A House committee on Tuesday voted to pass House Bill 480, which would authorize a suicide-prevention specialty license plate and direct a share of the plate fees to suicide-prevention programs.

Representative Armstrong, sponsor of the measure, told the committee the initial plate fee would be $35 in addition to normal registration fees and an annual renewal fee would be $30. He described the distribution: $12 of the initial fee would be retained by the Motor Vehicle Division to cover manufacturing and issuance costs and $23 of the initial and renewal fees would be appropriated to the Behavioral Health Services Division in the Human Services Department to support suicide-prevention efforts.

There was no public opposition in the hearing. Representative Brown voiced a concern about whether seeing the words “suicide prevention” on a plate could be triggering for some people.

Representative Romero moved the bill to pass and Representative Lundstrom seconded. The committee recorded yes votes from Representative Armstrong, Representative Borrego, Representative Brown, Representative Hernandez, Representative Lundstrom, Representative Romero and Chair Dela Cruz; the chair announced the bill passed.

The bill now advances from the committee with a due-pass recommendation and will proceed to subsequent floor and fiscal steps if scheduled.