H.B. 179 Milk Amendments

What this bill does

The bill would let Utah producers sell raw milk with safety handled mainly by the producers themselves, including monthly testing, record keeping, sanitation, and warning labels. The state Department of Agriculture and Food would mainly act on outbreaks or complaints, rather than doing routine inspections, and the bill removes the 51% farm-ownership requirement for stores.

Plain-English summary written by AI from the sponsor’s presentation in committee and on the floor. Check the official text below.

Your legislators on this bill

Enter your address to see what your own representative and senator did on this bill.

Quotes come from the official recordings' automatic captions, which can mishear words. Speakers and summaries are identified by AI and can be wrong. Use the ▶ links to check the recording.

Take action

This bill's session is over, but your legislators still want to hear from you. Ideas that died often come back next year.

Enter your address to get your legislators' contact information and a ready-to-send message about this bill.

Every vote

• 11 yes, 0 no, 3 absentHouse Health and Human Services Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Jan 30, 2026Who voted how
• 11 yes, 0 no, 3 absentHouse Health and Human Services Committee: vote to approve it · Jan 30, 2026Who voted how
• 46 yes, 20 no, 9 absentFinal House vote · Feb 12, 2026Who voted how
• 7 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Business and Labor Committee: vote to change the bill · Feb 25, 2026Who voted how
• 7 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Business and Labor Committee: Amendment Recommendation · Feb 25, 2026Who voted how
• 7 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Business and Labor Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 25, 2026Who voted how
• 25 yes, 0 no, 4 absentFinal Senate vote · Mar 6, 2026Who voted how
• 65 yes, 0 no, 10 absentHouse vote to accept the other chamber's changes · Mar 6, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Jan 30, 2026 House Health and Human Services Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (54 turns)

  1. Committee chair1:29:38

     Our next agenda item is House Bill 1 79. Is that right? Milk Amendments Representative Shelley. I dunno. Yeah. All right.

  2. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:30:23

     All right. Ready for more fun. Um, so if you are familiar with Upton Sinclair's book, the Jungle, you understand the urbanization nightmare that inspired food regulation? It got big, it got messy. We looked for a way to clean it up and cooking was the what we chose to do. We could have fought for clean raw milk instead of cooking dirty milk, but we didn't. No pro nobody, producer or consumer wants to go back to that. What we do want to do is have the ability to make our own food choices. And we want to boo boost local food suppliers to create food stability. Keeping options open is a good way to do that. There is both a need and a demand for raw milk. Nobody is making anyone buy it. Those who use it go out of their way and pay good money to get it. Having a local food supply, uh, milk supply is critical. And it even helps those who don't want it raw, because if it's available, they can cook it. If it's not available, then it's not an option at all. Some of you may be aware that there are technically three raw milk bills in play right now. The first one, I opened a file in June and reached out to U DAF in mid-October and worked with them until December 22nd when it Bela became clear that they were running another bill with another sponsor. So the second one is the UD DAF bill. And three, there's a food bill that also includes complete deregulation of raw milk. In the process of getting ready for this bill, we have reached out to all the concerned parties the Farm Bureau has known since March, that this bill was happening and reached out today with concerns. I have worked with the Utah Medical Association and DHHS. I've worked with producers, I've visited dairies. I've also made amendments for legislators who asked for, for them with enough time for me to get it done. We've heard worked hard on this legislation since March. Our objective is to create good policy that assists producers, keeps animals clean and safe, accommodates the needs and safety of the consumers, supports the free market and demonstrates good stewardship. This legislation is not about re-regulation versus deregulation. It's about who is responsible for food safety. The producer who controls the animal equipment, sanitation and product, or the Department of Agriculture acting as a continuous supervisory authority. HB 1 79 deliberately assigns primary safety responsibility to producers and removes the government from routine operational oversight. The producers are the safety authority. Under HB 1 79, producers are legally responsible for monthly laboratory testing, record retention, sanitation control, temperature control, packaging conditions, labeling disclosures, and animal health compliance. The department is not positioned as the daily daily safety gatekeeper, which by its own admission it neither has the manpower or funding to manage this forces producers to internalize the safety risk, self-manage compliance, and directly bear consequences of failure. This is true accountability, not delegated enforcement. The government acts when only when harm exists. The department is restricted to outbreak investigation. Public health response, targeted enforcement. There is no routine inspection program, no standing testing authority, no perpetual surveillance bureaucracy. This method preserves the public health protection without substituting state oversight for producer responsibility, liability remains with the producer. Um, HB 1 79 removes the implicit government stamp of approval created by routine expen inspections, continuous state monitoring and regulatory co-management. Consumers are explicitly warned raw milk or raw milk products, no matter how carefully produced may be unsafe, that labeling goes on each container. So when you're taking it off the shelf, you can see that it's, it's fully labeled with how to take care of it and everything. Um, this ensures informed consumer choice, producer liability, clarity, and no regulatory shielding. Um, the fiscal consequences reinforce the policy choice. Government shrinks responsibility shifts the state impact 101,000 annual operating cost reduction, $80,000 net taxpayer savings. This is a direct result of eliminating inspection schedules, eliminating routine testing programs, eliminating standing enforcement administration. In this, under HB 1 79, the government steps back. The producer stepped for, stepped forward. Many states are moving toward le less regulation of raw milk and more expansion of the free market. This is a great time for Utah to build the local food, food supply and bolster our own free market. And this concludes my presentation. I'm open for questions.

