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During the special session, the legislature passed a bill ceding the responsibility of cutting the budget to the governor’s office.

Democrats at the Capitol also pushed back the start date of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation AI law, shored up subsidies on health insurance and tweaked a pair of measures on the November ballot.

The moves comes after the Berthoud Republican abruptly resigned from the state legislature last week in an apparent attempt to avoid a censure.

The move came after a deal between consumer advocates, the tech industry and others on how to move forward on the measure fell apart.

Two bills passed in Colorado’s special session aim to safeguard safety-net programs. One boosts state funding for SNAP food assistance, the other guarantees Medicaid coverage at Planned Parenthood clinics.

If the agreement holds, it would end nearly two years of negotiations on how to try to prevent AI from harming people when they do things like apply for jobs, seek out loans and pursue a college degree.

Lawmakers say some special sessions feel more "special," or necessary, than others.

The extraordinary changes to the Senate Appropriations Committee give Democrats a 5-2 advantage on the panel, whereas before they had a 4-3 majority. Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges was removed from the committee.

Senate Bill 5 would move about $250,000 in funding earmarked for wolf reintroduction into a fund aimed at driving down health care costs. Colorado Parks and Wildlife will have to find the funding elsewhere to continue its reintroduction plans — which doesn’t appear to be a problem for the agency.

Democrats claim House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese withheld information about who took a surreptitious photo of a female lawmaker. On Thursday, Pugliese said that’s not true.