It has been a busy couple of weeks–here’s a brief update on a few of the goings on. If you notice that this newsletter is a little more vibrant than usual, it is because my intern is helping me with it, and she is great with taking and inserting photos. 🙂 If you would like to follow or see all the legislation I am sponsoring, click here. Only my numbered bills (those that are ready) are listed, and I have more that will be added as the drafters finish them.

WEEKLY BILL REPORT

HB122 Sex Offender Registry Amendments

HB 122 was one of the first bills to be released from Rules and assigned to a committee. Last week, I presented it to the Judiciary, where it was passed unanimously. Wednesday, I presented the bill on the House Floor, where it also passed unanimously. Now it is on to the Senate side.

Over the years, there have been a lot of piecemeal changes to the registry that resulted in inconsistencies that made the monitoring and managing of the registry difficult. The Department of Corrections (UDC), which manages the registry, brought the issue to the Sentencing Commission so that we could address these inconsistencies and increase the clarity of this statute.

This bill has consensus support from prosecutors, defense attorneys, Department of Corrections, Board of Pardons, the Attorney General’s office, mental health providers, victim’s advocates, law enforcement, and judges. If you are interested, here is what it does (or you can skip down to the next section):

Defines “convicted” to make it consistent with case law and the Registry’s practices
Provides a definition for “regularly drives a vehicle” (12 times a year)
Adds attempt, conspiracy, and solicitation of human trafficking as registerable offenses
Clarifies that any offender with a lifetime registration requirement who was under the age of 21 at the time of their offense may ask the sentencing court to find that the offense did not involve force or coercion and, therefore, reduce their registration requirement to 10 years past termination of sentence
Reaffirms that registration is not a condition of sentencing, but a collateral consequence
Clarifies existing processes with juvenile registrants. It does not create new registration requirements for youth/juveniles, but creates a non-public registry for all individuals who were under 18 at the time of their offense. This provision was made retroactive to move existing registrants from the public registry to a private registry with two exceptions: 1. youthful registrants whose lifetime registration requirement arose from multiple convictions in separate cases, and 2. when the Registry cannot identify the age of the offender at the time of the offense.
Closes a loophole that allowed juveniles who were in secure care and then moved directly to prison before they aged out of secure care didn’t have to register
Clarifies confusion and closes a loophole surrounding when a person has an offense under the age of 18 but is convicted in adult court.

HB113 Motor Vehicle Insurance Revision

This bill was passed out of the Transportation Committee today after a robust debate. Liability limits for car insurance have not changed since 1993, while costs for medical care and vehicles have increased dramatically. If someone totals your car and they only have the current required liability minimums (which many drivers do), the most you will get from them is $15,000 for your vehicle and $25,000 for your injuries unless the at fault driver has assets and you sue. My original bill would have raised these limits to $50,000 for bodily injury and $30,000 for property damage. A substitute bill with lower limits, $30,000 for personal injury and $25,000 for property damage, was ultimately successful.

The cost to increase liability coverage is generally only several dollars a month (there are a lot of factors that can increase or decrease this amount, e.g. your driving record), and there is no data that suggests a rate increase will increase uninsured drivers. This is a consumer protection bill: it not only protects the victims of a driving accident, but it also protects the at-fault driver. If the at-fault driver is under-insured, the victim can sue them for damages and the driver can lose their home and savings.

After one of my daughters and two of her kids were the victims of a terrible car accident 2 1/2 years ago, I checked my insurance and was horrified to find that my husband and I only had $35,000 of personal injury liability on our policy. I immediately changed it to $250,000 (seven times more than I was proposing in my bill) which only raised our monthly premium by $15.

Transgender Bills

This week, SB 16 and HB 132 were presented to the Health and Human Services Committee. These bills regard transgender medical procedures and treatments making this a very nuanced, sensitive, and difficult issue. I supported SB 16, which prohibits–with medical exceptions– genital and breast surgery for transgender minors and puts a moratorium on hormone treatments for transgender youth. It also commissions a robust systematic review of evidence so that we will have good data on the effects of hormone treatments on minors. I made an amendment that would ban the surgeries for ALL minors, not just transgender youth because I don’t believe any physically healthy child should have elective, invasive, cosmetic surgery. However, this amendment failed.

This is a very sensitive and difficult issue and one that I have spent considerable time researching, thinking about, and discussing with constituents, advocates, and stakeholders. I have spoken with transgender youth and adults, and I know that they are vulnerable and often treated very badly. My hope is that we all can be kind to each other and take the time to listen to someone else’s story.

I appreciate everyone who attended and who was able to participate–it takes time and effort to take part in the Legislative process. You can click here to watch the meeting!

Events – Photos with the Governor and my intern, Miah!

Facebook Fridays!
Every Friday I go over the highlights of the week and talk more in-depth about interesting issues! I’d love to have you join! I’m not always sure when during the day I will have time to do the Live video–it is usually in the afternoon or early evening–, but you can always watch them later on my page.

Click here for my page: https://www.facebook.com/marshajudkinsUT61/

How to Join Meetings, Participate in Public Comments, and Join on Zoom!

1. Go to https://le.utah.gov
2. Click Committees
3. Select the Committee you are interested in
4. This page gives information on where and when the meeting is.
5. Click the Electronic Participation Available “?” to join the live Zoom (public comment available online or in person)

Every legislative committee meeting and Floor time can be accessed live or watched/listened to later.