Your up-to-the-hour look at Day 28 of the 2019 Utah Legislature

SALT LAKE CITY — The 2019 legislative session has passed the halfway mark and has already seen 132 bills pass both chambers. As lawmakers begin their fifth week Monday, the House Judiciary Committee is slated to discuss HB234, which would prohibit people under 18 from marrying.

The bill from Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, would not allow minors to wed beginning May 14, 2019.

READ MORE: Should 15-year-olds be allowed to marry in Utah?

Other issues discussed at the Statehouse during the day include:

• The Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee is looking at HB101, which passed the House last week and sets up guidelines for operating autonomous vehicles in Utah.

READ MORE: Driverless vehicle bill headed to full Senate

• The Utah Senate signaled its intent Monday to allow grocery and convenience stores in the state to sell higher alcohol content beer.

READ MORE: State Senate signals intent to allow heavy beer sales in Utah convenience, grocery stores

• The House Transportation Committee will hear a new attempt to preserve the ban on heavy trucks on Legacy Parkway. HB339 extends the date of the automatic repeal of the truck ban on the highway into 2025. The ban currently will end in 2020.

READ MORE: Utah House committee stops second attempt to extend Legacy Parkway truck ban

• The House Business and Labor Committee is scheduled to take up HB267, which would set up provisions to import lower-priced prescription medicines from other countries.

READ MORE: Utah House panel OKs bill to seek FDA permission to import medication from Canada

• The House Education Committee took no action Monday on a bill to limit the state education fund monies appropriated to state colleges and universities at 20 percent.

READ MORE: Bill to cap education fund monies for higher ed at 20% stalls in committee

• A House committee endorsed 5-3 a resolution supporting the development of "advanced" nuclear technology as a carbon free energy source and someday play a role in Utah's energy portfolio.

READ MORE: Resolution supporting new nuclear technology advances Utah House committee

Here's what happened on Feb. 22, the 25th day of the 2019 session:

• Despite languishing for years, a bill that would add teeth to Utah's hate crime laws has — for the first time — cleared a legislative hurdle that will allow it to be heard by the full Senate.
• A bill aimed at forcing the BYU Police Department to follow the same open records rules that all other law enforcement agencies are subject to or risk decertification was introduced in the Utah Legislature.
• The House Business and Labor Committee was scheduled to hear HB267, which would require the Utah Department of Health to design a prescription drug importation program that would allow medication to be sent in from other nations.

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