Senate committee advances bill to require large private employers to file EEO‑1 workforce data with Colorado

Sen. Kipp introduced House Bill 26‑1207 on behalf of sponsors, saying the measure would require private employers with 100 or more workers to submit their federal EEO‑1 workforce demographic reports to the Colorado Secretary of State so state policymakers can identify pay and opportunity gaps.

Supporters including researchers and advocacy groups told the committee that the bill requires no new data collection and would preserve data access if the federal government reduces public reporting. ‘‘You cannot fix what you refuse to measure,’’ said Bobby Alexander, who urged lawmakers to support the bill as a tool for accountability. Corey Streetman of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce argued that transparency is the “first step for change” and cited other states that have used similar data to inform policy.

Business groups and industry witnesses opposed the bill as written, asking for confidentiality and aggregation safeguards. Caroline Woodhouse, testifying for a bankers association, said, “EO‑1 data is sensitive. It is normally submitted only to the federal government under strict confidentiality rules,” and warned that public disclosure could enable data scraping, targeted phishing and the indirect identification of employees in small units.

Parker White, director of Colorado C3 / chambers of commerce, told the committee that several other states collect similar information but do so with anonymized, aggregated dashboards and confidentiality protections. He said the federal process generally limits public access and that reproducing raw EEO‑1 files at the state level would be “extremely dangerous.”

The sponsors offered two amendments during committee consideration. L002 was described as a technical fix requested by independent higher-education institutions to avoid duplicate reporting where federal IPEDS data already covers institutions; the committee adopted L002 without objection. L004 adjusted the bill’s timelines to align reporting readiness (the sponsor referenced an implementation date tied to July 1); the committee adopted L004 without objection.

After debate, Sen. Johnson moved the bill to the Committee on Appropriations. The clerk’s poll produced a 3–2 vote to advance the measure. The recorded positions show three votes in favor and two opposed; the bill now goes to Appropriations for further consideration.

Next steps: HB26‑1207 will be considered by the Appropriations Committee, where sponsors and opponents may negotiate confidentiality and aggregation provisions that business witnesses requested.