SALT LAKE CITY — Week two of the 2021 Utah Legislature began with news that one Utah lawmaker is hospitalized with COVID-19 and two others tested positive for the disease.
Rep. Jon Hawkins, R-Pleasant Grove, has been hospitalized with the novel coronavirus after becoming ill before the session started Jan. 19. On Monday, Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, and Senate Budget Vice Chairman Don Ipson, R-St. George, both tested positive during rapid testing that is available to lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff.
Last week three COVID-19 cases were detected on Capitol Hill, two staffers and an intern.
Ipson tested negative Jan. 22 and remained in Salt Lake City over the weekend, but after testing positive on Monday, he returned to St. George.
Asked whether the positive COVID-19 cases are a “bellwether” of more to come to the Capitol, Sen. President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said, “Let’s hope not.”
This week also saw the reopening of the Capitol for visitors. It was off-limits to the general public during the first week due to security concerns after the attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 and threats of more violence throughout the country.
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Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
And even though there is a heightened presence by Utah Highway Patrol troopers, several anti-mask protesters disrupted an early morning committee meeting, briefly shutting it down before it resumed totally online.
Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, told the Deseret News later that every time a trooper tried to talk with the protesters, “they turned their phone on and recorded the whole conversation with the trooper, so we knew they were looking just to cause a problem.”
Lawmakers have now filed more than 400 bills to consider in the remaining five weeks. The session ends March 5. Among some of the more heavily debated issues this past week:
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Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
House moves to drop concealed carry gun permit requirement
A bill to end the permit requirement for Utahns to carry a concealed firearm sailed through the Utah House of Representatives with a 54-19 vote on Tuesday.
Rep. Walt Brooks’ HB60 now heads to the Senate for consideration, where the bill is expected to be supported along similar party lines seen in the House debate. Brooks said 19 states have some version of a permitless concealed carry law and cited a 2019 study by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons that found state concealed carry laws had no impact on homicide, violent crime and public health indicators.
Gun safety advocacy groups, including the Utah chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, issued a statement after the House vote.
“Gun suicide accounts for a large majority of the gun violence in Utah. Gutting lifesaving suicide training is not only irresponsible, but also reckless and dangerous. Utahns deserve better,” said Mary Ann Thompson, a volunteer leader with the Utah chapter of Moms Demand Action.
Two Republicans — Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, and Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville — voted against the bill. Nelson questioned “what problem does this bill solve” and argued it created “classic tension between political expedience and good public policy.”
On Friday, the Senate Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee recommended 5-2 that the bill move on to the full Senate. The committee did amend the bill to adjust how the funds from fees charged for the permit will be allocated to the state’s suicide prevention program. Lawmakers decided to cut the yearly contribution in half and hold the other half in reserve for the next year to ensure the suicide program will be funded in the future.
Utah lawmakers laud ‘historic’ early budgeting for education
Lawmakers lauded Thursday’s education base budget bill as one that was “historic.”
That’s because with the passage of SB1, the Utah Legislature funded not just ongoing operations for Utah’s public schools, but also a 6% weighted-pupil unit increase, inflation, student growth and $1,500 teacher bonuses.
“Those are normally things that take a lot of time during the session,” Senate Budget Chairman Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton, told reporters Thursday, calling the education base budget “the big winner” to receive the most money through the Legislature’s early-session budgeting process.
Finalizing the budget is far from over, and lawmakers will spend the remaining five weeks of the session debating how to spend roughly $90 million of ongoing money and nearly $1 billion in one-time money still available for appropriation.
Now that base budgets have been approved, though, lawmakers have guaranteed that state agencies can operate through next year in case the 2021 session is cut short by a COVID-19 outbreak or any other reason.
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Steve Griffin, Deseret News
Senator wants to keep ‘killing machines’ off Utah roads
A state senator says a rising number of “killing machines” on the road that aren’t mechanically sound means it’s time to bring safety back into the conversation.
“I think it needs to be a conversation that needs to be explored. I have the data on cars that are not equipped to be on the road,” said Senate Minority Leader Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, who is sponsoring SB93, which requires the inspection of a vehicle’s lights during an emissions test.
The bill passed through the Senate Transportation, Public Utilities, Energy and Technology Committee and was sent to the full Senate.
There is another bill in the House that would also add requirements to emissions inspections. HB165, sponsored by Rep. Mark Wheatley, D-Murray, would inspect noise suppression equipment and muffler requirements.
Congressmen visit; Rep. Burgess Owens apologizes to ‘liberals’
Utah’s two freshmen congressman, Republican Reps. Blake Moore and Burgess Owens, visited with state lawmakers on Thursday.
Owens apologized to “liberals” during a meeting with the Democratic caucus, saying he now realizes the difference between liberals, Marxists and socialists. His comments came after a Democratic lawmaker challenged him for a divisive “tone and tenor” on cable TV in a time when the nation needs healing.
He also said he now accepts Joe Biden as the U.S. president after he and Utah Rep. Chris Stewart voted Jan. 6 to object to the certification of Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes on the day the Capitol was seized, but Owens also defended that vote and what it meant for the state of Pennsylvania.
Moore talked about balancing environmental concerns and addressing the “boom and bust” of the oil and gas industries in rural Utah counties, as well as expanding internet access and remote working opportunities in rural Utah. In his meetings with Utah’s House Democrats, he welcomed their input and communication on addressing those issues.
Owens’ and Moore’s meetings with Republican lawmakers were entirely behind closed doors of House and Senate caucuses.
Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, told the Deseret News in a meeting after the two visits that both meetings were “really good.”
“Of course they’re both new, so they primarily talked about their first few weeks there and what was going on,” Vickers said. “They both talked a little bit about the scare at the Capitol and what went on there and how they were working to protect each other and protect themselves.”
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Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Talk of new state flag design raises concern from some
An effort to possibly “modernize” the Utah state flag didn’t fly well with some senators, even though it did win enough support to move onto further debate in the Senate.
During the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee, each senator noted that they don’t look forward to discussing SB48 or outright said they don’t support a redesign.
Sen. Daniel McCay, R-Riverton, tried to assuage other lawmakers’ fears, explaining that the bill would only create a task force that would discuss the need for a redesign and the Legislature would have final approval.
Lawmaker wants women to prove they watched developing fetus video before abortion
Rep. Steve Christiansen, R-West Jordan, is proposing a bill that would require women seeking abortion to declare under threat of perjury that they’ve watched a video created by the Utah Department of Health showing ultrasounds of a fetus throughout development and visuals of what happens to a fetus during abortion.
HB253, which became public Tuesday, quickly drew ire from abortion-rights advocates.
“Lawmakers would do well to address the issues facing Utahns on a day-to-day basis, instead of running legislation meant to divide us,” said Lauren Simpson, policy director with Alliance for a Better Utah.
Utah law already requires doctors to receive a signed consent form from a woman after she views an information module and presents evidence she has done so. HB253 would take those requirements further, mandating that the woman present a certificate of completion for watching the information video and sign and date a document in front of a health care witness under penalty of perjury that she has viewed the module.
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Scott G Winterton, Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Will letting Utah cyclists run stop signs help or endanger them?
A House committee debated whether it is safer for cyclists to come to a complete halt at stop signs or be allowed to just slow down as if it were a yield, ultimately agreeing to let the issue move on to the full chamber for a vote.
Sponsored by Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, HB142 would let cyclists treat a stop sign as a yield sign if there is no danger to themselves or others in the intersection that have the right of way.
Linda Hull, director of policy and legislative services for the Utah Department of Transportation, said UDOT’s statistics show 94% of bicycle injuries and deaths occur in urban areas and 60% of injuries and deaths are at intersections.
Effort to repeal Utah’s price-gouging law stalls in Senate committee
A bill that would repeal Utah’s price gouging law during an emergency didn’t find traction on Monday, but it’s not necessarily dead.
Sen. Jake Anderegg, R-Lehi, said he sought SB74 after fielding complaints from businesses that grappled with consumer protection complaints after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Many of those complaints, Anderegg said, weren’t because of price gouging, but because businesses were dealing with “disgruntled” customers frustrated with price increases because of a shrinking labor force or supply chain. Those complaints resulted in big costs and headaches for those businesses, he said, and for an issue he argued shouldn’t involve government.
But lawmakers on the Senate Business and Labor Committee decided not to take action on SB74. Some expressed concern that repealing the law could open the door to price gouging without consequences.
Are contraceptives essential health care? Legislators debate bill to give inmates birth control
A Utah legislator’s proposal to give contraceptives to jail inmates sparked a passionate debate Tuesday about whether birth control qualifies as essential health care or an elective medication.
HB102 would require jailers to provide inmates with the contraceptives they were already taking before their incarceration.
Rep. Rosemary Lesser, D-Ogden, a retired obstetrician-gynecologist, called the exclusion of contraceptives in prisoners’ health care a “really serious oversight. Contraception is medical care, and they are one and the same.”
Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, said he is concerned that the bill equates contraceptive care with health care although contraceptives don’t serve the purpose of avoiding “disease or injury.”
Could making unwed fathers help pay for pregnancy decrease abortions?
One lawmaker says he wants to take a different approach to prevent elective abortions.
Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, received a favorable committee vote for his HB113, which would allow pregnant women to seek payment of 50% of her out-of-pocket pregnancy and delivery medical costs and insurance premiums from the biological father. If paternity is disputed, he would not need to pay under the bill until his paternity is established.
A pregnant woman’s medical costs could still get paid by charities or other groups without the man getting double-billed, Brammer told members of the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would only address the medical costs the woman personally incurs.
Lawmaker wants to be frugal with the use of nicknames on ballots
While Utah voters have been spared names like “Booger,” “Chicken Commander” and “None of the Above” reported listed on other state ballots, the topic of candidate nicknames was debated in a House committee Thursday.
The listing of nicknames, slogans or other flashy candidate names on a ballot is up to the discretion of local election officials. HB152, proposed by Rep. Jeffrey Stenquist, R-Draper, is meant to limit how a candidate can display their name on a ballot.
The bill would only allow the candidate’s given name or abbreviated version of it, middle name, surname, initials or an “acquired name” they can prove they are “generally known by” for five years or longer.
Stenquist said an uncommon nickname, like Sevier County Commissioner Garth “Tooter” Ogden, would be acceptable because he is widely known by the name “Tooter.” The same would go for radio personality Jay Mcfarland, known as “JayMac,” who ran for Congress last year. But then there’s the case of State Auditor John “Frugal” Dougall.
The bill sponsor wasn’t definitive.
“I think under this statute, if he can show that that is something he is commonly known as for more than five years, then it might be allowed,” Stenquist replied.
Contributing: Katie McKellar, Ashley Imlay, Hannah Petersen, Mitch Wilkinson
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