Colorado House Republican slows down budget debate in protest of ethics process

Seth Klamann, The Denver Post on Apr 9, 2026

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DENVER — Colorado lawmakers’ choreographed, multiweek budget marathon has hit a sizable speed bump after a Republican triggered the legislative equivalent of the nuclear option — a move made in protest of how the House handled a recent ethics complaint she’d filed.

During debate on the state budget Wednesday night, Rep. Brandi Bradley, of Littleton, asked that the measure — which is so lengthy that it’s known simply as the long bill — be read aloud. Under the state constitution, any lawmaker can request that every line in any piece of legislation be read aloud by a computer.

For the long bill, that process would take roughly 15 hours.

The move is among the most significant delay tactics available in the legislature, which runs on tradition and an ironclad 120-day timeline; triggering it this week would disrupt the legislature’s budget marathon. Still, the interruption would be temporary, and House lawmakers would still have time to send the bill to the Senate early next week, as scheduled.

In comments from the House floor Wednesday, Bradley said she was making the request to protest how her ethics complaint against fellow Republican Rep. Ron Weinberg was handled. Last year, Bradley accused Weinberg of making sexually inappropriate comments and of using a copy of a Capitol master key to enter another lawmaker’s office.

“Our own ethical complaint process is broken. It is ripe with abuse and it must be fixed,” she said from the House floor. “I have been personally victimized both by a member here and by our so-called ethical process.”

A legislative ethics committee, composed of five lawmakers, met to consider Bradley’s complaint. After gathering evidence, the group found probable cause to support two of Bradley’s six allegations.

Weinberg, who has denied sexual harassment allegations in the past, initially requested an evidentiary hearing but later withdrew that request. The ethics committee then recommended that House leadership send Weinberg a formal letter of admonishment and directed him to take sexual harassment training.

In an interview Wednesday night, Bradley said the ethics committee’s recommendations should’ve been brought before the full House for discussion. They were instead sent to House leadership, who sent a letter to Weinberg. Bradley and Rep. Stephanie Luck, a Penrose Republican, said they wanted House rules to more clearly require a chamber-wide discussion for ethics complaints generally, and for Weinberg’s recommendations to come before the full House.

Otherwise, the budget would have to be read aloud.

The House rules that establish the ethics process state that the investigative committee “shall make appropriate recommendations to the House of Representatives.” But, the rules say, that clause is triggered only after an evidentiary hearing — which Weinberg ultimately did not pursue.

After Bradley requested the bill’s full reading, House Majority Leader Monica Duran quickly moved to delay the reading until Thursday. The chamber then took up several subsidiary budget bills, about which debate continued on Thursday. The long bill was pushed to the bottom of the queue.

Democratic and Republican leadership both declined to comment through spokespeople Thursday. Earlier that day, Duran said she had not decided when to bring the long bill to the floor and begin the hourslong reading.

Other Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including leadership, had been unaware of Bradley’s intent until she made the announcement on the House floor.

Reading the budget bill at length has long served as something of a nuclear option for House Republicans. The budget offers the minority caucus its greatest leverage point because reading it aloud chews up precious calendar time.

But triggering that option would also prompt recriminations from Democratic leaders, who hold power over the scheduling of Republican bills. They can also bring lawmakers in to work weekends — a threat that carries extra weight now, as Republicans prepare for their statewide assembly Saturday in Pueblo.

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