  3. Committee chair1:36:22

     Alright, thank you representative ch Um, we will go to the committee for clarifying questions.

  4. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:36:32

     Oh, can I say one more thing? I have an amendment. It should be online. Is it amendment or a sub? It's an amendment. Let us look, give us one second. Um, I was specifically asked to amend it to make sure that the milk is separated in the market so that you don't have the, um, pasteurized next to the, the raw. And I added that amendment, and then I also added that the, um, notification of the department needs to be in writing. Okay. Alright.

  5. Committee chair1:37:09

     Um, to the committee for any clarifying questions. Representative Acton, Uh, Mr. Um, vice chair?

  6. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton1:37:20

     I just, uh, I just wondered, do you know, is this taking us to kind of how they do things in Idaho? I should have asked you guys this before, but I believe In Idaho. I'm not sure what Idaho's doing.

  7. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:37:34

     I know Wyoming has complete deregulation. We're not, it doesn't take us to what Wyoming's doing. Um, I don't know what Idaho is doing. Sorry. Oh,

  8. Rep. Cheryl K. Acton1:37:44

     That's okay. I just thank you. That's really all.

  9. Committee chair1:37:49

     Okay. Anyone else from the committee have any questions? Representative Monson? Thank you.

  10. Rep. Logan Monson1:37:58

      Um, Mr. Chair, the question I had is just around the testing aspects, at least in my reading, and I am frequently corrected, so I'm, I'm happy to be educated Okay. If, if this is wrong. Um, but I see I'm seeing a lot here in terms of, uh, the department being able to, uh, conduct testing, um, after a cease and desist or after there's some kind of Okay. I can, can explain that. Can, or Yeah. I was just wondering, is there anything in this that would preclude them from doing testing?

  11. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:38:27

      No. So of that, no. So as it would stand under this bill, the producers test every month and they store the test for two years. The test results for two years. If there is an outbreak, then the department can come in, they can issue a cease and desist, they do a, um, genomic sequencing test to determine whether it, where the actual problem is. And if it is that farm, then things progress from there. But, um, the, it doesn't stop the department from coming in in an outbreak.

  12. Rep. Logan Monson1:39:05

      Thank you. Mm-hmm. And can I ask one more question? Yes. And just because I just read the amendment or, uh, sub amendment, sorry. Um, the main piece of this is really that, um, if this is marketed in the public market, that they're retailed separately or marked separately from pasteurized products. Is That, and, and each container has the warning label on it as well.

  13. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:39:28

      Okay. And they would be separated.

  14. Rep. Logan Monson1:39:30

      I knew you would explain it better than the legal language. So Thank you.

  15. Committee chair1:39:37

      Any other questions from the committee? If not, we will go to, um, public comment. We'll give the public. And is anyone in the room that wants to speak to this bill? We have a few. Okay. We will just have you come up and make sure you write your name on the, the board there and tell us your name and who you are, and we'll give you two minutes to, to speak.

  16. Kelly Pearson, Commissioner of Agriculture1:40:13

      Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. I know it's, uh, Friday on the second week. We're almost there guys. I know. But, uh, I'm Kelly Pearson. I'm the Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of Utah. Um, grateful to be back here. And this is a great discussion about raw milk. Um, when I was asked to be the commissioner, one of the first things that I wanted to do as commissioner is look at our regulations. And I've done that. We started what was called to clear the rules initiative, where we've looked at every rule and seen if it, it, it lines up with the intent of, of the legislators raw milk was one of the things that we have looked at drastically. We started a bill right after the session last year with, with Representative Kohler. I actually was the one that reached out to Representative Shelley when I heard that she was running a bill and asked if we could do one bill. And we've worked drastically. Our bill has drastically changed the direction that we've wanted that where, where we were. And, um, I, I don't, I don't want to kill Representative Chevy's beer. She has worked very hard and is, and we're almost there. Um, all I'm asking this committee to do is table it. Um, once the bill was numbered by Representative Shelley, we, it's been crickets. We want to work with, with her. And Representative Kohler's, bill and her bill are really close. We just have to get, uh, on some, a few points. And I brought up, um, my deputy, uh, Amber Brown to talk about some of the things that are a little different that we're almost there on. So I got a question from the committee real quick, if that's, if that's okay.

  17. Committee chair1:41:52

      You're okay? Yeah. I want to hear her record. Okay. Well wait. So, so Amber, tell us who you are and and we'll give you a couple minutes here.

