The Utah House on Feb. 25, 2025, approved a broad set of bills on children's services, criminal penalties, land-security disclosures and infrastructure funding. Many measures passed with large bipartisan margins or unanimously.

The package included bills that create a short kinship stipend for relatives who temporarily take children into their care (House Bill 431), raise mandatory penalties for certain human-trafficking convictions (House Bill 405), standardize victim privacy options in criminal cases (House Bill 450), and make procedural changes to child support collection (House Bill 463). The House also approved bills addressing Great Salt Lake management (House Bill 446), towing rules (House Bill 261), municipal lien authority for public-utility debts (House Bill 295), and a property-tax ratchet change (Second Substitute House Bill 110). Vote totals, sponsors and brief descriptions follow.

Votes at a glance

- First substitute House Bill 365, Mental Health Care Study Amendments (Rep. Barlow): Passed 53-11. The bill creates a study to identify barriers to pediatric and adolescent mental health care access.

- Second substitute House Bill 431, Kinship Child Placement Amendments (Rep. Acton): Passed 68-0. Creates an opt-in one-time stipend (described on the floor as a one-time payment with a statutory cap) to help kinship caregivers meet initial needs when a child enters their care; the stipend is separate from foster licensing and does not replace ongoing foster payments if the kin later become licensed.

- First substitute House Bill 405, Human Trafficking Amendments (Rep. Perucci): Passed 62-5. Sponsor sought to elevate certain trafficking-of-a-child penalties to a first-degree felony with a mandatory minimum of 10 years; sponsors and opponents debated the mandatory-minimum sentencing language.

- First substitute House Bill 450, Victim Privacy Amendments (Rep. Hayes): Passed 68-0. Expands and standardizes practices to allow victims to use initials and reduces public disclosure of victim names while preserving attorney access by court order.

- Second substitute House Bill 463, Child Support Modifications (Rep. Ward): Passed 66-0. Creates a rebuttable presumption that unpaid child-support arrears survive parental-rights termination and directs the Office of Recovery Services to develop standard tables/processes for daycare expense collection.

- House Bill 15, Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force Amendments (Rep. Romero): Passed 61-0. Extends the task force sunset to Feb. 19, 2027, and adds sheriffs to support jurisdictional coordination with tribes.

- First substitute House Bill 227, Restricted Person Amendments (Rep. Mauga): Passed 44-20. Clarifies firearm restrictions for persons found not guilty by reason of insanity or mentally incompetent, applying the restriction regardless of whether the underlying charge was a misdemeanor or felony.

- First substitute House Bill 336, State Park Accessibility Amendments (Rep. Welton): Passed 59-1. Allows state parks to procure adaptive equipment for visitors with disabilities.

- First substitute House Bill 438, Environmental Legal Action Amendments (Rep. Jack): Passed 64-0. Repeals a small portion of state code to maintain state regulatory primacy for mining after an administrative ruling.

- House Bill 446, Great Salt Lake Amendments (Rep. Colford): Passed 66-0 (amendment adopted). Adjusts burn-management and mineral-lease language, adds flexibility for the Great Salt Lake Commissioner and coordinates with UDAF on leases and water negotiation.

- Second substitute House Bill 261, Towing Modifications (Rep. Malloy): Passed 66-0 (amendment adopted). Expands access to personal belongings in towed vehicles, clarifies signage standards and standardizes allowable towing fees; amendment prevents removal of property when vehicle is impounded for evidence.

- House Bill 502, Transportation and Infrastructure Funding Amendments (Rep. Tuscher): Passed 64-0. Appropriates Salt Lake County infrastructure funds for a South Jordan connector road between Crimson View Drive and Copper Hawk Drive (Prosperity Road project description provided on the floor).

- Second substitute House Bill 408, School Board Referendum Amendments (Rep. Shipp): Passed 40-33 after a call of the House. Changes referendum rules to allow certain school-board actions to be subject to referendum unless adopted by supermajority.

- First substitute House Bill 430, Security and Land Restriction Amendments (Rep. Perucci): Passed 67-0 (amendment adopted). Adds disclosure for restricted foreign entities at time of sale and extends restrictions to leases; includes provisions to keep food-delivery services from driving onto military installations.

- Third substitute House Bill 295, Municipal Service Fees and Political Subdivision Lien Amendments (Rep. Cutler): Passed 44-20. Clarifies and restricts the use of liens for unpaid sewer, water and storm-drain service charges, adds maximum interest rate language and prevents certain fee gouging by attorneys.

- Second substitute House Bill 110, Combined Basic Tax Rate Reduction (Rep. Auxerre): Passed 50-18. Uncouples an automatic local tax increase linked to the WPU value rate increase; sponsors said the measure preserves school funding but removes the automatic "ratchet" that increases property taxes without local process.

- Second substitute House Bill 284, International Money Transmission Amendments (Rep. Gracious): Passed 56-14. Establishes a 2% tax on certain foreign remittances when ID is not provided, with a refund process available when identity is later verified; sponsor framed the bill as a way to capture untaxed funds leaving the state.

- House Bill 316, Child Tax Credit Amendments (Rep. Strong): Passed 68-1. Expands the existing child tax credit eligibility to cover children from birth through age 5 (added one year at each end of the current range).

What passed and next steps

Most of the bills passed the House and, as announced on the floor, will be transmitted to the Senate for consideration. Several bills passed unanimously; others passed with bipartisan majorities. For bills that passed with amendments on the floor, sponsors noted technical or policy changes that were approved before final voting.The House also assigned numerous bills to committees during its rules report.

Provenance (selected): announcements of bills and voting appear throughout the Feb. 25 floor transcript, including the clerk's initial reading of Senate communications and later third-reading calendar items and vote roll calls.