Colorado lawmakers are set to give final approval to a bill that would allow state childhood vaccine recommendations to rely on findings from organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics amid a shift of federal guidelines on what immunizations are appropriate for kids.

Senate Bill 26-32 passed the House on Monday on a party-line vote. It passed the Senate the same way in early February.

“Vaccines have put diseases like polio in the history books, but we are at risk of losing decades of progress in the current uncertain federal times,” Representative Kyle Brown, a Louisville Democrat, said on the House floor last week. “Recent outbreaks, including measles cases here in Colorado and across the nation, have demonstrated how quickly vaccine-preventable diseases can resurface when coverage and confidence decline.”

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Colorado has 10 recorded measles cases in unvaccinated children so far this year, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

CDPHE and the state’s health board have historically relied on the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for vaccine recommendations. SB-32 would allow the state to look to other professional medical organizations when establishing the childhood vaccine schedule. In addition to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the bill names as authorities the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“What it allows us to do is have structure, clarity and stability for professionals based on the best available science and stability for professionals who are responsible for delivering care,” Brown said during the bill’s House committee hearing in February.

The measure comes after federal health officials, under the direction of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., scaled back the number of routine vaccines children should receive from 17 to 11. Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic who replaced the members of ACIP with people who have doubted the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Colorado joined a multistate lawsuit against that shift of childhood immunization policy. On Monday, a federal judge in a different lawsuit blocked the changes to the vaccine schedule and Kennedy’s ACIP appointments.

The Colorado bill would also let pharmacists prescribe and administer vaccines. It would not create any new vaccine mandates or get rid of any vaccine exemption policies.

Republican opposition

It was amended on the House floor to remove a manufacturer liability protection, though bill opponents still worry it offers too much protection against liability for other groups. The Senate will need to vote on whether to agree with that amendment. Colorado law has liability protections for certain providers for some age groups. Bill sponsors say the bill maintains accountability for misconduct and negligence.

“This bill gives providers confidence to continue offering vaccines based on medical science, while maintaining legal resources in cases of true malpractice,” Representative Lisa Feret, an Arvada Democrat, said during the bill’s House committee hearing.

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In their arguments against the bill, House Republicans said people should be able to make a personal choice whether to vaccinate themselves or their children, made in coordination with a doctor, who knows their precise medical history. They likened the bill’s tenor to the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for workers in some industries.

“I don’t feel like the state gets to mandate or adopt rules establishing a schedule of recommended immunizations,” Representative Brandi Bradley, a Douglas County Republican, said. “Right now, (the bill) says ‘recommended.’ I believe this is the pathway to mandating, and I believe the people of Colorado have spoken about that.”

“Proponents of this bill seem to believe that that their side is real science and what’s coming out of D.C. is junk science,” she said.

Colorado joined the Governors Public Health Alliance in October to coordinate policy and share best practices for vaccines. It is one of 29 states that explicitly reject federal vaccine guidance.