  18. Amber Brown, Deputy Commissioner1:41:59

      Thank you so much. My name's Amber Brown, deputy Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture and Food. I appreciate, uh, Kelly giving me a minute. Like he said, we, we did meet with Representative Chevrolet initially and then, um, when we realized they were kind of going to different bills, we haven't had a lot of interaction, but we are hopeful that we can work with her and try to work some of these issues out. Um, you know, we're the agency that has primary responsibility over raw milk. Um, and we just have some concerns with the bill in its current form. I wanna touch on a few of those. So one of them is, right now, um, under the bill, there are some restrictions and there are some requirements of facilities. Now they're, they're self-imposed and they're not regulated by the department unless there's an outbreak. But there's some, you know, sanitation guidelines and things like that for those that are selling in markets. But those that are selling from a farm, there's much lesser restrictions. And the notification to the department is much less. If you look in section seven of the bill, it refers to if you're selling from a farm at any amount, that you don't have to follow the previous sections. We have a little bit of a concern with those that are selling from a farm and those that are selling to markets being treated, uh, differently when there's not a cap on how much they can sell. Um, under current law, that is the case as well, but there's a limit. It's only up to 120 gallons a month. And so it's really talking about those that just have a couple of cows. But on HB 1 79, it could be any amount of cows if you're selling from a farm. Um, the other issue I wanna bring up is inspections. So Representative Kohler's, bill HB 2 83, we have asked for one inspection a year and an inspection when the person starts to sell raw milk, we're actually working on a substitute to that bill where we're backing off on the annual inspection and they're just asking for one inspection, one opportunity for the department to come out, educate producers, take a look at their facility and help to help them to make sure that everything is clean, everything is ready to go. We're not, we're not gonna charge for that inspection. We just want to be able to meet with them, um, and take a look before they start selling in this bill. There are no inspections. There are no sampling, there's no testing unless there's an outbreak situation. One other thing, this bill doesn't require the producer to have any kind of a recall plan. We would like them to have a plan. They can decide what it is. We just want them to be ready in case there's an outbreak, and to publish information about the outbreak so consumers are notified. Um, we also have some concerns about the, the cease and desist schedule and penalties. Um, right now you have to have three clean tests to be able to be reinstated if there's a cease and desist. And that's the way it is under current law. Um, we've had some problems in the past where we're kind of going with a lot of back and forth trying to get those tests, or you have a clean test and someone starts selling again. And then there's another problem. We would just like to have a 14 day cease and desist, and then you can go ahead and sell again. And then if there's another issue, you would have a penalty. And, and we're open to conversation about the level of penalty and that they will be reduced in Representative Kohler substitute.

  19. Committee chair1:44:53

      So. Okay. And I think we have a, maybe a question or two from Representative Ward. Did you have something or did that clear up what your, your question may have been for, for the department?

  20. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:45:01

      That cleared up a lot. Uh, a lot of it. I guess my other question is really just to the universe about, it would've been nice to maybe to hear the two bills together to kind of understand. I mean, in the end it's a d it's a certainly a different, it sounds like a different approach, but between the two bills, I mean, if, uh, we, We would love to have that happen and we've asked for that. If, if this could just be held off until we can get them all together.

  21. Committee chair1:45:28

      Okay. Well, well, let's keep going with our public comment and then we will, we'll come back and, and have some discussion around that. Is there anyone, I, I, I'm pretty sure I saw more hands, so if you'll come and write your name down and then tell us who you are and who you represent. And we'll give you a couple, couple minutes to speak to us here.

  22. Spencer Gibbons, Utah Farm Bureau1:45:49

      Uh, thank you. Spencer Gibbons from the Utah Farm Bureau. Um, appreciate the opportunity to comment. Uh, I just wanted to talk about raw milk. I have an interesting relationship with raw milk. Um, I'm a fourth generation dairyman. Uh, I'm from Cash Valley, Utah. And, uh, I have also worked for the Utah Farm Bureau for 23 years. And we've been engaged in this discussion over and over and over, uh, for 23 years. It almost seems like, um, and we've come from, you know, we've, uh, I would say for those who want to, uh, you know, it's funny. We say raw milk producers. Everybody's a raw milk producer. Um, there are just those who send it to be pasteurized. Um, but people who want raw milk can get raw milk. Um, currently, um, it's in fact it's not difficult. Uh, but some of our concerns come from, uh, rep Representative Shelley, uh, noted that she had been worked with the Farm Bureau. We had not seen much. There might have been a very brief phone call or a conversation, uh, at a baseball game representative. But, uh, we, we hadn't seen anything until the bill was introduced. And so, uh, we, we, uh, had been, had been in discussion with Representative Kohler on his bill HB 2 83. Uh, we do hope that there's an opportunity for, uh, these two to marry up a little. Um, I think there's some, uh, some things that are concerning the, it creates two different standards for even raw milk producers, those that wanna sell at retail and those that wanna sell it outta the backyard. Um, I think that, uh, I, that, that it's concerning that unlimited, you know, I, we, we milk cows for a living. Um, I understand what it takes to produce milk, uh, and try not to make people sick. Um, I have a confession to make. I've been drinking raw milk my entire life, and, uh, I fed it to my family. And there are some side effects to raw milk. Uh, before my children drank raw milk, they were obedient. Uh, and they listened to me. And once they started drinking raw milk, they got sassy. Uh, before I started to drink raw milk, I had a full head of hair. Uh, I, I joke, but I, i, we just have some concerns. Um, we do feel like that, uh, we just need to proceed with caution, uh, is what we're asking. And I think there's an opportunity between the two bills.

