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Votes at a glance: Utah Senate advances dozens of bills including tech, public safety, and appropriations measures
Summary
The Utah Senate took floor action on numerous bills across committees, sending many measures to the House. This roundup lists bills the Senate read, amended, or passed on Feb. 24 and includes vote tallies where recorded on the floor.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Senate conducted a broad sweep of floor business, assigning bills to committees, adopting committee reports and passing multiple measures across policy areas including criminal justice, education, energy, and appropriations. Below are the principal floor actions the Senate announced or voted on during the session.
Key bills the Senate passed (selected; tally as announced on the floor)
- Senate Bill 105 (student privacy and modesty in public education): Passed 20 yea, 0 nay, 9 absent; transmitted to the House.
- Senate Bill 179 (local regulation of business entities amendments): Passed 23 yea, 0 nay, 6 absent; transmitted to the House.
- First Substitute Senate Bill 220 (construction modifications): Passed 21 yea, 0 nay, 8 absent; transmitted to the House.
- Second Substitute Senate Bill 226 (artificial intelligence consumer protection amendments): Passed 24 yea, 0 nay, 5 absent; transmitted to the House.
- Senate Bill 234 (critical minerals exploration tax credit expansion): Passed 25 yea, 3 nay, 1 absent; transmitted to the House. (See separate article for discussion.)
- First Substitute Senate Bill 181 (housing affordability amendments): Passed 22 yea, 0 nay, 7 absent.
- Senate Bill 280 (retail facility amendments): Passed 26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent.
- Second Substitute Senate Bill 266 (ethylene oxide litigation amendments): Passed 21 yea, 2 nay, 6 absent. (See separate article for discussion and floor amendment.)
- First Substitute Senate Bill 255 (line-of-duty death benefit amendments): Passed 22 yea, 0 nay, 7 absent; fiscal note discussed on the floor.
- First Substitute Senate Bill 283 (funds amendments; fee and internal service fund clarifications): Passed 24 yea, 0 nay, 5 absent; substituted and then passed.
- Second Substitute Senate Bill 240 (congregate care modifications): Passed (roll-call announced; clerk recorded the tally on the floor); will be sent to the House.
- First Substitute Senate Bill 214 (health insurance coverage amendments expanding who may diagnose autism for coverage): Passed 21 yea, 4 nay, 4 absent; sent to the House (see separate article on debate).
- Multiple other bills were read, circled for further negotiation, substituted, or otherwise acted upon (see actions list below). Committee reports assigning bills to standing committees were adopted at the start of the session; bills from the House concurrences were transmitted for the president’s signature as announced by the chief clerk.
Process notes and next steps
- “Circled” bills: The Senate used the standard practice of circling bills when additional negotiations were ongoing; those items remain active and will return to the floor when sponsors or committees uncircle them.
- Substitutions and amendments: Several bills were substituted on the floor to make technical fixes, change effective dates, adopt drafting corrections, or respond to stakeholder input. Where a bill was substituted, the Senate typically voted on the substituted version.
- Transmission to the House: Bills that passed in the Senate will be transmitted to the Utah House for consideration. If the House amends a Senate-passed bill, it may return to the Senate for concurrence or further negotiation.
This roundup lists floor outcomes as announced by the clerk during the Feb. 24 Senate session. Detailed coverage of select debated items (critical-minerals tax credit; ethylene oxide litigation and insurance/diagnosis changes for autism coverage) appears in separate articles.
