Votes at a glance: Utah Senate clears retirement, voting-history, mental-health and other bills

The Utah Senate used much of Day 18’s floor session to consider concurrence and final passage of a series of bills the House had amended or sent to the floor. Several measures were approved by roll call and unanimous consent, and will be returned to the House or sent for signatures as required.

Among the items approved:

- First Substitute Senate Bill 24 (Utah Retirement Systems Revisions). Senators concurred with a House amendment removing an unused restricted account and then passed the bill; the Senate recorded 26 yay votes, 0 nays and 3 absent. The bill will be returned to the House for the Speaker’s signature.

- First Substitute Senate Bill 32 (Voting History Amendments). Senator Thatcher described the changes as largely technical. The Senate concurred and later passed First Substitute SB 32 on roll call (recorded in final action as 27 yay, 0 nay, 2 absent); it will be returned to the House for signature.

- First Substitute Senate Bill 44 (Mental Health Professional Practice Act Amendments). Senator Kennedy said the House made a technical line-number correction; the Senate concurred with the amendment and passed the bill (28 yay, 0 nay, 1 absent) to be returned to the House.

- Third Substitute Senate Bill 96 (Correctional Officer Eligibility Amendments). Senator Iwamoto said the change ensures that an officer who is 21 still completes law enforcement training; the Senate concurred with the House amendments and passed third substitute SB 96 (26 yay, 0 nay, 3 absent). The bill will be returned to the House.

- Consent calendar items and House bills. The Senate handled consent calendar measures including First Substitute House Bill 40 (Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission amendments), House Bill 45 (Justice court judge elections amendments), and House Bill 66 (Public Employees Insurance Plan amendments) by unanimous or near-unanimous votes and ordered necessary signatures and returns to the House.

- Additional passed items included House Bill 69 (Division of Real Estate amendments), First Substitute Senate Bill 56 (criminal stalking exemption amendments affecting licensed private investigators), House Bill 41 (County Property Tax Statement Amendments, uncircled and passed), and Second Substitute Senate Bill 98 (Judiciary amendments concerning limited additional pay for judges in leadership roles). Vote tallies were recorded on the floor for each item.

Several bills were circled for later presentation (for example SB 116 was circled pending a presentation), and senators announced committee meetings and events before the Senate recessed until 2:00 p.m.

The Senate’s recorded tallies and the clerks’ roll-call statements are the authoritative record for each passage; individual senators explained changes when a substantive or technical correction had been made.