Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A bill eliminating FBI background checks from driver privilege card applications passed a Senate committee Wednesday.
Utah had expanded the law to include the FBI with the idea that the detection of criminal activity or an outstanding warrant would be referred to law enforcement.
But federal law precludes that information from being passed to police, said Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, sponsor of SB129. The background check could only be used for the purpose of issuing the driver privilege card.
"The FBI says we can't use that background check," Bramble said. "This is a matter of the federal government being intransigent in how they approach this."
Utah issues driver privilege cards to people who can't establish legal presence in the U.S. and who aren't eligible for a Social Security number and must obtain an individual tax identification number from the IRS.
The Senate Business and Labor Committee unanimously moved the bill to the Senate floor.
