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Utah Senate creates task force on murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls
Summary
The Utah Senate passed a substitute to House Bill 116 to establish a state task force to study murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, citing data gaps and racial misclassification; the bill passed under suspension of rules and carries an estimated fiscal note of $9,600.
Salt Lake City — The Utah Senate on day 36 of the 2020 session passed a substitute to House Bill 116 to create a task force charged with studying gaps in data collection and systemic factors behind violence against Indigenous women and girls.
Sponsor Senator Hinkins told colleagues the measure responds to national and local statistics showing a sharply elevated risk of homicide for Indigenous women and girls, and to a lack of reliable data caused by underreporting and racial misclassification. He said the task force will ‘‘identify gaps in local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, data collection, [and] develop recommendations for improvements in the criminal justice and social service systems for preventing and addressing the murder and missing Indigenous women and girls.’’
Supporters across the Senate voiced strong backing. Senator Escamilla said the issue ‘‘should be in our top priority’’ given disproportionate death rates and urban residency of many Indigenous people; Senator Iwamoto noted unanimous support from the Native American legislative liaison committee and cited federal efforts such as Operation Lady Justice. Senator Riebe described the bill as ‘‘protecting families’’ and urged passage.
Under a motion to suspend the rules and waive the three‑reading requirement, the Senate read the substitute bill a second and third time and passed it. The sponsor said the fiscal note for the task force is under $10,000; the sponsor later referenced a specific estimate of $9,600. The Senate’s action sends the substitute back to the House for further consideration.
What the bill does: The substitute establishes a task force to catalog missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Utah, examine data collection and record‑keeping protocols, and recommend reforms to law enforcement and social‑service responses. The bill text specifies the task force’s scope and reporting obligations (details not printed in the transcript). The Senate discussion emphasized research on urban Indigenous populations and the need for better coordinated data.
Next steps: The bill will return to the House for its further consideration. The Senate record shows the measure passed under suspension of the rules; the transcript does not provide a final roll‑call tally in an unambiguous numeric form. The fiscal note referenced in debate was listed at $9,600.
