HB1202 Passes with Amendment

Well, it passed.  This experience with working with legislators has been eye-opening.  How does one play the game?  It's clear that it is about making alliances, compromising, encouraging a grassroots response to what is often a well-funded, corporate lobbying campaign.

Did we make all the right calls?  The answer is, we don't know.  But we do know that we were driven by a passion to preserve the right of families to access support services that truly meet their needs if they want to conduct a home or green funeral.

With the amendment sponsored by Senators Heath and Tochtrop protecting the right of Natural Transitions to continue with our educational and support of home funeral families, we must move forward, promote the creation of a North American Home Funeral Alliance - fundraise - because being out of the woods legislatively speaking, we face a challenge in these economic times of attracting donations to continue our work.

We are looking forward to our first workshop outside Boulder - In Colorado Springs on June 13 - and really are excited at the many great people who have contacted us since we spoke out on behalf of the home funeral movement and future home funeral consumers.

Blessings... and let us know if you are interested in our Green and Home Funeral Conference in Boulder, October 3.  

Home Funeral Voices Heard in Senate Committee

Opponents to HB1202 had the first opportunity to voice their concerns in the Senate Committee on Business, Technology, and Labor on Wednesday, April 22, 2009.  The opportunity to do this when the bill was in the House slipped by when it came up with very little time to make it to the Capitol for testimony.  Unlike our experience in the House, the Senate sponsor, Joyce Foster, did inform us of the bill's schedule and this enabled us to contact others in opposition to the bill who were then able to testify.

Represented in person were NT and  Prairie Wilderness Cemeteries.  Citizen expert on end-of-life issues and author, Bart Windrum presented his views on preserving choice around funeral provision, and two former client families shared their stories about how much they valued the education and support given by Natural Transitions.

A funeral director from Colorado Springs who was against the bill informed the committee that he foresaw higher prices and saw the bill as an attempt to control who enters the industry, which would result in less choice for consumers.  He contended that regulations and standards were in existence to protect the consumer.

Senator Heath and Senator Tochtrop stated their intention to support the bill on condition that they could include an amendment - the Tochtrop/Heath amendment, that would explicitly preserve the right of families to use providers who are not conventionally-trained,  according to the mortuary philosophy, who would then be able to offer continued support to home funeral families.

Colorado is a state where many citizens have an "I'm going to do it my way" kind of attitude. Avoiding what are the "unintended consequences" of this bill by explicitly stating the consumers right to choose, will help preserve the right of Coloradoans to care for their dead in their own way and to receive assistance from organizations like NT. 

Though an amendment is in the works, it is imperative that when it comes to a vote, Senators are informed of where we stand on the bill and how we would like them to vote.  Our thanks go to the many hundreds of people who have spoken out.

Reason for Hope. Bill sent back to committee

On Friday, April 2, 2009, the members of the Colorado House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee sent House Bill 1202 on funeral regulation back to the first committee - the House Business and Labor committee.  The members of this committee had passed the bill unanimously, and yet this was at a time when opponents of the bill had not been alerted to its nature.  As the bill was drafted with exclusive input from vested corporate funeral industry lobbyists, there was no testimony from consumer representatives and alternative funeral providers and opponents from within the funeral industry.

This is a big opportunity to educate and influence the members of this committee.  We must not be complacent and we must phone and email the members of this committee to let them know the implications of this legislation if it is passed.

The list of members is posted on our website at www.naturaltransitions.org - on the Funeral Bill Action page.  We really hope that people will go the extra mile and spend time to do voice their opinions.  It is encouraging that our voices are able to reach those in the corridors of power, even though we are not a well-funded, industry machine.  

I want to urge you all to keep up the emails and phone numbers.  I have posted senators' names on our webpage too - and also getting to the Governor will be key.

Apart from unnecessary prescriptions around families' access to the bodies of dead loved-ones, the title protection requirement for the term funeral director is really what will affect this movement to bring greener and alternative options such as home funeral services.  The Department of Regulatory agencies did not recommend title protection in its last review of the funeral industry in 2007.  This has been slipped in as a protective measure to ensure that anyone entering the profession subscribe to practices such as embalming (experience required in order to qualify for registration - registration is being introduced - and that, in itself, is not such a bad thing).  Taking the national funeral board exam is also a way to entrench practices.  

This is a stealth measure to squash alternative competition that will stop the provision of simple, low cost, greener alternatives that threaten big funeral business.

Coalition against HB1202 wants task force

A group including those hoping to introduce natural burial options in Colorado is working towards persuading legislators to table HB 1202.  This bill needs a major overhaul and a task force that can consider the implications of changes.  It is not in the interest of the green and home funeral movement to do this in haste.  Nancy Todd has called a meeting of funeral directors who drafted the bill and those who oppose the bill on March 18 at 3Pm and although this will be an opportunity to air concerns and viewpoints, we do not believe it is a suitable forum for negotiation.   

Regulatory agency report from 2007 recommends no licensing

Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA - Sunrise Review of the Funeral Service Practitioner.  Dec 6. 2007

This makes illuminating reading and comes via the Funeral Consumers' Society of Colorado informational sheet on last year's licensing bill attempt.

This is from the FCSC document.

Colorado's Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) recently investigated the need for licensing the funeral industry.  This was done at the request of the funeral industry itself, for the second time in six years.  DORA again concluded that 

(FROM THE DORA REPORT ACCORDING TO THE FSCS) 

"no evidence was presented that demonstrated that Colorado practitioners lacked competency, skills or education to warrant an increase in regulatory oversight through a licensure program."  

FCSC document further states "DORA found no need for formal licensing and instead recommended mere registration."

Colorado Funeral Bill HB 1202

Funeral Bill HB 1202 does not bode well for the movement to create personal, green, and affordable funeral care options for funeral families.  We in Natural Transitions, our board members, our many client families, and our supporters need to keep the faith, maintain an open heart, and believe that lawmakers will choose to preserve rights and resources that allow families to care for their own dead.  It's time to speak out, if you care.  Lisa Carlson, who founded the Funeral Ethics Organization is a champion of funeral rights for the consumer.  She's putting in her two cents about this bill.  The Funeral Consumers Alliance thinks this is a very bad bill for the consumer.  Surely the voices of these organizations will illuminate the dire implications for Colorado families if this bill passes?  In service.