Senate committee tightens reporting, cash limits for secondary metals recyclers and catalytic-converter sales

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a committee substitute for Senate Bill 40 with amendments that keep a $100 cap on cash payments by secondary metals recyclers, remove the two-year sunset on that cap, and explicitly prohibit cash purchases for several high-theft items, including certain catalytic converters and copper products.

Senator Edge, presenting the measure on behalf of the absent sponsor, said the bill mainly cleans up language from prior legislation and moves the statutory definition of a “used attached catalytic converter” into the code’s definition section. He told the committee that previous changes to curb metal theft “have worked very, very well” and that the new draft addresses drafting issues that arose after prior passage.

The committee adopted an amendment that restated subsection D to read in part that “no secondary metal recycler shall… pay to any seller more than $100 in cash for any transaction or complete more than 2 transactions per seller, per day, per registered secondary materials recycler location,” and then lists categories of items for which cash payment is prohibited. Committee staff read the amendment language into the record during the hearing.

Senator Edge said the bill also tightens licensing and background checks — changing a prior three-felon disqualification to disqualify applicants with a single felony conviction in the previous five years — and clarifies reporting for business-to-business sales. He told the committee that the sheriff’s association and industry stakeholders, including utilities and the Farm Bureau, had been consulted and were in agreement with the changes.

A question from Senator Tillery about where a prior $250 fee flowed prompted discussion: Edge initially said the fee historically went to the sheriff, and later described the revised fee split in the bill as $100 to the county and $100 to the sheriff’s association. The transcript includes those statements but does not reconcile the apparent $250-to-$200 discrepancy on the record; the committee did not identify the remaining amount during the hearing.

The amendment was offered by Senator Watson, seconded and adopted by voice vote. A motion that the bill “do pass” by committee substitute, as amended, was moved and seconded and carried on a unanimous voice vote. The transcript contains no roll-call vote count.