Ritter Signs Breastfeeding at Work, Textbook Bills

Gov. Bill Ritter signed Monday a bill that requires employers to provide time and space for nursing mothers to breastfeed or pump milk.

HB 1276 says that an employer cannot meet the requirement by forcing an employee to use a toilet stall. It also requires an employee who believes she has not been accommodated to submit to mediation before suing her employer.

The "Workplace Accommodations for Nursing Mothers Act" was sponsored by Rep. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, and Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne.

Today the governor signed a bill that will force textbook publishers to "unbundle" CDs and DVDs from textbooks, disclose revisions from prior editions of textbooks, and publicly disclose the textbook prices.

SB 73, sponsored by Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder, and Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins, was lauded by the governor as a pro-consumer measure.

"This is a consumer right-to-know bill for students and educators alike,” Ritter said. “It represents an important step toward transparency and will help students and their families plan their budgets. Textbooks cost students hundreds of dollars a semester, and with two students in college myself, I know that every dollar counts.”

College Textbook Affordability Act Heads to Ritter's Desk

The Senate approved Friday an amended version of SB 73, the proposed "College Textbook Affordability Act," and sent the bill to Gov. Ritter.

The bill aims to ensure that students are provided with more information about the textbooks required in classes, in order to be able to compare previous editions with the current edition specified by the course instructor, and prevents publishers from requiring that textbooks be purchased in a bundle with other media items such as DVDs.

To accomplish the information objective, the bill requires textbook publishers to post on their websites the prices of textbooks, history of substantive revisions to textbooks, and estimated length of time the publisher intends to keep such textbooks on the market.

The Senate sponsor is Democrat Ron Tupa of Boulder. The measure was sponsored in the House by Rep. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins.

There was no opposition to passage of the amended bill by the Senate Friday.