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Utah Senate passes several bills on consent, honors rodeo team and hosts NASA guests
Summary
On a busy session day the Utah Senate cleared a broad consent calendar including multiple House bills and third-reading items, amended and advanced water-rights and family law measures, welcomed the High School Rodeo national champions and received remarks from NASA representatives.
Salt Lake City — The Utah State Senate moved a string of bills through the consent and third-reading calendars, adopted a conference committee recommendation on an electronic health-information measure, and paused floor business to recognize students and federal guests.
On the consent calendar, first substitute House Bill 281 (grants to rural hospitals; oversight) passed after Senator Niederhauser described the measure as a cleanup from last year’s SB223 and a simplification that assigns distribution responsibilities to the tax commission. The clerk recorded 26 yes votes and the bill was returned to the House for signature.
Several other House and Senate bills were passed on recorded or voice votes: second substitute House Bill 47 (standards for electronic exchange of clinical health information) was reported from a conference committee and received final passage (the clerk recorded 28 yes votes, 0 nay, 1 absent); House Bill 34 (online information requirements for registry-listed offenders) and multiple other House bills on the calendar passed with recorded tallies noted on the floor.
Senator Stoll presented second substitute Senate Bill 85, which would create a Water Rights Policy Board with five members (representing agriculture, municipalities, water conservancy districts and an attorney familiar with water rights), authorize limited administrative appeal rights for water rights of 50 acre-feet or less, and establish a fiscal note of $77,900 to cover initial board expenses. The Senate voted to read the bill for a third time and advance it for later consideration; several senators asked for more time to review the substitute before third-reading votes.
The Senate paused floor business to introduce and congratulate the High School Rodeo national championship team and then welcomed Dr. Joyce Lovett, Assistant Administrator for Education at NASA headquarters, and astronaut Barbara Morgan. Lovett thanked Utah for supporting STEM education partnerships; Morgan described her experience launching on the Space Shuttle and working on the International Space Station, saying the launch felt like "extreme thrust" and praising the international collaboration involved in station construction.
What’s next: The calendar included additional third-reading items and requests for conference committees on measures where the Senate refused concurrence. Sponsors and committee chairs asked senators to review fiscal notes and amendments over the lunch hour and prepare for further votes later in the session.
