MARCH 1, 2001
DENVER

The sponsor of a bill that was killed in the House says he will resurrect the measure, which seeks to prevent lawsuits filed to scare people away from testifying before government bodies. Rep. Bill Sinclair, R-Colorado Springs, said he will have the votes to get the bill to the Senate. He said he thinks there is enough support to push the bill on to the governor's desk.

Sinclair's House Bill 1150 would have made it more difficult to file strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPPs. The measure would have provided civil immunity to people who testify before government bodies with the intent of prompting some kind of action.

The House voted 32-32 on the measure, killing it. Members also voted against a motion to reconsider the vote. Such action normally means a bill is finished. But Sinclair said he asked legislative lawyers to review house rules and they found that failure of a motion to reconsider does not prohibit reintroduction of the bill.

He said he has the support of House Speaker Doug Dean, R-Colorado Springs, to reintroduce the bill late in the session. "I want a cooling-off period so it can be reconsidered by some of those (members) who found they had to vote against the bill," Sinclair said.

The bill passed the second of three readings in the House on Feb. 20, but enough members changed their vote to kill the bill on final consideration the next day after an intense lobbying effort. Opponents were concerned that the broad immunity under the bill would allow people to lie during testimony.

Sinclair has argued that such broad immunity is necessary to protect people when they testify. He said the public testimony process gives people representing both sides the opportunity to rebut each other's testimony, protecting the truth.

He said he still believes the immunity should be kept as broad as possible to ensure that people are not scared away from testifying, but said he acknowledged he might have to make concessions. "But if it can't be done, I'm not going to mislead the public and let them think there is a protection for their testimony," Sinclair said.

Source: Associated Press, www.thedailycamera.com