Committee adopts substitute narrowing scope of House Bill 301

The House Technology and Innovation Committee adopted, without objection, a substitute amendment to House Bill 301 at its fourth hearing, narrowing the bill’s application and adding multiple exemptions.

Vice Chair Workman moved to amend House Bill 301 by adopting a substitute bill. Workman summarized the substitute as narrowing the bill’s scope to consumer digital electronic equipment akin to cell phones and laptops and clarifying several exemptions: agricultural equipment and vehicles and their periphery components; business‑to‑business and business‑to‑government transactions involving non‑public equipment; equipment that could be debilitating to national security under federal law; and a carve‑out excluding print imaging devices from a parts‑pairing provision to comply with federal law‑enforcement requirements. Workman also said the substitute allows manufacturers to provide equivalent or better replacement devices to consumers at no charge.

The chair asked if there were any objections; none were raised and the committee adopted the substitute. The transcript records the substitute bill identifier in spoken form but the bill reference was garbled in the record; the clerk and chair confirmed the substitute was on members’ iPads for review. The committee concluded the fourth hearing of House Bill 301 after adoption.