State lawmakers Tuesday killed a bill that would have codified 41-year-old case law by making the legislature’s political party caucuses subject to the Colorado Open Meetings Law, but it also would have exempted all affinity caucus meetings from the law’s notice and minutes requirements.

The General Assembly this session already made major changes to the open meetings law as it applies to legislators, letting them communicate by email and text message without it being a “meeting” and narrowing the definition of “public business.”

House Bill 24-1303 was an attempt by Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, to bring some “consistency and predictability” to the rules governing meetings of lawmakers, she told members of the House Judiciary Committee. “We need to have rules that are simple enough that we can understand them and follow them without having to get expert advice every time we encounter a situation.”