COLORADO — The Colorado House's State, Civic, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee defeated SB26-090 by a 7-to-4 vote in April 2026, classifying the measure as postponed indefinitely. The bill would have carved out an exception to the state's consumer right to repair protections for critical infrastructure.

SB26-090 was introduced during a Colorado Senate hearing on April 2, 2026, where it passed by a unanimous vote. The bill then passed the Colorado Senate on April 16, 2026, before moving to the House committee that ultimately rejected it.

Colorado's Consumer Right to Repair Digital Electronic Equipment law went into effect in January 2026, ensuring access to tools and documentation needed to modify and fix digital electronics such as phones, computers, and Wi-Fi routers. Lobbying efforts from companies including Cisco and IBM supported SB26-090. Supporters pointed to potential cybersecurity risks as their motivation for altering the law's language, arguing that withholding repair tools would make them less available to hackers who could misuse them, and that companies should be allowed to keep their secrets if doing so ensured security.

Speaking against SB26-090 were repair advocates from PIRG, Repair.org, iFixit, Consumer Reports, Blue Star Recyclers, Recycle Colorado, Environment Colorado, and GreenLatinos. Colorado state Rep. Chad Clifford, a Democrat, vice chair of the committee and a prime sponsor of the bill, defended the carve-out during the hearing.

"I don't know why anybody has to have lava lamps on a wall to keep the Chinese from getting into a network, but it's what they came up with that worked. How they do that, I believe they should be able to keep it a secret, even in Colorado." Clifford also warned of commercial consequences if affected companies were required to share proprietary information. "They're not going to comply and give away the keys to their kingdom for the things that are securing billions of dollars of interest for their customers over the law that we passed. What they're going to do is just not have commerce on those items here."

Cybersecurity expert and white hat hacker Billy Rios disputed the premise that secrecy provides reliable protection. "There is no time. It doesn't work that way."

Danny Katz, executive director of the consumer advocacy group CoPIRG, addressed the outcome in an email. "While we were making progress at chipping away at the momentum for it, we had still been losing. So, we took nothing for granted, and I believe the incredible testimony from the broad range of cybersecurity experts, businesses, repair advocates, recyclers, and people who want the freedom to fix their stuff made a big difference."