(The Center Square) – Coloradans will be able to continue ordering alcoholic beverages for takeout and delivery services after Governor Jared Polis signed legislation Friday that effectively extended a previous executive order. 

The governor in March signed an executive order that allowed restaurants and bars to offer to-go alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A group of bipartisan lawmakers sought to make the policy statute with Senate Bill 20-213, which Polis signed Friday at a bar in Englewood. 

“This is a bill that is designed to remove barriers and restrictions on our small businesses,” he said. “It ends prohibition around alcohol beverage takeout and delivery.

The legislation, which sunsets July 1, 2022, has the backing of the Colorado Restaurant Association, which has said it would help with the industry's economic recovery.

“Colorado bars and restaurants have been hit harder than just about any other industry in the state because of COVID, and we know that for a huge portion of those to-go sales of alcohol has been what’s kept them going,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, D-Greenwood Village, one of the bill’s sponsors.

Polis also signed Senate Bill 20-194, which allows brewpubs to sell sealed malt liquor beverages at other brewpubs that share ownership.

Polis called the legislation “pro-consumer, pro-small business.”