Disturbing discoveries at Colorado funeral homes over the last few years have led state lawmakers to enact regulations on an industry that has largely operated without oversight, and there is a concerted effort this session to e nsure upstanding businesses do not buckle under the changes made in the Capitol.Death and dying, much like taxes, are things that are never going to go away," said State Rep. Matt Soper, R District 54. We need the industry there, because this is not an industry where people are waking up saying, 'I want to go be a funeral director,' and it's one that we have to make sure is still healthy and vibrant in Colorado.However, concerns around what this latest proposal would mean for consumers were shared with Denver7, which took those questions straight to lawmakers. WATCH: Denver7 takes viewer questions about House Bill 26-1258 directly to a prime sponsor of the proposal Lawmaker addresses consumer concerns related to funeral home legislation being considered in the CapitolHouse Bill 26-1258 is a bipartisan piece of legislation that seeks to accomplish a number of goals. Among them is increasing the abuse of a corpse charge from a Class 6 felony to a Class 5 felony to allow harsher penalties for the crime, clarifying how the new licensing program for funeral home operators will function, and streamlining the fees connected to new regulations.Beginning next year, funeral home directors will be required to obtain a license in Colorado.However, Soper said the proposal this year will ensure that new requirement is sustainable for small businesses. Originally, the legislation required each funeral home to have a lincensee."It didn't really make sense to industry, because there's not people dying to go into the funeral industry. And so, if you have to have one licensed designee per establishment, then you would just drive out the mom and pop funeral homes," Soper explained about the licensing portion of the bill. We said, 'OK, we're only interested in the one licensed designee who the state can hold accountable if something goes wrong with the business entity.'"The license requirement was a section of a 2024 state law that originally worried Jimmy Brown, a licensed funeral director at Brown Funeral Homes which serves Eastern Colorado."Our primary concern for our business and small businesses like ours dealt with the appointed designee. Verbiage in the original law required every funeral establishment had to have an appointed designee that must be fully licensed," Brown told Denver7. "We could only serve as the appointed designee in one facility, one of our locations, and as the law stood and stands today, it will probably force us to close three of our locations in rural Colorado.Brown reached out to lawmakers about this impending issue, which he believes is solved via HB26-1258."We've devoted our lives to this work, and we were thrilled to see the implementation of much of this," Brown said about the increased regulation and speculation on the funeral industry in Colorado. This is a cleanup bill, and I think the legislature knew when they drafted their original law that there would be things that would have to be addressed moving forward.Consideration for how the heightened rules and regulations will impact small businesses was the reasoning behind the portion of the legislation regarding fees as well, according to Soper."The other thing we heard about from our small funeral homes was that the new fees, which are so much greater than they used to be because we didn't have licensure before that, they were just really suffering," said Soper. We said, 'OK, how about we streamline everything to where it's one fee that you pay.' And the industry loved that. Read more of Denver7's stories on Colorado politics hereHow did Colorado's funeral home industry get here?The death care industry was first regulated in the state in 1913. By 1983, it was deregulated, and individuals no longer needed to obtain a license to operate a funeral home.In 2018, Colorado was shocked by an investigation into Sunset Mesa Funeral Home directors on the Western Slope, which was shut down that year as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the funeral home that doubled as a body broker. In that case, human remains were sold without permission while families received containers of ashes that were not their loved one's.As a result, Senate Bill 18-234 became law, regulating non-transplant tissue banks in Colorado.In 2020, the state legislature passed House Bill 20-1148, which made abuse of a corpse a Class 6 Felony.The legislative session that followed a disturbing 2023 discovery of almost 200 bodies left decomposing at Return to Nature Funeral Home in Southern Colorado resulted in new laws as well. One of those was House Bill 24-1335, which included the requirement for routine inspections of funeral homes and crematories.Currently, there are just a few requirements needed to operate a funeral home, including being over 18 years of age and not having a criminal record. That will change at the start of 2027 because of Senate Bill 24-173, which established licensure Colorado had been missing.When all the legislation comes into full force on Jan. 1, 2027, you're going to see, Colorado appears as a much more professionalized, streamlined funeral industry, and it's not going to be the wild west that we've experienced over the last 40 years," Soper said.Susan Mackey, the President of the Funeral Consumer Society of Colorado (FCSC), and Leanne Abdnor, a member of the Board of Directors, reached out to Denver7 with a number of concerns about their interpretation