The Colorado House passed a bipartisan fix for the new, problem-plagued government ethics law Wednesday, but it won't fly unless skeptical Senate lawmakers vote initial approval.

It didn't help that Senate President pro tem Peter Groff said he learned about the House compromise plan for implementing Amendment 41 in the newspapers - not from fellow Democrats in the House.

"It still has to come through the Senate, so it certainly would have been nice to kind of hear what was going on," said Groff, D-Denver.

House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he briefed Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald on the measure Tuesday before the House compromise solution won initial passage. He stressed that House leaders had their hands full just hammering out how to put Amendment 41 in action.

Approved by voters in November, Amendment 41 banned gifts worth $50 or more to elected officials, government employees and their families.

If the Senate gives initial approval next week, a House resolution will ask the Colorado Supreme Court to rule whether key provisions in the House legislation to implement and clarify Amendment 41 are constitutional. Then voters will be given final say on whether to approve lawmakers' implementation of the ethics law in a November 2008 ballot measure.

Groff and Fitz-Gerald, D-Coal Creek Canyon, have been doubtful about the legality of lawmakers modifying a voter-passed constitutional amendment.

"I think there are some major legal questions to be answered about going down that road (of the House proposal) - and relying solely on that road," Fitz-Gerald said.

Fitz-Gerald said the House plan's reliance on a positive Supreme Court ruling - when the court may not take up the House request - underscores the urgency for passing a separate measure in the Senate to implement the bill. It focuses on creating the new ethics commission and letting it resolve questions about enforcing the amendment.

"I think there's more certitude in the Senate approach, because we're not relying on some outside source," she said.

House leaders in both parties maintain that legislators can't sit on their hands while confusion over interpretations of the ethics measure is spawning lawsuits and causing public employees across Colorado to quit jobs for fear of jeopardizing their children's college scholarships.

"Some folks are saying, just tell those public employees and their kids to accept the scholarships and just hope they don't get hauled before the (new) ethics commission," Romanoff said. "I think that's not very comforting advice."

"Instead of fighting this out in court or in the ethics commission, we can muster the courage to clear up the confusion around Amendment 41 now," he added.

gathrighta@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5486