Senate approves multiple bills; several measures sent to House or enrolled

The Utah Senate spent its Feb. 22 floor session advancing a broad set of bills across policy areas and adopting multiple committee reports.

In a series of roll-call votes, the Senate passed SB88 (pharmacy distribution amendments) by voice and roll call (reported as 24 yea, 0 nay, 5 absent) and will forward it to the House. Lawmakers adopted an amendment and passed SB196 (software for special-needs children) after Senator Niederhauser said the change would broaden classroom use beyond self-contained settings; the clerk recorded 24 yeas, 3 nays and 2 absent. Senator Bramble said SB201 (expungement amendments) allows some driving records to be expunged without using a petitioner’s lifetime expungement allotment; the chamber passed that bill 25–0 with 4 absent.

The Senate also concurred with House amendments to first substitute SB21 (Department of Environmental Quality Board revisions) and then proceeded to final passage on a motion by Senator Dayton; the floor tally for final passage was reported as 21 yeas, 5 nays, 3 absent. Other bills moved forward to placement on the third-reading calendar or were returned to the House, including HB306 (disposal of unused prescription drugs), HB266 (driver education amendments), HB105 (official voter register amendments), HB302 (land-use penalties), HB113 (high-risk insurance pool amendments) and amended HB282 (criminal offense amendments).

The session included multiple technical amendment packages reported as corrections to drafting and cross-references; sponsors repeatedly described some amendments as ‘‘technical’’ and limited to drafting fixes. Several bills were circled to permit sponsors to finish work on amendments.

The Senate adjourned to meet again at 10 a.m. the following day.