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Senate clears consent calendar and passes several technical bills
Summary
On Feb. 22 the Utah Senate approved a set of consent and technical measures — including SB 196 (Soil Conservation Act amendments), HB 197 (transportation technical amendments), HB 27 (Gulf fees), SB 6 (child abuse reporting), SB 139 (Employment Security Act amendments), SB 44 (student discipline), SB 120 (environmental impairment) and SB 116 (home medical equipment sales-tax exemption) — mostly by unanimous or large margins.
The Utah Senate used the consent calendar and routine floor procedures on Feb. 22 to advance a series of largely technical or noncontroversial bills.
Among the bills approved with little debate were:
- SB 196 (Soil Conservation Act amendments): Sponsor described the bill as a technical clarification drafted after interim committee work with endorsement from the Department of Agriculture; the Senate recorded the bill as passing with a unanimous or near‑unanimous voice vote (transcript reports 28 ayes, no nays, 1 absent).
- HB 197 (transportation technical amendments): Presented as language changes to the transportation code; passed (28 ayes, no nays, 1 absent).
- HB 27 (Gulf fees): Technical amendments adopted and the bill passed (vote reported as 24 ayes, no nays, 5 absent).
- SB 6 (child abuse reporting requirements): Sponsor called it a small definitional insertion into the child‑abuse reporting law; bill passed and was sent to the House without further action.
- SB 139 (Employment Security Act amendments) and substitute SB 44 (student discipline): Described as aligning state law with federal standards and enabling site‑based school discipline teams, respectively; both passed and were transmitted for further action.
- SB 120 (environmental impairment — third substitute): Sponsor described it as tracking federal definitions and providing a lender exemption; the bill passed and was sent to the House.
- SB 116 (sales-tax exemption for prescription home medical equipment): Sponsor described it as exempting prescription‑purchased home medical equipment from sales tax; the Senate recorded passage (21 ayes, 7 nays, 1 absence).
These actions were recorded on the Senate floor and will be transmitted to the House or to the governor as appropriate, per standard legislative procedures.
