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House approves second substitute to campaign-disclosure bill, sends it to Senate amid sponsor objections about conference committee stacking
Summary
After extended floor debate over detailed reporting requirements and unpaid donations, the Utah House adopted the second substitute to Senate Bill 104 (campaign-disclosure rules) and forwarded it to the Senate. Sponsor Representative Atkinson objected to the bill going to a possibly stacked conference committee without a negotiated compromise.
The Utah House on Feb. 26 approved the second substitute to Senate Bill 104, a campaign-disclosure bill that expands detailed reporting of receipts and expenditures, and sent the measure back to the Senate for further consideration.
Representative Kelly Atkinson, who opened floor debate on House Bill 65 and identified many of his concerns, told colleagues he was not opposed to a conference committee but feared the chamber would 'stack' a conference panel and that the House sponsor should be part of negotiations. Atkinson highlighted new reporting requirements in the substitute language that require a detailed listing of each receipt, the contributor's name and address, the amount or value, the date it was made, and for each expenditure the amount, recipient and specific purpose. He warned that omissions could trigger misdemeanor penalties under state law, and questioned how the bill would treat unpaid donations and enforce reporting for pledges that were not yet due.
Sponsor Representative Olsen defended the substitute, saying existing law already required reporting of certain pledges and that the House substitute was a "much better bill" than the Senate version. Olsen said the lieutenant governor's office currently holds paper reports in what he called a 'dead letter file' and argued a public summary would improve access. Opponents—including Representatives Birmingham and Ford—argued that authorizing an office to summarize legislators' reports would allow selective presentation and risk politicizing records.
Olsen moved a floor amendment to add a requirement that the lieutenant governor 'summarize each annual report and make it available to the public.' The amendment drew contested debate about administrative burden and editorial discretion and was rejected by the House.
The chamber then approved the procedural motion to replace the title and body with the second substitute of S.B. 104 and later recorded a final vote reported from the clerk as 65 yeas and 4 nays; the bill was read by title, signed by the Speaker, and returned to the Senate for further consideration. Members repeatedly asked that the House sponsor be included in any conference committee and cautioned against unilateral changes in conference.
