Committee approves deadline fixes for battery stewardship assessment after agency and recycling nonprofit support

Sponsor described House Bill 26‑1219 as correcting a timing defect in earlier legislation that required the Department of Public Health and Environment to submit an embedded‑battery assessment before the department would, in practice, have received it. The sponsor said the Office of Legislative Legal Services identified a contradiction in the deadlines established by the earlier act.

Wolf Cray, the materials management unit leader at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, testified in support. Cray said the original schedule resulted in a submission deadline that would fall before the assessment was complete and that the bill aligns the general assembly due date to three months after the department receives the assessment.

"House Bill 26 12 19 ensures the department can remain in compliance with the act by adjusting the general assembly due date to 3 months from 07/01/2027 to 12/01/2027," Cray said on the record, urging committee support. Rachel Setsky, senior policy adviser at EcoCycle, also testified in support, describing the embedded‑battery assessment as a valuable tool that will help expand pathways for collecting and recycling products that contain embedded batteries and encouraging a yes vote.

The committee heard both supporters and, after no member questions, moved the bill to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation and placed it on the consent calendar. No amendments were recorded on the hearing record.