The 45-day Utah legislative session continues and there are hundreds of bills, coming out on an ongoing basis. The main ones we’re watching are below.
HB 60 Vaccine Passport Amendments (Walt Brooks) - Makes vaccine passports illegal in most cases.
HB 63 COVID-19 Vaccine Amendments (Jefferson Burton) - Requires an employer to exempt an employee or a prospective employee from a COVID-19 vaccine requirement if the employee or prospective employee submits a primary care provider's note stating that the employee or prospective employee was previously infected by COVID-19 and prohibits an employer from keeping or maintaining a record or copy of an employee's COVID-19 test results in most cases.
HB 146 Streamlined Business Licenses for Food Trucks (Karianne Lisonbee) - In 2018, the Utah Legislature passed legislation that would streamline and simplify the process of operating a food truck in multiple jurisdictions throughout the state, but that still required a separate business license in each city. This bill would allow them to get just one business license and then be able to operate anywhere in the state.
HB 154 Occupational Therapy Licensure Compact (Joel Ferry) - This bill creates a system to facilitate the recognition of occupational licenses from other states and streamlines some current occupational licensing laws within the state.
HB 182 Further Limiting Local Authority for Public Health Mandates (Mark Strong) - Exempts state-owned facilities from the authority and jurisdiction of a local health department and removes the ability of the chief executive officer of a municipality to exercise certain powers in response to a pandemic, an epidemic, or a public health emergency.
HB 209 Federalism Amendments (Ken Ivory) - Provides for a more in-depth evaluation of federal laws for compliance with the principles of federalism, or the appropriate balance between state and federal authority, and creates a reserve account to replace federal funding if circumstances were to warrant that necessity in the future.
HB 312 State Financial Contracts Amendments (Rex Shipp) - Requires state entities, when entering into financial services contracts, to give preference to companies that don't refuse to finance fossil fuel companies.
SB 43 Reducing Barriers to Obtaining an Occupational License (Curtis Bramble) - Makes changes to some occupational licensing laws by removing barriers and allowing for the granting of licenses in some circumstances, to those who have held and practiced under them in other states or jurisdictions.
SB 57 County Council Amendments (Lincoln Fillmore) - Makes changes to some of the operations of the county councils in order to allow greater independence from the executive branch and county DAs, whose intervention kept them from taking swifter action against county executive overreach during the pandemic.
SB 227 Consumer Privacy Act (Kirk Cullimore) - Provides consumers the right to access and delete certain data maintained by businesses, as well as opt out of some data collection, and requires businesses to safeguard the data they collect and clearly disclose its uses, and gives power to the Department of Consumer Protection and the AG in enforcement.
