SALT LAKE CITY — After a contentious debate Friday, the House passed Utah Cares, the GOP leadership's counter to Gov. Gary Herbert's Healthy Utah alternative to Medicaid expansion.

Democrats made another unsuccessful attempt to bring back the governor's more expansive plan for providing health care to low-income Utahns. Healthy Utah has Senate approval, but was defeated in a House committee earlier this week.

House Majority Whip Francis Gibson, R-Mapleton, told representatives before the vote they should "feel free" to oppose Utah Cares, but called it "analogous to the guy in the desert who walks past a glass of water because he wants a gallon."

HB446, sponsored by House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, passed 56-18 and now goes to the Senate. The Senate plans to hold a hearing on the bill before the session ends Thursday. Read more ...

Committee OKs bill allowing air quality regulators to incorporate 'different' rules

A bill that would allow Utah air quality regulators to incorporate rules that are "different" from what the federal Clean Air Act allows passed a legislative committee's scrutiny Monday.

HB226, sponsored by Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, represents a major step forward for pollution reform, according to advocates.

Edwards is trying to strike a balance among clean air advocates and a weary conservative Utah Legislature about what can ultimately be a unique approach to help fix air pollution woes along the Wasatch Front.

Wood-burning bill advances in legislative committee

Wood burners are relieved and clean air advocates are upset over a measure that cleared a legislative committee Tuesday that would establish when people along the Wasatch Front can use their wood-burning stoves.

Rep. Brad Dee, R-Ogden, is sponsoring HB396 in response to a proposal put out by the Utah Air Quality Board earlier this year that would have instituted a seasonal ban in areas where wintertime PM2.5 pollution is a problem.

A series of public hearings held in the seven impacted counties drew hundreds of people opposed to the potential ban, with air quality regulators soundly lambasted over what was often characterized as a fundamental right and ability to be self-sufficient.

Dee told members of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee that his measure attempts to find "middle" ground by largely preserving the system already in place in which burning is prohibited on the worst air quality days but still allowed when pollutants have not breached the federal threshold.

Bill to expand death benefits to families of fallen officers advances

A Senate committee unanimously endorsed a bill Thursday that would expand death benefits to families of peace officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty.

Before voting to send the bill to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation, lawmakers listened to Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder as he explained how he’s had the “unfortunate task of having to deal with the aftermath” of such circumstances.

Winder spoke of how the spouses of those fallen officers are flooded with emotional uncertainty and fear for their family’s future. If HB288 is signed into law, he said, law enforcement officers would be able to “go to these homes, wrap their arms around these people, and provide true care and solace instead of additional questions.”

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, HB288 would increase the lump sum spouses of officers killed in the line of duty receive, as well as provide health coverage for the officer’s surviving family.

Recovering Utahns rally for health care, drug addiction treatment

The Utah branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness organized a rally Friday to express support for Gov. Gary Herbert’s alternative to Medicaid expansion, Healthy Utah, despite its fall in the House Thursday night. The rally also expressed support for HB348, a criminal justice reform bill that would facilitate better treatment for offenders who struggle with drug addiction and mental illness, as well as make drug possession a misdemeanor.

Jamie Justice, the executive director of the Utah branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she and other health leaders want the Utah Legislature to recognize the Utahns who will be most impacted by Healthy Utah and criminal justice reform.

She said people struggling with drug abuse and mental illness are being "unjustly criminalized," and they could have higher chances at better lives with improved access to health care.

“We want our legislators to see us — to see both the desperation and the hope in our eyes,” Justice said. “We’re willing them to do what’s right.”

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