I went to check the status of HB60 this morning and noticed the status has changed to “House Comm – Not Considered”. This means that the committee responsible for hearing the bill has declined to do so. Without a committee hearing, the bill has little chance of passing at all. There’s still the possibility that once the rules are suspended that it could be brought to a floor vote, but that appears to be unlikely and would be a “hail Mary” kind of move.
As always, I’m going to keep watching this one until the session is over, but it looks like we may have won this round handily.
Don’t get too excited. The sponsor can ask the committee chair to bring it up again, with 24 hours notice to the agenda, at any time. Also, it can just be brought up on the floor of the House without any committee hearing at all. It’s not really dead until the end of the session.
True, but changing the status from Held to Not Considered is a big leap. There would be no reason to change it from Held if you’re planning to bring it back up. It’s also very much a “hail Mary” to bring a bill to a floor vote under suspension of the rules when it couldn’t even get through committee. That’s the kind of thing that a guy like Noel would do.
My gut is that Webb may have realized that he stepped in it and may have reconsidered running with this bill. All accounts are that he’s usually a pretty good legislator and fair-minded. He may have had an “ah ha” moment when he was on the air with Pete Ashdown and couldn’t really defend the bill.
On the air? Was there an interview? If so, any idea where I can find it?
It was on Paul Duane’s show on KTKK, but the online archives are all screwed up. I’ve been trying to get a copy some other way.
Word around the campfire is that Rep. Webb is letting HB60 die because of the backlash against it. He may have realized that it’s a turkey.
H.B. 60 got added to Friday’s Revised Committee Agenda!
Following up with more info:
The House Government Operations Committee has since revised their agenda for Friday, February 14th to include H.B. 60 for consideration again, in Room 20 of the House Building at 8:00AM.
If anyone can speak in opposition to the bill, there can still be a chance to kill it in committee.
Link to revised agenda: http://le.utah.gov/~2014/agenda/hgoc0214.ag.htm