SMART Act hearings offer rare oversight of Colorado state agencies

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project

SMART act: speak up at state department/division hearings

The Colorado SMART act (see the first link below for the bill) is the formalism by how our state legislature provides oversight of various governmental agencies. Reading through the bill makes me nod with approval while at the same time pegging my scoff meter. What I mean is that the language is lofty, and I’m not sure how much genuine oversight happens.

The good news is that (regardless of the effectiveness of the oversight) a SMART act hearing is your chance to speak up if you have comment about a particular department or division of a department.

I will use the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee as my example for this post, but you could go to the legislature’s committee website (linked second below) and find any particular committee/department you’d like.

IMPORTANT NOTE: all the materials and links I show you in this post are from January 2025. The SMART hearings for 2026 are not up yet, but they will be in the near future. The screenshots and webpages I show you now will be what those for 2026 will look like and the process of finding them will be the exact same.

I will remind you after the first of the year, but these closed-up Winter days are a great time to familiarize yourself with the navigation, and older materials are great to poke around in so you have a feel for how the new ones will look and will know what to look for.

Please also feel free to speak up in the comments if you have a committee/issue that you feel is important for 2026. If you do, please point us all to the committee so we can find them too. I’ll start us all of with a couple of mine, see “Related” below.

The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee is linked third below for convenience. I zoomed out and took a screenshot of the page (screenshot 1 attached) so you could see where to find the SMART act materials for this committee.

Clicking on the link I highlight takes you to the page I link to fourth below. Screenshot 2 attached is a zoomed out overview of that page. At the top you can see a link to the meeting agenda. That line item shows the date of the meeting and in what order the various departments will go.

Scrolling further down that same page, you’ll see (check out Screenshot 3 attached) Department meeting materials. I’ve chosen the Department of Natural Resources, but the various links are pretty standard. You’ll have a list of regulations that department undertook and/or updated in the last year. Their performance plan. Lastly, you’ll see a copy of the presentation they’ll give.

Again, all of this material is from last year, but it’s wise to poke around in the old stuff so you can get a sense of where the information you’ll want to know will appear in the 2026. Great way to save time.

The public comment signup, etc. is pretty standard across committees and is pretty standard whether SMART or other hearing. As such, I won’t delve into that. There are plenty of guides out there as to how to sign up.

I will update again when I check after the first of the year. In the meantime, if you see something or think of a particular division/department you think is worthy bringing to all our attention, please add it to the comments.

Getting the ear of these committees while they’re still fresh and the legislative session is brand new will carry (I believe) more weight than committee hearings which come later. The SMART Act hearings are a great way to also bring concerns or praise to the attention of the public and the legislators.

Take your chance to speak up. Start familiarizing yourself with it now so you’re even more effective.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Zk7X2XyM4nhv2CjOtcyWJflcxL74JjN/view

https://leg.colorado.gov/committees

https://leg.colorado.gov/committees/2025A/senate/AgricultureNaturalResources

https://content.leg.colorado.gov/content/sagr2025asmartact-0

READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT COLORADO ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT

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