You might have thought that with 36 fewer days in the 2020 legislative session, there would have been fewer bills for lawmakers to deal with. You’d be wrong.

Lawmakers managed to cram in more bills into the 2020 session (651) than they did in the previous year (598).

According to the office of Legislative Legal Services, 427 bills were introduced in the House and 224 in the Senate. The numbers are more lopsided for the House because they were the first chamber on the budget, 40 orbital bills, budget supplementals earlier in the year and the School Finance Act.

One number that stands out: the total number of bills that died without final action. In a normal year, such as in 2018, that was two.

In 2020, it was 59, with 39 that were never reported out from committee to second reading. Nineteen died awaiting second reading. One Senate bill made it to a House committee but was never reported out, meaning it didn’t get a hearing.

Most of those 39 remaining bills that never made it out of committee died in either the House or Senate appropriations committees, which would have been the second committee to hear those bills. (This is for you GAVEL fanatics: GAVEL is the amendment that requires every bill to get at least one committee hearing).

The number of bills postponed indefinitely in committees also was substantial, at 260, and that’s largely due to the pandemic. Once lawmakers returned from their 73-day recess, many spent the first week eliminating bills that could be put off for another year or had costs that the state couldn’t afford, in a year when the Joint Budget Committee had to cut $3.3 billion in the general fund for the 2020-21 state budget.

As of June 17, Gov. Jared Polis has signed into law 96 measures. An additional 51 have been sent to the governor for action, and 182 are in their final stages before that step. That would make a total of 329 that are headed to Polis’ desk. That’s not that much less than in an average year. For example, In 2017, then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed 421 bils and vetoed two, about 65% of the 680 bills that ran though the General Assembly that year.

Who sponsored the most bills, House version

Colorado Politics counted up prime sponsorship of bills and as introduced, not including those sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee.

While technically, lawmakers are supposed be limited to five bills, that’s rarely the case, and in 2020, that still holds.

The champion for the GOP side of the House in 2020: Rep. Hugh McKean of Loveland, the two-time winner of the House chili contest, who sponsored 21 bills in the House and six from the Senate. Twenty-two, or 81%, made it to the governor’s desk.

For the Democrats, House Majority Leader Alec Garnett of Denver saw 93% of his 14 bills head to the governor. Four bills were co-sponsored with House and Senate leadership, and even taking those out, 90% of his bills passed. Helps to be in Democratic leadership.

For Democrats not in House leadership, the most successful, at least in getting bills passed, was Rep. Leslie Herod of Denver, who sponsored 23 bills, a dozen in the House and 11 in the Senate. Sixteen bills, or 70%, made it to the governor.

Four members of the House, two Democrats and two Republicans, joined the chamber for the first time this year. Republican Rep. Richard Champion of Littleton replaced Rep. Susan Beckman and Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron succeeded the late Rep. Kimmi Lewis of Kim.

Champion didn’t run a single bill in 2020. He was sworn in on Feb. 12, serving a total of 52 out of the session’s 84 days. He also claimed per diem for 12 days of the 73-day recess. Beckman, prior to resigning in January to take a job with the Trump administration, carried one bill in the House and one from the Senate. Neither made it out of committee.

Holtorf fared better, with six bills in the House and three from the Senate. Three measures made it to the governor’s desk.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Mary Young of Greeley was sworn in last June after the end of the 2019 session, so 2020 was her first year to sponsor legislation. She replaced Rep. Rochelle Galindo, who resigned after sexual misconduct allegations.

Galindo was never criminally charged with those allegations, but she was to face a jury trial this month on a misdemeanor charge of providing alcohol to an underage campaign staffer.

Young sponsored eight bills in the House and six from the Senate. Six made it to the governor’s desk.

Rep. Steven Woodrow of Denver was sworn in on Feb. 7, replacing Chris Hansen, who went to the Senate. Woodrow sponsored just one bill in 2020, a measure introduced June 1 on funding for eviction legal defense, which failed to make it out of committee. He collected per diem for 17 days of the 73-day recess.

Who sponsored the most bills, Senate version

Senators end up sponsoring more bills. It’s a numbers game, with 35 of them versus 65 in the House.

It also means their bill-passing percentage isn’t going to be as high, since many sponsor twice as many House bills.

The most prolific lawmaker in 2020, with the most bills carried, was Sen. Rhonda Fields, an Aurora Democrat, who carried 18 Senate bills and 29 in the House. Her pass rate, with 27 bills that went to the governor, is 57%, which is pretty high for anyone in the Senate. Sen. Angela Williams, a Denver Democrat, sponsored seven bills, three in the Senate and four in the House, and six went to the governor.

Among the GOP, term-limited Sen. Jack Tate of Centennial saw the most bills passed, with 24 out of 40.

The lanterne rouge

The title for least number of bills in the Senate belongs to the term-limited Sen. Owen Hill, a Colorado Springs Republican, who sponsored just one that failed in committee. He also was absent twice (!), excused 15 days and gone at least part of the day for three more, a total of 20 days out of 84. He also collected per diem for 72 days of the 73-day recess.

Being absent means you didn’t seek permission to be excused, or just flat out didn’t show up. That’s something lawmakers try very hard to avoid.

“I tried to be there for the important votes,” Hill told Colorado Politics. He noted he’s transitioning back to the private sector, and now has a full-time job. “I had a commitment to be there and needed to honor that,” he said.