  23. Committee chair1:48:35

      Thank you guys. Okay, That, go ahead, sir.

  24. Paul Opfor, Springville Dairy1:48:40

      Uh, yeah, Paul Lofar, Springbrook Dairy. We have a raw milk dairy down in Springville, Utah. Um, I have a couple concerns. Uh, uh, Amber Brown, she was talking about the one 20, the, the minimum for her, like, uh, backyards, what they're considered one 20, like I've been around the block a lot. And the department, regardless if it's, if it's 1 22 50, I've been told several times they don't have the resources, manpower to track people down that are, that are producing 120 gallons a month. There's no, there's no oversight. They want to be a big brother, but there's no oversight. They, they don't have no, no manpower to go search things, things down. You get bored. FOIA requests, how many times I've complained about this. Like, I think we should just open it up to let, let the people decide. Like I'm a raw milk producer. I am extremely careful about how I produce my milk and how I sell it like I am. That's the last thing I want. It's bad for business if I get somebody sick. So that's my, that's my take on it. I hope you guys consider just looking at all the options. They talked about farm bureau's, bill, Mike Kohler's, bill is not working together. I was in two meetings in December. We were talking about it. This site said they'd do this. That site said they'd do that. Typical politics like, come together, let's get this taken care of. And like, if, if you guys are gonna be an oversight, if they want to be an oversight, they need to oversee it. They don't oversee it. Like I said, if you guys get a moment, FOIA request how many times I've complained and tell me what has been done about it. Thank you, Paul. Go

  25. Tamara Watson, Consumer Advocate1:50:45

      Ahead. Thank you, committee. My name is Tamara Watson. I am here as a com uh, consumer and an advocate. Uh, for the past 15 years, I have watched this raw milk process play out in the public eye as you have. We started with her herd share. We've battled on the hill, we've had cow bills, we've had everything here. But as a, a granddaughter of a dairyman and as a, a big fan of Grant Kohler, who was my mentor, I have been on both sides of this problem. I have been in the agency and I've seen it play out in the stress there on the regulatory side. And I've seen it as a communication person trying to manage media and control the perception that raw milk is gonna kill us all. I have been on the phone with regulators and accused of serving raw milk in a sacrament cup, and I was going to kill the public. It's a tough issue, but it comes down to a simple question. And I think that the three bills that are coming forward ask, do we still trust producers? Would you trust your grandpa to be able to farm? Just like Gibbon says, he, he drinks raw milk and he understands it has its side effects. But at the heart of this issue are producers who are trying to maintain their lands and their businesses. And I have watched producers lose hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fight through regulation and have tho those, those problems. And so let us come together. I call for unity of both sides, for somebody that came from the commodity side, FFA Sanpete County, and somebody that has fallen in love with our urban farmers, who connect with the public and with farmers' markets. Let us come together and let us solve this once and for all so that we don't fight anymore. Thank you.

  26. Committee chair1:52:42

      Thank you. Appreciate it. I have, um, a few online here. We'll start with Kirk binge, and then we'll go to Aurora n now, and then Russell Kohler. So we'll start with Kirk, and just a reminder as, as we're getting this pulled up to unmute and to have your camera on, tell us who you are and we'll give you a couple minutes.

  27. Kirk Benge, Association of Local Health Departments1:53:15

      Is that working okay? Yep, we can hear you. Okay. Uh, my name is Kirk Benge. Um, I'm the, uh, health officer at the, uh, Tri-County Health Department in Vernal. I'm here today representing the Association of Local Health Departments. Um, you know, just as an aside, I grew up in Sanpete County. I, uh, grew up actually drinking raw milk and, uh, worked at a commercial dairy through high school. And I love Utah's dairy farmers, great people. Um, but the, um, association of local Health Department has risks, uh, um, has concerns. Um, they've asked me to express those concerns. We wanna ensure that the risk of raw milk is very clear to consumers, and we have concerns that this bill, um, may not make that clear, although I have not yet, um, had a chance to review the, um, amendments. So, um, I'll take that into account, but I also want to, um, let this committee know that over the last 10 years in Utah, um, we know for sure that more than 10,000 people have been sickened by raw milk enough that they ended up going to their doctor and actually getting tested. So the number's probably larger than that, but we know at least 10,000 people have been sickened by, by raw milk over the last 10 years in Utah, under the current system. Um, we know that dozens have been hospitalized and at least two deaths have been attributed directly to raw milk. Um, and these consumers are operating in this current system where raw milk is available, and they're very informed. They know where to go get raw milk, and they have to make a conscious decision to do that. Um, and we have concerns that when this opens up to third party vendors, um, if raw milk is next to safe milk, that that risk will increase, those numbers will increase. And we have limited funding at the local health department level to do investigations of illness. And we, um, we worry that this will increase our costs, um, dramatically in doing case investigations and getting reports of infectious disease. And ultimately, the taxpayers at the local level and the counties are gonna be left to cover the costs associated with outbreaks that are inevitably going to occur. Thank you, Kirk. Appreciate it. Um, that the local departments have.

