Special Committee adopts substitute and votes 8–3 to give due-pass on House Bill 3,170 after debate over affordability

The Special Committee on Rural Issues adopted a committee substitute by voice vote and then voted 8–3 to give the substitute for House Bill 3,170 a "due pass" recommendation.

The presiding officer moved adoption of the distributed substitute and, after no extended discussion, called for a voice vote. "The ayes have it. You have adopted the substitute," the chair declared. The committee then moved that the house committee substitute for House Bill 3,170 be voted "due pass" and conducted a roll-call vote that resulted in eight ayes and three noes; the chair announced, "By your vote of 8 ayes and 3 noes, you have voted House Committee substitute for House Bill 3,170 due pass." The committee adjourned with no further business.

Representative Hayden urged caution before adoption. "I've looked to substitute and maybe no, I'm very torn on this issue," Hayden said, describing her review of the draft. "Let's take out the words, afford let's take out the words competitiveness and antitrust. And I said, let's eliminate those. And when we did, there was nothing left in the bill." Hayden said she worried the measure could increase the availability of services while making them unaffordable for constituents "for my district, which is all including the 20 counties."

The record shows the substitute was adopted by voice vote and the subsequent roll-call vote recorded an 8–3 margin in favor of recommending the substitute for passage. The transcript does not specify floor action or next steps beyond the committee's recommendation and adjournment.

The committee did not record any formal amendments to the substitute during the meeting; no second was recorded for the initial motion to adopt the substitute in the transcript. The hearing ended without additional debate or a stated implementation timeline.