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Utah House forwards a slate of bills to the Senate in a brisk floor session
Summary
The Utah House advanced multiple bills on Feb. 29, 2008, by concurrence and consent including digital breathalyzer certificates, child-welfare recodification, prison-postsecondary funding changes and several administrative bills; most measures passed unanimously or by clear margins and were referred to the Senate for further action.
The Utah House opened its Feb. 29 floor session with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance before moving through a packed concurrence and consent calendar that sent a string of bills to the Senate.
Representative Bigelow told members the chamber would consolidate education-related bills into a single omnibus measure and said tax items would be handled similarly to make amendment management easier. The procedural change was presented as staff-driven and intended to preserve members’ ability to offer amendments while reducing drafting conflicts.
On the concurrence calendar the House agreed to Senate amendments and forwarded multiple bills, including First Substitute House Bill 371 (digital certificates for breathalyzers) by voice and later by roll call (72-0), First Substitute House Bill 36 (child welfare recodification) (72-0), First Substitute House Bill 263 (Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities) (73-0) and House Bill 93 (Insurance Fraud Amendments) (72-0). The chamber also concurred on funding adjustments in House Bill 86 (funding for inmate postsecondary education), which passed 66-6, and forwarded First Substitute House Bill 37 (Utah Business Resource Centers Act) after a recorded vote (62-10).
Other items on the consent calendar moved quickly. House Bill 427, which exempts certain military personnel from the practical-shooting portion of hunter-education requirements, passed on consent (68-0). Representative Dahl explained that Second Substitute House Bill 29 expands PAC reporting requirements for local issues; that measure was forwarded (68-0).
Several Senate-origin measures also advanced. Representative Mascaro outlined Second Substitute Senate Bill 161, changes to advanced-healthcare-directive forms and surrogate decision standards developed over two years; that bill passed the House 70-0. Representative Berry explained Senate Bill 123, a Senate-origin proposal on filling unexpired Senate terms; the House voted the bill down 37-34.
Most of the actions were procedural concurrences and consent approvals designed to keep the Legislature’s calendar moving; several items recorded unanimous or near-unanimous support on final passage and were transmitted to the Senate for further consideration and signature.