  28. Committee chair1:55:38

      Thank you. We will go now online to Aurora if you'll Yep. Unmute and tell us who you are.

  29. Aurora Ninow, resident1:55:47

      Hi, yes, my name's Aurora Nino. Um, I'm a Utah resident, and, um, I think this has been a great discussion to hear. Thank you for letting me speak for just a few minutes. Um, I do understand that there are risks with raw milk. The reason why I am a proponent of this is because I think that should be a decision that is for the individual buying it. I was raised in Colorado and grew up with on raw milk my whole life. Um, I would like to say to a comment that was made earlier that it's easy to get raw milk. I would say that is not true. Um, so many times I've gone into stores to get raw milk and I'm driving 20 minutes away from my house. I show up there and it's not available. Um, it's also, um, incredibly more expensive than other milk. And so I'm hoping that if we're able to make this easier, that um, more Utahans can have access to that at large. I also would say, um, having, having government oversight on something like raw milk, when we look at, um, even putting our resources into regulating in general, something like raw milk versus, uh, Utah's problem with fentanyl, how, you know, the entire country, the statistical fentanyl overdose has dropped. And in u in Utah specifically, it's increased by 5%. Deaths are, um, around 300% just fentanyl. So I'm Juab I'm wondering like, how can we put our resources as a government into something that is truly killing lives? And, um, in the entire United States, on average, it's zero people that die a year. So, um, I just hope that you guys can, um, see just a local Utah and hope that we can get, uh, milk the way we want it. Thank you. Sorry, my mic was not on. Thank you.

  30. Committee chair1:57:36

      We'll move to one more online. Russell Kohler.

  31. Russell Kohler, Utah Farm Bureau board member1:57:41

      Hi, uh, my name's Russ Kohler. Um, I am a, a dairy farmer. I'm former seller of raw milk. We used to sell raw milk, and I'm also a member of the Utah Farm Bureau's, uh, state Board of Directors. Um, I just wanted to, uh, really highlight for me, the biggest concern I have with the bill is the disparity it puts. Uh, you're, you're trying to give certain privileges or, or take away regulation from a certain group of raw milk producers, yet there's others that are selling on the, trying to sell on the open market. They're trying to it, right? They have significantly more regulation under this bill. I really struggle with the idea that you're gonna have a double standard. So just because you're selling yourself on your own farm, you can, you can have significantly laxed, um, restrictions on what you're trying to do versus a dairy farm that's trying to sell just to a different market. And they're gonna have to go through and jump through several more hoops than, than somebody else. So I think my biggest concern with this bill is that, that there is a kind of a double standard here. And, uh, I do think there's a lot of good things in this bill. I think there's some, some good things for raw milk for, for access to raw milk and things like that. So there are some good things. However, I would encourage the committee to, to table it at this time and, and go back to discussions, especially if we can combine it with Representative Kohler's bill. Uh, I think there's a way to do this, right? And I, I really am concerned about singling out a certain group of these raw milk producers and allowing them certain, certain freedoms that they're, you're not gonna allow to other raw milk producers. So, uh, that's my two minutes

  32. Committee chair1:59:19

      Representative Ward, did you have a question?

  33. Rep. Raymond P. Ward1:59:21

      Yeah, I do have a question. I mean, I, I feel like this discussion is a little bit hard for me because we have another bill that is clearly in the same space that has at least some things are incompatible. Um, so to your testimony there, are you familiar enough with, um, representative Kohler's bill to say that there are particular parts of it that you prefer over this bill? Or, or not yet? I mean, either I,

  34. Russell Kohler, Utah Farm Bureau board member1:59:41

      Yeah. Yeah. I am familiar, pretty familiar with Representative Kohler's, bill and I, and I would be fully in support of Representative Kohler's bill. Um, the, the biggest thing for me is this Bill appears to be trying to allow some raw milk producers to do certain things that it's not gonna allow others to do. And that's, that's the biggest hangup. But I think we can accomplish all of what this bill's intending to do in Representative Kohler's bill if we work together and, and do it all at the same time.

  35. Committee chair2:00:10

      Okay. All right. Thanks. Thank you, Russell. Appreciate it. Thank You. Alright. Turned off my own mic. Okay. We, I'll give you 60 seconds each. We were done with, with comment there, but I'll, I'll give you some time if you will make sure you say, tell us who you are and who you represent, and we'll give you a minute.

  36. Symbria Patterson, Red Acres Center2:00:33

      Ria Patterson Red Acre Center, we were the ones who brought the bill to Representative Shelley. It was very different. If you'll look at the bill before the first sub, we were only asking that producers be allowed to sell to stores that they didn't have to own, and that a third party could carry their milk. The reason we've gotten to this point is because of working with the department who no longer wants to test. And you could have them expound on that, but it was because they said they couldn't afford it in their budget. And to Kohler's comments, that is the current law. There's three levels from the farm gate, there's an exemption, and then there's more that you have to do if you wanna sell to a commercial store. So there isn't a change. There's actually less, we have two levels now instead of three. It's just like driving. If I wanna drive a semi, I scale up. If I wanna drive a car, I do something different. Right. So just some clarification on the simplicity of that bill and how it's gotten to this point and whether we reached out or not. If it's at a ball game or in a hallway, I don't know. It makes it officially working with somebody, but we definitely did feel that we attempted to do that. Thanks for listening.

