Monday, February 11, 2008

MORNING COMMITTEES

HB171, which restricts using Utah's driving privilege card for identification purposes will be discussed in HOUSE LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE. Under HB171 driving privilege cards, issued in place of driver licenses to drivers who lack Social Security numbers, could not be used as proof of age to buy guns, alcoholic beverages, raw materials for illegal drugs, or in fact for any government purpose. The driving privilege could be suspended for cardholders without car insurance.

In HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT, House Concurrent Resolution 5 urges Congress to pass R.S. 2477, Rights of Way Recognition Act. In 1866 Congress granted rights-of-ways for highways over public lands. That law was repealed in 1976, but existing roads were allowed to remain. At issue is whether those roads, some of them only paths and not used much, should be considered highways. If so, those areas could not be designated as wilderness. Wilderness must be roadless. The resolution states that the roads are critical to the economic stability and vitality of the rural West.

SB267 will be in SENATE HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES. SB267 would prohibit cities and counties from setting up registries that recognize a domestic partnership, civil union or any other domestic relationship other than marriage. The bill is aimed at a recent Salt Lake City registry established to help employers determine which members of a household are eligible for health insurance coverage. SB267 is aimed at same-sex households, but the Salt Lake ordinance is broad enough to include any household members who cohabit and rely on one another as dependents. The city says that 78 percent of city employees who have registered are not gay. Mayor Ralph Becker will oppose SB267 in committee.

THIS AFTERNOON

All legislators will debate on the House and Senate floors from 2 to 4 p.m. The Executive Appropriations Committee meets at 4 pm in room C445 to hear reports on Subcommittee priorities.

For more information, visit your legislature — in person or online at www.le.utah.gov

WHAT HAPPENED FRIDAY

Two major bills of the session, Substitute HB133, Health Care Reform, and SB81, Illegal Immigration moved forward on Friday.

HB133 passed the House unanimously 72-0, and floor debate was very friendly. The bill is now basically a Health System Reform Task Force made up of 11 legislators. A reform plan will be under development until November 2008. The departments of health, insurance, and workforce services will be coordinated by the Governor's Office of Economic Development and a new Office of Consumer Health Services. A major goal of the task force appears to be improving private insurance.

Money appropriated includes $615,000 for the Health Department to collect, analyze and distribute health care cost and quality data and $500,000 to standardize electronic exchange of clinical health information. Another
$350,000 will go to Legislative Research for extra help with health and insurance research.

SB81, Illegal Immigration, passed the SENATE GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS COMMITTEE on Friday. There wasn't time to discuss all of the many suggested solutions in the bill.

But there were some informative comments: Senator Waddoups surveyed his constituents and found they clearly wanted: penalties for employers of undocumented workers and denial of social services, but were split on doing away with driving privilege cards and instate tuition, so he recommended that we keep those.

A Utah Minuteman spoke up for obeying the law, but Professor Teresa Martinez cautioned against unjust laws. Slavery, Jim Crow discrimination, child labor, and denial of the vote to women were once legal.

George Hoffman of United Way reported that an Oklahoma law similar to SB81 i s now driving immigrant workers away, resulting in labor shortages and a 4.6% reduction in sales tax revenue. Senator Romero said that local law enforcement can already voluntarily enforce immigration laws if they can afford it and that employer verification of citizenship is not accurate; the system only says whether an employee's Social Security number has been used before. He moved to send the bill to interim study but it passed on a 4-2 vote, with Senators Buttars, Hickman, Jenkins and Knudson voting for and Senators McCoy and Romero against.

Sandy Peck
League of Women Voters