Senate adopts substitute to clarify tuition-and-fee waiver for children of fallen public safety officers

The Utah Senate on Day 11 approved a first-substitute to Senate Bill 65 that clarifies a tuition waiver for the children of fallen police officers and firefighters.

Senator Bramble, the bill sponsor, told the Senate the bill was amended in committee at the request of higher education, specifically Salt Lake Community College, to ensure the waiver covered both tuition and fees. "What this bill does, it provides for ... a waiver of in-state tuition for the children of fallen police and firefighters," Bramble said, explaining the substitute defines the fees that would be waived and then treats "tuition" for the waiver’s purposes as both tuition and fees so the committee’s intent is captured in statute.

Because staff later identified a technical issue that required a title change and other drafting adjustments, Bramble said the chamber needed a substitute bill on the consent calendar. He moved to delete the bill’s title and body and replace it with the first substitute while on consent; the motion carried without recorded opposition.

The substitute was presented as implementing exactly the committee’s action, and Senator Bramble moved that the first substitute pass. The President directed a unanimous vote to be recorded in favor of the bill, and the substitute passed on consent.

Next steps: the Senate will follow routine processing for consent-passage bills (signature by the President in open session) and transmission to the House or as otherwise required by statute.

No amendment text or fiscal detail was given during the floor remarks beyond the drafting clarification; where the transcript supplied only committee-based context or technical rationale, this article reports those points and records the floor action as described.