the Utah House unanimously passed a bill that would create a process to review state and local surveillance technology and to halt the use of surveillance tech that doesn't meet acceptable standards. The proposed law would create an important layer of transparency and oversight for surveillance programs in the state and push back against the growing federal surveillance state.
| Updated: 9:52 p.m.
A Utah House lawmaker on Wednesday unveiled what he hopes is a compromise version of a pandemic “endgame” bill that would roll back the state’s general mask mandate while leaving in place face covering requirements for K-12 schools and large, crowded gatherings.
The legislation cleared the House by a 51-20 vote, over opposition from House Democrats who called it government overreach and a handful of Republicans who thought it should’ve eliminated all mask mandates immediately.
Rep. Paul Ray, the bill’s sponsor, said the latest version of his HB294 doesn’t completely satisfy him but he suggested that it’s a proposal Gov. Spencer Cox and the state health department could stomach.
The Utah House gave final legislative approval to SB127 on Tuesday night, less than a month after Paris Hilton came to Utah’s Capitol Hill to give emotional and graphic testimony about the state’s "troubled teen" treatment centers.
| Updated: 6:51 p.m.
Passage of the bill comes after celebrity Paris Hilton gave emotional testimony during a committee hearing earlier this session that detailed the abuse and mistreatment she says she endured while at a youth residential treatment center in Utah.
If signed by the governor, this would be the first time Utah legislators have put more oversight in place on the nearly 100 youth residential treatment centers in 15 years.
Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, said Tuesday that the proposal was an “essential bill” to add “some guardrails and some oversight that, frankly, has been lacking.”
“If there is anything that we do need a little bit of protection over, it is the care of children,” he said. “And so I think this really addresses some core things to hopefully bring some reason to the bad actors and allow the good actors to proceed with doing what can be a very valuable service.”