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Senate passes wide slate of bills Feb. 14; votes at a glance
Summary
On Feb. 14 the Utah Senate passed a large group of bills on consent and the floor, including measures on unemployment eligibility, medical-reserve liability, water-rights adjudication, HOV lane permits, property-tax procedures and behavioral-health teletherapy. Vote tallies and procedural motions are listed below.
The Utah State Senate completed a busy floor session on Feb. 14, advancing and passing a package of bills across policy areas. Key outcomes and vote tallies recorded on the floor are summarized below.
What passed (selection and vote counts)
- First Substitute House Bill 21 (Workforce Services Amendments): Sponsor Senator Reid said the bill limits eligibility for unemployment benefits for certain persons located abroad and makes technical changes. Motion to pass recorded as a unanimous vote of senators present; enrollment directed.
- House Bill 70 (membership balancing for [named body] and related changes): Passed, recorded as 25 yea, 0 nay, 4 absent.
- House Bill 48 (Medical Reserve Corps Amendments — extend liability coverage): Passed, recorded as 28 yea, 0 nay, 1 absent. Sponsor Senator Shiozawa and Senator Van Tassel discussed exclusion of EMS volunteers in some rural counties; sponsor cited existing liability insurance and Good Samaritan protections.
- Senate Bill 161 (restitution-collection authority): As amended to remove an offset against cash bail, SB 161 passed, 27 yea, 0 nay, 2 absent.
- House Bill 29 (adjudication of water rights): Passed, 26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent. Sponsor said the bill centers adjudication in the State Engineer's office and makes technology-driven recording of previously unrecorded adjudications possible.
- Senate Bill 57 (voluntary environmental stewardship certificate for agriculturalists): Passed, 26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent.
- Senate Bill 24 (absentee ballot application rules): First substitute passed, 27 yea, 0 nay, 2 absent; includes restrictions on who may fill out another person's application and requires timely submission to election officials.
- House Bill 35 (retirement analysis for new public entities): Passed, 27 yea, 0 nay, 2 absent.
- House Bill 23 (HOV lane, clean-fuel vehicle permits): Passed with recorded ayes and three recorded nays; sponsors said changes aim to allow UDOT to manage HOV permits for clean-fuel vehicles and avoid federal sanctions.
- House Bill 261 (payroll amendments) and House Bill 272 (traffic signal left-turn at red for certain one-way configurations): Both passed with recorded ayes (HB 261 recorded 27 yay votes). HB 272 was presented as adapting to new interchange designs and permitting certain left turns after a stop at a red light.
- Second substitute House Bill 54 (property tax and appraiser amendments): Passed after substitution and public posting; recorded 26 yea, 0 nay, 3 absent.
- House Bill 249 (Refugee Services Fund amendments): Passed, 27 yea, 0 nay, 2 absent; moves administration of the fund to Department of Workforce Services.
- House Bill 56 (Behavioral Healthcare Workforce — teletherapy): Passed with recorded yea tallies (27 yea votes recorded); authorizes mental-health therapy by electronic means.
Procedural motions
- Rules Committee Report adopted and bills assigned to standing committees.
- The Senate adopted multiple standing committee reports and placed several bills on the consent calendar.
- After passage of SB 100 earlier in the day, the Senate agreed to a motion to reconsider and placed the bill at the top of the third-reading calendar (technical correction/reconsideration procedure).
Why it matters: The day's votes moved a broad policy package toward final enactment, affecting unemployment eligibility, elections, water-rights adjudication, education funding and program recognition, transportation rules, refugee services administration and behavioral-health teletherapy.
Next steps: Bills passed by the Senate will be transmitted to the House for its consideration, enrollment, and any further amendments. The Senate scheduled some measures for reconsideration and placed them on the third-reading calendar where indicated.
