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Utah Senate passes package of bills, including bond amendments and state symbols; several measures sent to House
Summary
The Utah Senate on Feb. 12 approved a series of bills and joint resolutions—including bond-authorizing language, a voter list privacy change, and symbolic measures—sent to the House for consideration. Several bills were read three times and passed by recorded roll call votes.
The Utah State Senate cleared a docket of bills and joint resolutions on Feb. 12, sending multiple measures to the House for consideration after roll-call votes and unanimous voice actions.
President Niederhauser opened the session and declared a quorum before the body took up communications from the House and standing committee reports. Senators adopted committee reports by motion, and the Senate proceeded through a time‑certain calendar and a consent calendar item.
On the consent calendar, House Bill 180 — which renames the Utah State Alice Art Collection to honor Alice Merrill Horn — was presented by Senator Iwamoto and moved to the third‑reading calendar. The chair directed a unanimous voice vote in favor and recorded no nays.
On the floor, the Senate recorded final passage for several bills by roll-call: the first substitute to Senate Bill 70 (announced as 27 yea, 0 nay), second‑reading and final passage for Senate Bill 110 (bond authorization amendments; announced as 24 yea, 0 nay, 5 absent), and other measures that the chair announced had passed and would be transmitted to the House. Senate joint resolutions promoting pediatric trauma systems and designating June 2018 as Post Traumatic Stress Injury Awareness Month (SJR 6 and SJR 7) also passed on recorded votes.
Senators discussed tax‑code clarifications, including an amendment to chapter 10, part 4 of the tax code to permit the Tax Commission, upon request, to provide certain withholding information to the Department of Workforce Services. Sponsors described these items as cleanup measures intended to reduce administrative ambiguity.
The Senate also considered House Bill 51, a measure that removes birthdate fields from publicly distributed voter lists to protect privacy; the sponsor said authorized research entities would still be able to access age information as required. The chair announced the bill had passed by the recorded tally read on the floor.
Procedural votes included suspending the three‑reading requirement to allow prompt floor action on specific items, and the body adjourned after floor announcements and invitations to campus events.
The Senate recessed and will send the passed measures to the House for its consideration; several items were placed on third‑reading calendars for future final votes. The session adjourned until 10 a.m. the following day.
What’s next: bills passed to the House will proceed through the House process; items placed on the third‑reading calendar will return to the Senate for final votes as scheduled.
Quotes from the floor were limited to procedural motions and vote announcements; recorded roll-call tallies are presented as announced by the presiding officer on Feb. 12.
