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SALT LAKE CITY — The improvement of mental health and safety for health care workers and first responders was the focus of a few of the 64 bills that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law Tuesday — though much of the attention went to a bill that Cox vetoed.
Cox's veto of the controversial bill banning transgender students from participation in girls' high school sports was met with Utah legislative leaders announcing they would meet soon to overrule the veto.
Among the bills that Cox signed into law Tuesday:
- HB32, sponsored by Rep. Robert Spendlove, R-Sandy, will make assaulting or threatening violence against a health care employee while working on the job a class A misdemeanor, with an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, a possible third-degree felony charge.
- HB16, sponsored by Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, will provide workers' compensation benefits to emergency response workers who are sent to assist with disasters or special security events. In addition, the bill will increase funding to the National Guard for fire suppression, making it easier for the state to reimburse local fire authorities, allowing them to pay those fighting fires in neighboring states.
The bill drew attention during the session for the litany of public comments that lawmakers called "misinformation" and "fabrication."
- Another bill signed by Cox designed to help first responders is HB23, giving $5 million to first responder agencies for access to mental health resources for all first responders. The money is designed to be a beginning in creating the infrastructure for mental health programs with the goal that agencies will provide the funding in the long term.
Bill sponsor Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, said this is meant to "make sure that we don't miss anybody" who is struggling with mental health, particularly first responders who face a high level of stress on the job.
- Also in the mental health realm is HB167, which will open the door for scientists to study psychedelic drugs — sometimes called "magic mushrooms" — for their potential ability to treat mental illness.
"If this is a tool that can help, we need it in our toolbox, but it needs to be safe and we need to do it in the right way," bill sponsor, Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Highland told the House Health and Human Services Committee on Feb. 2.
