The House Rules Committee on a roll-call vote recommended House Bill 513 to the full House, creating the Utah Commission on Earthquake Preparedness to coordinate statewide efforts on seismic hazards, infrastructure resilience and recovery planning.

Sponsor Representative Tom Peterson Jr. told the committee the bill restructures the prior Utah Seismic Safety Commission and transfers staffing responsibility to the Utah Geological Survey within the Department of Natural Resources. Ari Bruning, chief executive officer of Envision Utah, described the commission's role as prioritizing infrastructure and economic preparedness and producing recommendations for the legislature, local governments and utilities.

"We have over a 50% chance of a very large earthquake sometime in the next 50 years," Bruning said, summarizing the commission's motivation. Bill Keach, state geologist and director of the Utah Geological Survey, testified on technical thresholds: ruptures that produce surface shear generally require about a magnitude 6.1 or larger, he said, noting that a 7.0 event would be many times stronger than the 5.7 Magna quake.

Committee members asked about commission size and function; sponsors said the membership list intentionally includes a variety of professional perspectives and that the commission is intended for cross-sector collaboration rather than policy-making. Representative Stoddard asked that the legislature receive the commission's planning documents; the sponsor said reports to the legislature are already part of standard practice but agreed to include the legislature explicitly.

Chris Hamlett, director of the Utah Division of Emergency Management, said his agency strongly supports continued work on seismic hazards and described the seismic event as the state's top catastrophic planning priority in FEMA Region 8. Public commenters urged state and federal funding for early-warning systems; one commenter cited a $5,000,000 figure discussed with federal contacts.

Representative Lou Bey moved that the committee favorably recommend HB513 (substitute) to the House floor. The committee approved the motion by roll-call vote, 7 yes to 3 no. The roll call recorded yes votes from Representatives Thompson, Stoddard, Malloy, Loubay, Hayes, Feofia and Cutler; no votes came from Representatives Perucci, McPherson and Chair Peterson.

The bill tasks the commission with developing priorities for infrastructure mitigation, tracking progress and presenting annual recommendations to state and local governments. The measure also extends the commission's term (sunset) and formally centers the commission on earthquake preparedness and recovery rather than broad, open-ended study.