2017 Utah Legislature General Session

Friday, March 3, 2017

 

Bill Tracker

Public Version

 

Summary of Thursday, March 2

  • Chase attended the Senate Business and Labor Committee where they heard Rep. Arent’s diesel emissions bill which passed unanimously out of committee. There was one random person who testified in opposition to the bill, but most were in support. She had reps come from each of the counties where emission testing is being done to talk about the environmental and health benefits. Utah Physicians for a Health Environment also testified on the dangers of particulate matter to health, particularly diesel emissions that are a finer particulate matter and thus penetrate further into your lungs. Apparently this will have big impacts on pollution not only down in Utah County, but also across the Wasatch Front because of the numbers of people that commute. They were saying that when testing started in the four other counties, large percentages of diesel vehicles were found to have too high of emissions. Crazy! More info here.

  • Chase attended the House Government Operations Committee where they were hearing SB 144, Sen. Bramble’s bill that dealt with plurality. We had already heard that this bill was being pared back because of the Republican Party’s refusal to forget the lawsuit, but I just wanted to make sure that they were removing the plurality provisions, which they did. It is now a bill that will shorten the “intention to gather signatures” requirement. Right now, you have until the end of the legislative session (about three months) but they are shortening the window to only a week at the beginning of January. More info here.

  • Chase and Maddie recorded the Better Utah Broadcast with Jarrell. We talked about the federalism resolution, ACA, SJR 8 (the Medicaid block grant resolution), the Ban the Box bill, and the diesel emissions bill. We also made sure to plug in the events we have coming up. Also, we’re thinking about having a guest on next week’s show...if anyone is interested or has ideas. We’re going to do a longer special to talk about the entire session.

  • (Because of our meeting, I wasn’t able to attend floor times -- listened in a little bit, but during the times I was listening, there wasn’t anything interesting going on.

  • Other important things that happened today:

    • A bill from Rep. Weight that would have brought greater transparency to charter schools by creating a website with all the governing documents failed in committee.

    • SJR 8, the resolution from Sen. Hemmert encouraging the federal government to fund Medicaid through block grants, passed favorably out of House committee. More info here.

    • HB 384, Rep. King’s bill on abortion clinic licensing in regards to hospital admitting privileges, passed favorably out of committee after being amended to include an instruction to the Department of Health to care for the safety of abortion seekers.

    • HCR 1, the public lands resolution, passed favorably out of committee. Surprisingly, Sen. Iwamoto voted for it….

    • A Senate committee voted to favorably pass out SB 276, a bill that would make gas tax increases automatic and larger than they have been in the past. More info here.

    • Governor Herbert said that he wouldn’t be opposed to raising the sales tax on food; however, he opposes the floated proposal to only raise the sales tax on “basic foods.” More info here.  

 

Schedule for Friday, March 3

  • 8:00 AM

  • 8:15 AM

  • 8:30 AM

  • 10:00 AM

    • Senate Floor Time

    • House Floor Time

  • 2:00 PM

    • Senate Floor Time

    • House Floor Time

  • 4:00 PM

  • 4:10 PM

    • House Economic Development and Workforce Services Committee - 20 House

      • http://le.utah.gov/~2017/agenda/HEDW0303.ag.htm

      • SB0243Revised Uniform Athlete Agents Act   (L. Hillyard)

      • SB0264S01Outdoor Recreation Grant Program   (R. Okerlund)

      • SCR010Concurrent Resolution Recognizing the 150th Anniversary of the First Transcontinental Railroad   (P. Knudson)

      • SB0149S01Financial Education and Savings Plan to Benefit At-risk Children   (L. Fillmore)

      • SB0154S02Solar Access Amendments   (L. Fillmore)

      • HB0451Financial Literacy Amendments   (R. Ward)

      • SB0199S01Able Act Revisions   (T. Weiler)

    • House Government Operations Committee - 30 House

    • House Political Subdivisions Committee - 450 Capitol

    • House Revenue and Taxation Committee - 415 Capitol

      • http://le.utah.gov/~2017/agenda/HREV0303.ag.htm

      • HB0446 Sentencing Guidelines Amendments   (K. Ivory)

      • SB0083S01 Sales Tax Notification Amendments   (W. Harper)

      • SB0249S01 Tax E-filing Amendments   (C. Bramble)

      • SJR015 Joint Rules Resolution -- Federal Revenue Consideration   (L. Fillmore)

      • HJR017Joint Resolution to Restore the Division of Governmental Responsibilities Between the National Government and the States   (K. Ivory)

      • SB0110S01 Sales Tax Collection Amendments   (C. Bramble)

    • Senate Business and Labor Committee - 215 Senate

      • http://le.utah.gov/~2017/agenda/SBUS0303.ag.htm

      • HB0313S01Licensure Changes   (M. Schultz)

      • HB0393S01Vehicle Towing Amendments   (A.C. Maloy)

      • HB0240S02Employability to Careers Program   (M. Schultz)

      • HB0374Long-term Care Ombudsman Amendments   (B. Daw)

      • HB0405Hydrogen Fuel Production Incentives   (D. Sagers)

      • HB0115S03Solid Waste Revisions   (M. McKell)

      • HB0329S01Conceal Carry Reciprocity Amendments   (J. Fawson)

      • HB0392Air Quality Policy Advisory Board   (T. Hawkes)

      • HB0097S01Alcohol Beverage Control Operations Amendments   (S. Eliason)

      • HB0396S01Medical School Graduates Associate Physician Licensure   (S. Barlow)

      • HB0345Telehealth Pilot Project   (R. Edwards)

      • SB0210Equal Pay Amendments   (J. Anderegg)

      • SB0221Strategic Plan for Equal Compensation   (L. Escamilla)

    • Senate Education Committee - 210 Senate

    • Senate Health and Human Services Committee - 250 Capitol

      • http://le.utah.gov/~2017/agenda/SHHS0303.ag.htm

      • SB0274 Medicaid Dental Waiver Amendments   (A. Christensen)

      • HB0435 Health Care Patient Privacy Amendments   (F. Gibson)

      • HB0283 Child Homelessness Prevention   (R. Spendlove)

      • HB0286S02 Essential Treatment and Intervention Act   (L. Christensen)

      • HB0308S01 Public Health Education Module   (N. Thurston)

      • HB0309 Public Health in Schools   (N. Thurston)

      • HB0310 Utah Statewide Immunization Information System Program   (N. Thurston)

 

Notes for Friday, March 3

  • Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee

    • SB 275 - Deletes the section of code that Libertas was challenging in court

      • HB 52: this is the “conspiracy” bill

      • Passes 3-1 (Dabakis voting no)

  • House Floor Time

    • HB 349 Ranked Choice Voting