  37. Committee chair2:01:44

      Thank you. All right, go ahead.

  38. Sara Patterson, Red Acre Farms2:01:48

      Sarah Patterson, red Acre Farm, Cedar City, Utah. I just wanted to thank everyone. I know that, um, I've been up here since I was 19 talking about raw milk and now I'm 30. So we definitely have heard this discussion many of times. I've talked to all of you, we've heard moving on the floor. Um, I hope that we can come to a consensus and that we can get these bills working and that I ask that you would pass this out so we can move it forward and keep the discussion rolling. Thank you so much for your time and for listening to all of these milk discussions over the years.

  39. Committee chair2:02:21

      Thank you. Alrightyy. We will turn now to, um, back to the committee for discussion on the bill. Thank you. Is there anyone on the committee that would like to discuss further? If not, I can go to the committee for a motion if there is one. Uh, can I sum? Oh, there's no sum. There's, we, we, you will be able to, if there is a motion. Oh, okay. I, I am not seeing a motion rep. Oh, Representative Monson.

  40. Rep. Logan Monson2:03:08

      I'll make a motion that we pass the bill with a favor. Recommendation. We did you want the amendment? I Actually made them, sorry. I I had a momentary lapse of sanity there. A motion to, uh, adopt the first substitute. The first substitute was adopted in committee. The Amendment. Amendment. The first substitute is what I meant to say. Right, Right.

  41. Committee chair2:03:31

      Okay. So, so rep Representative Monson has a motion to, um, adopt the first amendment to substitute one. Any discussion to that motion? Um, to the bill sponsor. Representative ch do you have anything on the, on that motion?

  42. Rep. Kristen Chevrier2:03:51

      Oh, yeah. So to adopt the amendment to, Uh, no, I would like to do That.

  43. Committee chair2:03:56

      There's a committee. I am back to the maker of the motion Waive. Okay. So the motion is, um, to adopt amendment one on house bill 1 79. First sub. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say no. No. Okay. So we have a, that motion passes. We've got the amendment adopted. Um, Representative Elison, did you have follow up?

  44. Rep. Steve Eliason2:04:28

      I'll make a motion that we pass it out as amended. The first substitute.

  45. Committee chair2:04:32

      Okay. I have a motion to pass out as amended. Um, substitute one. Is there any discussion to the motion Representative Ward?

  46. Rep. Raymond P. Ward2:04:45

      Um, th Thank you Mr. Vice-Chair. Um, I'd like to make a substitute motion to hold the bill and I'd like to speak to that if I could. That is in order and I'll let you speak. So my preference would be to hear both of the bills at the same time. I don't know how to easily, I mean, I know there's some different policies that are pretty different about how heavily it's gonna be regulated between the Two bills. They're pretty much opposite. Well, there you go. Um, but I still would like the chance to think of them in the context of thinking about them, um, at the same time to make a decision about it. So my preference would be that both bills were heard in whichever set of committees they were heard at the same time. If that, if my motion doesn't pass to hold, I'm, I'm willing to vote the bill out. If, if my motion doesn't, doesn't hold, but I, my, my preference would be that I got to think of them at the same time.

  47. Committee chair2:05:39

      Alright. To Representative Peterson on that motion.

  48. Rep. Peterson2:05:42speaker not certain

      Um, on the substitute motion to hold. I'll waive.

  49. Committee chair2:05:47

      Okay. Represents ch to on the, on the motion to hold.

  50. Rep. Kristen Chevrier2:05:55

      On the motion to hold. I oppose the motion to hold.

  51. Committee chair2:06:00

      Okay. And to the committee. Okay. We will take a vote on the, the substitute motion to hold. Um, we'll do a roll call vote on this Representative Ward. Yes. Representative Hollins. Representative gracious, no. Representative Fitsu? Yes. Representative Eliason Representative, um, ch No representative. So wait, wait. The motion to hold right? I don't, sorry. We're voting on the motion to hold. Correct. So Lyon got it wrong? Yes. Okay. And you're a no. Yes, I am a no. Representative Barlow a No. Representative Acton? No. Representative Abbott? No. And Chair Monson. Oh, which one do I do first? Okay. Chair Monson. No. And Chair Hall? No. Okay. So that motion fails. So we'll go back to the original motion. Okay. So on that we have Representative Fitsu, Manu, Representative Ward on, there were no votes on, on the, or were Yes. Votes on that. Sorry. Um, so now we will go back to the first motion, which was to pass out with a favor favorable recommendation. Um, let's go to the maker of the motion to the bill sponsor.

