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Utah Senate passes a slate of bills including emergency‑alert requirement, campus safety and licensing updates
Summary
During a floor session, the Utah Senate approved a broad set of measures—including requirements for county emergency alert capability, campus safety coordination, mental‑health licensure technical fixes and several tax and program changes—and returned them to the House for signature or further consideration.
The Utah Senate approved a series of bills and resolutions in today’s floor session, sending measures back to the House for the Speaker’s signature or further consideration.
Among the measures approved, House Bill 188, the "Emergency Management Act Amendments," requires every Utah county to either be able to send alerts through FEMA’s system or to have a plan to do so through the Division of Emergency Management. "This bill requires counties … to either have the ability to send alerts through FEMA's alerting system or to have a plan to do so through the division of emergency management," Senator Henderson explained on the floor; the measure passed on roll call.
The Senate also concurred with House changes to Senate Bill 68 (mental‑health counselor licensing amendments), which Senator Weiler described as primarily technical and not changing substantive education or credit‑hour requirements; the Senate returned that bill to the House after a unanimous or near‑unanimous vote. Campus safety language in First Substitute Senate Bill 80 was adopted on concurrence to coordinate language with related measures, and the Senate approved changes to personal license plates in Senate Bill 97 after the House substituted a single wording change.
Other floor actions included passage of House Bill 86 to create an Adult Autism Treatment Program within the Department of Health and HB 200 (additions to income tax revisions) after a technical amendment the Tax Commission had reviewed. The Senate also passed bills addressing county forms of government (HB 61, with Amendment 3 adopted to remove language that would have allowed an existing legislative body to change citizen petitions), the Dental Practice Act (SB 135), and several bills on the second and third reading calendars that the committees had recommended.
Senators used both roll‑call and unanimous consent procedures depending on the item. For example, First Substitute HCR 7 (urging congressional action on prescription‑drug approaches and noting a Utah spin‑off, CivicRx) passed by unanimous consent. Vote tallies were recorded on the floor for each item and several measures were returned to the House for signature.
The Senate also received a number of communications from the House at the start of the day (a long list of transmitted bills and resolutions) and approved standing committee reports recommending favorable action on a range of measures.
The body recessed for caucus lunch and expected to resume further consideration this afternoon.
Votes at a glance: House Bill 188 (emergency alerts): passed; Third Substitute SB 68 (mental‑health counselor licensing): concurred and passed; First Substitute SB 80 (campus safety): concurred and passed; SB 97 (personal license plates): passed; HB 86 (adult autism treatment program): passed; HB 61 (county form of government, with Amendment 3): amended and passed; SB 135 (Dental Practice Act, second substitute): passed; several additional technical, tax and program bills: passed or circled for further clarification as noted on the record.
The Senate’s actions recorded today will be sent back to the House for further action where required; committee chairs will continue follow‑up where items were circled or recirculated.
