Rep. Kagan is chairman of the Judiciary Committee and also sits on the Finance Committee.

In 2012 he sponsored the Skills for Jobs Act, one of the few jobs bills to make it through the Republican-controlled House. The new law fills an information void by directing the state to develop workforce projections to better align training and workforce development to the skills that are actually in demand in the labor market. Colleges and vocational schools can use the reports to adjust their course offerings, students can use them to make better career choices and course-selection decisions, and businesses can use them to make smarter personnel decisions.

Until 2011, children on the Basic Children’s Health Plan (CHP+) were not allowed to attend a health clinic at school unless they had a $30 co-payment in their pocket. The clinics wanted to waive that fee but it was against the law to do so. Rep. Kagan changed that law, and now there is no obstacle to a CHP+ child visiting the clinic whenever he or she needs to. Fewer children go to emergency rooms, illnesses are caught earlier and everyone saves money.

In 2010, he eliminated a quirk in property law that prevented some developers from building rental housing especially for low-income families, and also allowed speculators to buy housing very cheaply, then apply to court to strip the housing of its low-income designation, thereby making a killing. Passage of the measure has led to more apartments in Colorado that middle-class families can afford.

Also in 2010, Reps. Kagan and John Kefalas wrote and passed a measure to tell consumers of health care, via the internet, how much each provider charges for each procedure. Consumers are now able to shop around, compare actual prices paid by others, and get the best deal. Insurers too will get better deals, seeing for the first time what other insurers are paying.

Before joining the legislature, Rep. Kagan was a flight instructor, retraining retiring military pilots for civilian jets under the G.I. bill, and later teaching basic flight training to midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy under a civilian contract

Rep. Kagan has a law degree from Yale and a bachelor’s from George Washington University. Early in his career he practiced commercial law with the Washington, D.C., firm of Arnold & Porter, before he and his wife, Faye, set up their own firm, representing civil plaintiffs and criminal defendants.

Later, Rep. Kagan took over the management of a family-owned textile manufacturing business which, under the weight of cheap foreign competition, was on the verge of collapse. He set about the urban regeneration of the derelict manufacturing facilities, incubating start-ups in some of them and developing others into housing or retail. The successful turnaround took more than a decade.

Rep. Kagan was born in England, the son of Holocaust survivors who met in a Nazi concentration camp, escaped, hid, and at war’s end sought refuge in the West. His parents raised him with a deep appreciation for the things they had not had during the war- freedom from hunger, freedom from oppression and brutality, freedom of speech and religion. A determination to do everything he could to preserve those precious and fragile freedoms led him to be a public servant.

Daniel has been married to Faye for 23 years. Their three children — Ben, Samantha and Abra – are all educated in Colorado public schools. The family’s three dogs and one hedgehog have not attended school.