of HB26-1258.FCSC does not advocate for or against legislation. Mackey and Abdnor said the organization works to educate consumers on equipping consumers in Colorado with the tools they need to navigate the funeral industry.The two consider the new regulations implemented by the state in 2024 necessary, but believe this year's proposal will increase the cost of funeral services for consumers.This bill, very clearly, is making funeral brokers illegal," said Mackey. "A broker is a funeral provider who doesn't have a physical funeral home, as we all envision. So they may work out of an office, they may work out of their home, and the way they operate is that they offer very affordable pricing."According to Soper, brokers have actually not been legal in Colorado since 2024."I believe there's some confusion that people believe that all of a sudden this is something new. It's not. It was already in the 2024 law. It's still here. It's just a little more black and white," said Soper. "That being said, we are still working with brokers and the funeral industry to see if there's a slight pathway for those who really are operating as what you and I would consider a funeral director, not just someone who has a website and a cell phone and could operate clear around the world.Denver7 asked Soper if an unintended consequence of HB26-1258 would increase the cost of funeral services for consumers."It should be the opposite," Soper said. "I know that professionals do pass on their licensure fees to consumers. By being able to reduce and streamline some of the fees for the business entity, that should not allow costs to go up... I mean, I'm not real sure a business is going to pass on a decrease, but at least a decrease is going to be out there. Funerals are expensive. Cremating a body is also going up in price. That's kind of the reality of the fact that everything is going up in price.Another interpretation from Mackey and Abdnor was that the bill would benefit large-scale corporations over small businesses as a result."I don't see why they're trying to squeeze these smaller operations out," Mackey said."I would say that's not true. This is one [change] that, it's beneficial to the industry as a whole, but where the most benefit is here is to the mom-and-pop funeral homes," Soper said, replying to that concern. "A big corporation can absorb the fees."The FCSC members also worried that certain language in the legislation would bar a consumer from performing an at-home funeral."We've both done home funerals, and we both know how much it can mean to families as they're going through their grief," said Abdnor.This legislation mostly touches DORA the Department of Regulatory Agencies," Soper said. "Statute, being able to bury, for example, your grandmother in your backyard, that is under the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statute. That's still allowed under current law, and it doesn't change here.""You have to notify the county clerk, and it has to be recorded with the exact coordinates of where the body is buried," he added. "There's some general guidelines that are required, like six feet under, for example, for burying a body at home, but that's still allowed.Soper added that he will make it clear that families are still able to attend cremations and such under the proposal, if that is what they would like to do.Mackey and Abdnor had questions about if the language in the proposal meant that certain artists could not sell goods like urns or jewelry directly, and would instead have to sell their products through a funeral establishment."You would still be able to sell those directly to a consumer," Soper said. "It's just if someone is offering to sell merchandise within a funeral home setting, this bill covers what that looks like and disclosures that need to be made."In addition, Denver7 asked Soper about Mackey and Abdnor's belief that HB26-1258 was written too vaguely.You want the statute to be pretty general. You want statute to not be so black and white as to not have any wiggle room for the unintended that we can't see within the future," Soper explained.Soper said the bill was crafted carefully with the industry and consumers in mind. He welcomed further conversation with Mackey and Abdnor about the legislation, too.Even though we've had bad actors, we can't overregulate because of those bad actors," said Soper. What you see from this bill is we're coming back in and we're saying, OK, now that we've figured out the lay of the land, we need to make sure it's streamlined.HB26-1258 has passed through the Colorado House of Representatives and is currently being considered in the State Senate.The state has published a consumer guide to death care in Colorado, a list of frequently asked questions, a licensing guide and an inspection form.In addition, there are videos detailing how to file a complaint and explaining the complaint process. There's more information about filing a complaint on the state website as well.In order to obtain a list of licensees and their associated disciplines, visit this link on the Division of Professions and Occupations' website. Then, click on the "plus sign" next to Board/Program and select a license code. Click "continue" at the bottom of the screen, The resulting pop-up menu can create an Excel spreadsheet, which allows the entries to be sorted by name, license number, status, disciplinary actions and more.An individual license can be searched at this link by clicking "verify if your professional is licensed/registered" and then entering information about the license in question. ...read more read less