Utah Senate advances wide package of bills as session enters final week

The Utah Senate convened for a busy floor day as lawmakers pressed through a long concurrence calendar and a third-reading calendar, moving a wide package of bills toward final approval as the Legislature entered its last week.

Presiding remarks opened the session with an invocation and a pledge; an unidentified presiding speaker told colleagues, "If anybody's paying attention we have one week left," noting the compressed schedule. The chamber then took up a sequence of concurrence items and third-reading bills ranging from protective-order and stalking injunction expungement to child-welfare recodification, school nursing services and energy-efficiency grants.

Major floor actions and outcomes included the Senate’s concurrence and passage of fifth substitute Senate Bill 85, a measure on protective orders and stalking-injunction expungement. Senator Wyler moved concurrence and later the motion to pass; the bill passed the Senate on a roll call recorded on the floor with 23 yay votes, 0 nays and 6 absent and will be returned to the House for the Speaker’s signature.

The chamber also approved third substitute Senate Bill 51 (transportation amendments), which the sponsor said clarifies vintage vehicle license-plate exemptions and removes a…