at OIT justifies a serious operational reset, poor performance in transportation should not be excused. Roads and bridges are core infrastructure for families, businesses, farmers, ranchers, tourists, emergency responders, and every taxpayer who depends on Colorado’s economy functioning.

If citizens approve additional transportation funding through Proposition 175 or any future measure, that money must be paired with real reform. Taxpayers deserve proof that every additional dollar is improving road quality, safety, congestion relief, and infrastructure durability.

Coloradans are willing to invest in transportation. But they deserve more bang for the buck, stronger accountability from conception to completion, and a CDOT focused first on delivering safe, reliable roads and bridges for the people paying the bill.

05/25/2026

This Memorial Day, let us honor the brave men and women who gave their lives defending this nation, protecting our freedoms, and preserving America’s great experiment in individual liberty and self-governance.

Their sacrifice secured the blessings of freedom for generations they would never meet. May we never forget the cost of the liberties we too often take for granted, and may we strive to remain worthy of the legacy they left behind.

God bless our fallen heroes, their families, and the United States of America.

05/25/2026

THE RICHARDSON REPORT:

Rural Colorado took some hits this session, but we also secured some meaningful wins.

From agriculture and small businesses to rural schools, local governments, landfill grant relief, and stopping bad bills that would have made life harder on our communities, this update highlights where rural Colorado made progress and where the fight continues.

It is an honor to be the voice of HD56. We did not win every fight, but rural Colorado matters, and I will keep making sure Denver hears it.

Read the full newsletter here: https://buff.ly/JQavsuT

05/22/2026

Colorado’s Business Climate Cannot Be Taken for Granted

Colorado is still living off its historic advantages: talented people, strong communities, natural resources, agriculture, aerospace, energy, tourism, research institutions, and a quality of life that has drawn families and businesses here for generations. But those advantages are not permanent. They can be weakened, and in too many cases, state policy is doing exactly that.

As the Ranking Member of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, I hear regularly from employers who are not asking for special treatment. They are asking for a fair chance to operate, hire, grow, and serve their communities without being buried under constantly changing mandates, reporting requirements, legal risks, wage rules, benefit expansions, and regulatory uncertainty.

That matters because small businesses are not a side issue in Colorado’s economy. They are roughly half of our job producers. They sponsor the local Little League team, donate to the county fair, keep the lights on downtown, and provide the first job for many young people. In rural and frontier Colorado, a small business is often more than a business. It may be the feed store, the repair shop, the café, the local contractor, the grocery store, or the only employer keeping a family in town.

To be fair, the 2026 legislative session did include some useful steps in the right direction. Measures to reduce administrative burdens, streamline certain health-care rules, modernize CPA certification pathways, preserve job-growth incentives, support small-business recovery loans, address child-care capacity, and reduce certain payment-card fees all show that regulatory relief is possible when policymakers listen to job creators. Those efforts deserve recognition.

But targeted relief does not erase the larger trend. For years, Colorado has layered new costs and compliance obligations onto employers: paid leave requirements, wage and hour penalties, pay-transparency rules, harassment liability changes, privacy and AI regulations, deceptive-trade-practice expansions, and sector-specific mandates. Each one may be defended in isolation. Together, they create a stack of burdens that small businesses are least able to absorb.

When state government adds cost after cost, it may look minor from Denver. On Main Street, it can mean one less employee, shorter hours, higher prices, delayed expansion, or a closed storefront. Rural businesses cannot always absorb these costs, and they cannot simply relocate across town to a larger market.

Colorado does not need to choose between workers and employers. We need a climate where both can succeed. That starts by recognizing that every new mandate has a real-world cost, and that a healthy business environment is essential to keeping our communities, especially our rural communities, alive and strong.

05/21/2026

Last Saturday’s Meat-In in Elizabeth was another huge success — a proud annual celebration of our ranchers, livestock producers, agriculture community, and the rural way of life. What started in 2021 as a response to an ill-considered proclamation from the Governor to partake in a "Meat-Out" Day, has grown into a strong reminder that Colorado’s producers deserve respect, not lectures from Denver bureaucrats.

Beef. Community. Colorado values. That’s what this event is all about.

05/21/2026

What a wonderful event. Great questions and such a tremendous opportunity to reconnect after a looong legislative session. It's an honor to represent the folks of eastern El Paso!

05/19/2026

Agriculture Is Being Squeezed From All Directions

The communities of House District 56 know better than most that agriculture is not simply an industry; it is the economic backbone of much of eastern Colorado. From family farms along the I-70 corridor to cattle operations, feedlots, dairies, and dryland and irrigated ground across the Eastern Plains, agriculture supports local jobs, schools, roads, equipment dealers, and Main Street businesses throughout our district.

But our producers are under growing pressure from every direction.

Many of the challenges are national and global in nature. Fuel costs remain elevated. Interest rates have sharply increased the cost of operating loans and equipment financing. Fertilizer, feed, insurance, labor, and transportation expenses have all risen dramatically since 2019. Drought and water uncertainty continue to weigh heavily on producers across the West.

Yet here in Colorado, state policy is too often making life harder, not easier, for the farmers and ranchers who feed our state and nation.

Colorado agriculture contributes roughly $47 billion annually to our economy, yet only about one-third of Colorado farms reported positive net cash farm income in the most recent Census of Agriculture. This is well below the national average. That should concern every legislator in Colorado, rural or urban.

Producers continue to face mounting mandates, regulations, compliance burdens, and increasing legal risks. Businesses across Colorado are struggling under growing labor mandates, environmental regulations, reporting requirements, and rising operating costs. But agriculture faces a uniquely difficult reality because farms and ranches are tied directly to the land.

A corporation can relocate a headquarters. A manufacturer can move a factory. Farmers and ranchers in House District 56 cannot simply move thousands of acres of ground, grazing land, pivots, barns, and feedlots to another state when policy decisions in Denver make operating here increasingly difficult.

In the 2021 session, the state imposed agricultural overtime rules that many producers warned were incompatible with harvest seasons, calving, irrigation schedules, and weather-dependent operations. While the legislature partially corrected course this year by restoring a 56-hour overtime threshold, broader labor-cost pressures remain.

Colorado’s California-style clean truck mandates also threaten to increase costs and reduce availability of the semi-trucks our rural communities depend on to haul cattle, hay, grain, feed, fuel, and equipment across the vast distances of eastern Colorado.

Water policy remains another major concern. Across eastern Colorado, producers face growing uncertainty over long-term water availability, groundwater regulation, and compact compliance. All while trying to keep family operations viable for the next generation.

Producers are also facing pressure from constant pesticide and rodenticide restriction proposals, limitations on seed types, escalating energy regulations tied to statewide greenhouse gas mandates, and policies that weaken Colorado’s oil and gas sector. That industry compliments agriculture and supports many rural communities through jobs, royalty income, tax revenue, and affordable energy.

These are issues I intend to continue discussing directly with producers throughout the district during the interim in hopes of identifying practical solutions and meaningful legislative relief that lowers costs, reduces unnecessary burdens, restores flexibility, and protects the future of agriculture on Colorado’s Eastern Plains.

05/16/2026

End of Session RICHARDSON REPORT":

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”

The 2026 session proved that warning still matters. After 120 days under the Gold Dome, the gavel finally fell at 7:17 p.m. Wednesday. Some good bills made it through. Too many common-sense reforms were killed. Here’s my recap of the wins, losses, and fights for House District 56

Read the newsletter at: https://buff.ly/qvUNIJS