KC Becker

K. C. Becker
Majority Leader of the Colorado House of Representatives
Assumed office
January 11, 2017
Preceded by Crisanta Duran
Member of the Colorado House of Representatives
from the 13th district
Assumed office
November 4, 2013
Preceded by Claire Levy
Personal details
Born 1969/1970 (age 47–48)
Political party Democratic
Children 2
Education College of William and Mary (BA)
Lewis and Clark College (JD)
University of Denver (MS)

Kathleen Collins "KC" Becker is an American politician from the state of Colorado. A member of the Democratic Party, Becker serves in the Colorado House of Representatives, representing the 13th district.

Becker was elected to the city council of Boulder, Colorado, in November 2009.[1] When Claire Levy resigned from the Colorado House of Representatives in 2013, a vacancy committee selected Becker to replace her.[2] Becker acknowledged that she had planned to run for the seat in the 2014 elections, when Levy would have been unable to run due to term limits. She was sworn in on November 4, 2013.[3]

Rep. KC Becker serves as the House Majority Leader, the No. 2 position in the 65-member body.[4] She organizes the legislative calendar and makes sure all bills that make it to the House floor receive full and fair consideration.

Education

KC Becker graduated from the College of William and Mary with a B.A. in government, then went on to get her law degree from the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, where she was president of the Public Interest Law Project. Becker also has an M.S. in real estate development and construction management from the University of Denver’s Sturm School of Business.[5]

Boulder City Council

Prior to her legislative service, she served on the Boulder City Council, where she was the council’s representative on the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority and was the city’s representative to the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG). Becker was elected to the Boulder City Council in 2009. She was one of 13 candidates running for five available seats.[6]

State legislature

During the 2014 midterm election, Becker defeated Republican candidate Michael James Hocevar with 67.7 percent of the vote.[7] Becker ran unopposed during the 2016 election cycle.[7]

Given Becker's time working for the Department of the Interior as an environmental lawyer, Becker has been a key voice on water and agricultural issues in the legislature. During the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions, Becker served as the Vice Chair of the Agriculture Committee.[8] In addition to environmental legislation, Rep. Becker has focused her legislative efforts on affordable housing, women’s health care, and governmental accountability for special interest tax breaks.[9]

In 2017, Becker worked with State Rep. Jon Becker, State Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, and State Senate Minority Leader Lucia Guzman on the signature legislation of the session, a measure to stave off hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts to hospitals across the state. By exempting an obscure account called the hospital provider fee from the Referendum C cap on state revenue, the new law helps beleaguered hospitals, especially in rural areas, and allows Colorado to invest nearly $2 billion to repair and expand its crumbling, overburdened road network.[10] Additional benefits will flow to rural K-12 students, small businesses and Colorado’s seniors.[10] Becker and Sonnenberg spent nearly the entire legislative session negotiating the landmark compromise.[11]

As news of sexually harassing behavior of Rep. Steve Lebsock went public, Majority Leader Becker boldly introduced a resolution to expel him from the Colorado House of Representatives. Controversy erupted when Rep. Becker potentially violated sunshine laws by preventing the media from accessing information related to the report. Rep. Becker kicked the press out of the room when they attempted to see the report[12].

References

  1. ↑ "Boulder City Councilwoman KC Becker to run for state House District 13 - Boulder Daily Camera". Dailycamera.com. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Democrat KC Becker wins Colorado House seat". Blogs.denverpost.com. October 19, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  3. ↑ EndPlay (February 19, 2010). "7NEWS - KC Becker sworn in to Colorado House, replaces Claire Levy - Local Story". Thedenverchannel.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Boulder Rep. KC Becker elected Colorado House majority leader". Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  5. ↑ "ABOUT". KC Becker for HD13. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  6. ↑ "Boulder City Council - Results: Elections: The Denver Post". Denver Post Election Results. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  7. 1 2 "KC Becker - Ballotpedia". Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  8. ↑ "Representative KC Becker K. - Colorado House District 13". www.leg.state.co.us. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  9. ↑ "Majority Leader KC Becker, Boulder". Colorado House Democrats. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  10. 1 2 "Hospital Provider Fee reform signed into law in Colorado". durangoherald.com. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  11. ↑ "House Majority Leader on crucial Hospital Fee bill negotiations: 'We're so, so super close' - Colorado Politics". Colorado Politics. 2017-05-03. Retrieved 2017-07-07.
  12. ↑ Rittiman, Brandon (February 28, 2018). "Media, House leadership clash over release of sexual harassment report". 9News. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
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