Breaking News: Colorado HB 1193 Passes House, Battle Expected in Senate

It has been a long week of fighting for Colorado affiliates against HB 1193 as it moved through the House. There were strong shows of solidarity by  local affiliates organized by Brian Fox, Senior Director of Business Development at  Adperio, as well as impassioned articles asking if State representatives were putting work-at-home moms out business. There was also near Machiavellian maneuvering by the likes of Overstock and Amazon using their affiliates as bargaining chips.

What all this boiled down to was one vote. As of today, the Colorado House of Representatives has passed HB 1193 (pdf) by a 33-32 vote. The bill was introduced on January 22nd, 2010, by Colorado State Representative John “Jack” Pommer, who is also Chair of the Appropriations Committee, and Senator Rollie Heath. If fully ratified the bill is expected to commence on March 1, 2010.

The battle now moves to the Colorado Senate. Colorado affiliates can take some hope in two indicators of that the legislature is feeling pressure from affiliate activity:

1. HB 1193 was amended to include an attempted exemption (pdf) for “electronic” affiliates. While this will not keep merchants from terminating affiliates simply for fear of complying with nexus issues, a stance which Representative Pommer likened to “extortion”; it does indicate that small business in Colorado will be hurt if this bill passes.
2. One Democrat voted against party lines against the bill. Considering the type of pressure Colorado is in to finding additional revenue resources, for a representative to vote non-partisan, especially when that party is the one who sponsored the bill, is indicative that the pressure being applied  is starting to work.

It is time to ramp up  that pressure in the Senate.

To find out more about HB 1193 visit either the Performance Marketing Association here, or Affiliate Advocacy here. Both are great resources. There is still time to impact the outcome of this legislation.