  52. Rep. Kristen Chevrier2:07:51

      Okay. I just, could I clarify a few things in my sum? Am I allowed to do that? Yeah. Perfect. Okay. I have the raw milk data from 2016 to 2025 for outbreaks. And the numbers that were stated were the numbers of people who got campylobacter, salmonella and shiga toxin produ producing EE coli, but not from raw milk. The, the 10,000 was total people who presented with those symptoms. There are, I added up 362 that they connected with raw milk of all of those in 10 years. Um, also the bills are very different. One of them goes very far in the reg regulatory direction so far, although it's in flux because I know they're working on a substitute. So I don't know exactly how it's gonna end up. And if anybody wants to know, the first text to Kelly was from me on October 14th, and the bill file for Kohler was opened on October 14th. Um, as far as the double standard, everyone is doing testing now. Everyone tests every month and they keep the test for two years. I don't see where the double standard is. There is a slight difference if you sell the milk to individuals from your farm as opposed to if you package it up and take it to the store. Um, let's see. Um, okay, so I think just to, to re reiterate, I guess, um, this is a public policy signal that we're sending. It's free market versus government intervention in the free market. And I think that Utah has always tried to move towards free market as opposed to having government intervention. It puts the safety outcomes on the producers. It does allow the government to come in, in case of an outbreak. Um, so I, I guess that that's probably enough for now, but I would very much encourage you to vote for this bill.

  53. Committee chair2:10:08

      All right. We'll go back to the maker of the motion. Representative Eliason.

  54. Committee chair2:10:12

      Alright, so the motion is to pass out, um, represent or, yes. So pass out House Bill 1 79. First sub as amended. Um, we'll do a roll call vote on this one as well. Representative Ward? Yes. Representative Hollins? Yes. Representative gracious? Yes. Representative Nu Yes. Representative Eliason? Yes. Representative Shelley? Yes. Representative Barlow? Yes. Representative Acton? Yes. Representative Abbott? Yes. Chair Munson? Yes. And Chair Hall? Yes. All right. That passes. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much.

• Feb 10, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (3 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)1:37:59

     First substitute house bill 1 79 Milk Amendments by Representative Shelley. This bill was heard in Health and Human Services with a vote of 11 0 3. Representative Shelley, Motion to circle The circle. Would you like to speak to it?

  2. Rep. Troy Shelley1:38:14

     Yes. We have a substitute we're working on, and I wanna get time for feedback and for people to see it.

  3. Speaker (presiding)1:38:21

     Thank you. The motion is to circle. All in favor say aye. Opposed say no. Motion carries. The bill is circled matter. Meeting clerk First substitute house bill 2 48.

• Feb 12, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (40 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)1:28

     Permission? Uh, motion to uncer. Thank you, representative. The motion before the house UNC encircle HB 1 79. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Roll. That motion passes the bills, uncircled and before the body for its consideration. Representative Shelley.

  2. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:44

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Some of my earliest memories are of being on a farm next to where I lived and going into the barn and being able to hang out with the cow and climb in the hay. And I got a couple of opportunities to actually try to milk when I was three or four years old. And then as a young mother, I actually had a neighbor with goats and I got to milk the goats and take the milk home and we drank it. Currently I have to purchase our raw milk, but, um, I am a big believer in raw milk and the ability of people to be free to choose what they want to drink. Um, whether it be energy drinks or raw milk or soda pop, as long as the taxpayer dollars are not paying for it. Um, so in preparation for this bill, I visited several farms and retail production sites and met with the Department of Agriculture numerous times. The Department of Agriculture had several requests that most of them I added to the bill. Um, there were a couple that I did not. Um, having a local milk supply is critical to our economy. I think it's important that we keep, we keep our local producers producing here so that we can, um, so that we can have things local and not have to depend on other states for our food. Our objectives with this bill are to create good policy, an assist producers ke by keeping animals clean and safe, accommodating the needs and safety of the consumers supporting the free market and demonstrating good stewardship. HB 1 79 holds produce producers legally responsible for industry standard laboratory testing, record retention, sanitation control, temperature control, packaging conditions, labeling disclosures and and animal health compliance. This forces pro producers to internalize safety risk, self-manage compliance, and directly bear the consequences of failure. The department is able to administer targeted enforcement

  3. Speaker (presiding)4:00

     Representative, uh, Jen Daley. Provo, please state your point.

  4. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost4:05

     Uh, reading on the floor. Mr. Speaker

  5. Speaker (presiding)4:08

     Representative.

  6. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost4:09

     I, I wasn't paying attention, but if we're reading Directly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm, I'm just trying to list what's in the bill and it's kind of hard to do that if I can't look at the list of what's in the bill, but that's okay.

  7. Rep. Kristen Chevrier4:20

     So basically the, the department can come in and inspect, they can, um, monitor safety if there is an outbreak. Um, there are a list of reasons that they can impose a cease and desist and, um, so there, there is, there is plenty of opportunity for them to monitor the safety and health and cleanliness of the, the, the product. They also have direct inspection and oversight over all of the stores where the milk would be sold. There's a long list of stores where the milk could be sold. We're removing the 51% rule, which means that you can sell in a store that you don't own 51% of as long as the store wants to sell the milk, the milk is separated from pasteurized milk in the market display. It is also clearly labeled raw milk. It has a warning label on it. It has a list of all of the, the things that you need to do for safe handling. And, um, it also costs $15 a gallon. So I don't think anyone's gonna mistakenly buy it. So I, that is the end of my presentation and I'm open for questions.

