Committee concurs with Senate amendment to H 401 on food-manufacturing exemption

The Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee voted to concur with the state Senate's amendment to House Bill 401, a bill concerning an exemption for food manufacturing establishments, in a brief straw poll held on the 16th; the clerk reported a roll call of 7 yes, 0 no and 1 abstention.

The vote sends the Senate's proposed amendment back to the House floor for further consideration. Committee members said the meeting's discussion focused not on the bill's substance but on an apparent discrepancy between a summary circulated by the Lehi council and the bill text.

"Those summaries are very helpful, but you wanna double check. And you wanna really know what's in the bill too," said the committee chair, urging members to confirm language rather than rely solely on summaries.

The chair moved to concur with the Senate proposal of amendment; another member seconded the motion, the clerk called the roll, and the motion carried. The clerk recorded a tally of 7 yes, 0 no and 1 abstention and the committee directed staff to transmit the paperwork to the House floor.

Representative Byrd, asked whether they would report the bill that day, said, "I'm really not prepared actually," and the committee did not have Byrd report the measure at that time.

Committee minutes show the body spent only a short period on H 401 and did not add amendments during the meeting; no further policy direction or substantive changes to the bill text were made at this session.