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Utah Senate suspends rules, fast‑tracks dozens of bills including multiple sunset reauthorizations
Summary
The Utah Senate voted to suspend the three‑reading rule and moved dozens of bills across the calendar, passing many sunset reauthorizations (SB 18, SB 19, SB 20, SB 21, SB 23, SB 24, SB 29, SB 33 and others) and referring them to the House; several recorded roll calls were unanimous or near‑unanimous.
The Utah State Senate voted to suspend its rules for the day and waive the constitutional three‑reading requirement so sponsors could advance a large group of bills in a single action.
Senators approved a motion to suspend the rules and then used that procedure to consider a sequence of committee and sponsor bills, including multiple sunset reauthorizations and technical cleanups. Sponsors described committee work and moved final passage "under suspension of the rules" for measures such as SB 18 (Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands), SB 19 (used oil management), SB 20 (Solid and Hazardous Waste Act), SB 21 (Air Conservation Act), SB 23 (Water Quality Act), SB 24 (state energy policy amendments) and SB 29 (malpractice arbitration/reauthorization).
Senator Grover, presenting several environmental and energy items, characterized them as sunset reauthorizations and described SB 24 as promoting specific technologies and energy education programs. "If you look at the bill, it just talks about the different ways of disposing of oil," Grover said of SB 19 during his presentation; of SB 24 he noted the bill "promotes ... certain nuclear power generation technologies" and references newer technologies such as molten salt reactors for medical isotopes.
Roll‑call tallies recorded on the floor for several measures were unanimous or near‑unanimous where noted: SB 20 (Solid and Hazardous Waste Act) was announced as having received 28 yea votes, 0 nay votes, 1 absent; SB 23 (Water Quality Act) the clerk announced 26 yea votes, 0 nay, 3 absent; SB 29 (malpractice arbitration reauthorization) received 28 yea votes, 0 nay, 1 absent; SB 33 (political procedures amendments) received 29 yea votes, 0 nay, 0 absent. Multiple other bills were passed under suspension and referred to the House for further consideration.
In procedural business earlier, the Rules Committee report listing many bills for second reading was adopted and those bills were referred to standing committees as indicated.
The Senate also confirmed the governor's appointment of J. Kent Millington to the Board of Trustees of the Transit District of Utah after a roll call; the clerk reported an initial tally of 27 yeas, 0 nays, 2 absent (the record includes subsequent announcements of 28 yeas on related procedural votes). The Senate adjourned with introductions of new first‑reading bills and a stated return time of 11 a.m. the next day.
A full list of bills mentioned during the rules report and moved under suspension appears in the Senate record; the body routinely used the suspension procedure to process noncontroversial committee reauthorizations and technical changes during the session.