  8. Speaker (presiding)5:36

     Uh, thank you, representative, uh, ch There is a, a second amendment or second Substitute? Yes. A second substitute. Yes. So maybe would you like to phone a friend? There we go. Representative Tom Peterson.

  9. Rep. Thomas W. Peterson5:50

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. I'd like to move the second sub

  10. Speaker (presiding)5:52

      Representative, that motion in order. Would you like to speak to him?

  11. Unknown speaker5:56speaker not certain

      No. Let The sponsor Thank you. Uh, representative What?

  12. Speaker (presiding)6:09

      Okay. Uh, we do have that second sub, uh, representative Chevrolet. Would you, uh, give us your thoughts on the second sub as well as maybe tell us the difference between

  13. Rep. Kristen Chevrier6:22

      The, so the second sub is what I spoke to and second sub to. Okay. So will you just maybe just highlight the differences between the first and second sub? You know, we have had so many different versions of this bill that, that it's really hard to say except that the second sub does all the things that I listed.

  14. Speaker (presiding)6:38

      Thank, thank you Representative Shelley. Uh, let's go to discussion to the motion to adopt second sub. Your light is on. It is to speak to the motion to adopt second sub Representative Thurston, or Representative Thurston, anybody's light to speak to the second sub. We'll come back to you representative Tom Peterson on the motion to adopt second sub for summation, I'll waive summation has been waived. We'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before is the House adopts second substitute on, uh, HB 1 79 under Representative Cha's name. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes the bill's been substituted and before the body for its consideration. Okay, now we'll go to, uh, delib, uh, debate on the bill. Representative Daley Provo.

  15. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost7:40

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the sponsor yield to a series of questions? Representative C, will you yield to a series of questions? Yes, representative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I also am enthusiastic about, uh, the availability of raw milk, but I do wanna make sure, um, as a, the legislative body in our state, that we are paying attention to some careful oversight. So I wonder if the sponsor could, um, help me understand what, um, what happens if somebody files a complaint against a producer? What are the requirements for U DAF as far as maintaining the anonymity of a complainant?

  16. Rep. Kristen Chevrier8:19

      If UD Thank you, Mr. Speaker, if U AAF has complaints filed, they are able to go to the producer. There has to be, the complaint has to have substance. So whatever, whatever the complaint is, has to be clear. And then if there's reasonable suspicion that there is an issue, then then U DAF can issue a cease and desist and then they can go in and inspect and rectify the problem.

  17. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost8:49

      Mr. Speaker, my question was actually to the ability for U DAF to keep the name of the complainant anonymous.

  18. Rep. Kristen Chevrier8:57

      Thank you. The, the answer to your question is that it's important for someone who is being accused to be able to know the name of their accuser. And so the, the name of the complainant is public, as is the content of the complaint.

  19. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost9:15

      Okay, Mr. Speaker, um, my other, my next question is whether or not UAF would have the ability to conduct an inspection short of their recognizing that there was an outbreak. Are they only able to do an inspection if an outbreak has been recorded?

  20. Rep. Kristen Chevrier9:32

      So nothing prior to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there is an outbreak, they can do a cease and desist and come in and do all the necessary inspections require three clean te three clean tests, or a 14 day completion of the cease and desist. If the three clean tests come before the 14 days, then then that's fine. In other circumstances, the the circumstances vary. There are fines if they have to do the cease and desist for an outbreak. If they do a cease and desist under other circumstances, the fines vary from $500 for a mislabeling to, um, the, the 500, 1,003,000 graduation. If there's an outbreak. And if it's just mislabeling, then they can issue the cease and desist. They come in, they fix the labeling problem, and then it's done.

  21. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost10:27

      Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I just want to share some concerns and as I said, I am always really, really glad that raw milk is available. I purchase raw milk on a regular basis and, um, and, and enjoy the, the fact that it is available. I also enjoy the fact that I know that there is standard, there's industry standard testing and regulation of, of the milk. And I'm a little bit concerned that this pulls that back a little too much, particularly in light of the fact that, um, earlier options for testing prevents an outbreak. The last thing we wanna do is, is not have the ability for you to have to come in and, um, ensure that the public is safe until after an outbreak, which by definition means many people have already gotten sick. And then as to the, the first question that I said, the reason every other, in every other portion of the industry, people can make anonymous complaints. There is a, an extreme chilling effect for somebody to, um, to file a complaint, especially if it's in a small community. Um, if they've gotten sick and they, they or they've seen something and they feel like U DAF might have an interest in making sure that products are safe, we need to be able to, to make sure that, that people can, can file those complaints without risk of retribution. And, you know, given that there are already high standards for whether a complaint has to be credible, I don't understand why somebody would not, would not be, um, able to, to file that without, um, fear for retribution or, or ill will, especially in a small community. Um, I would be really, really grateful if the sponsor would continue to work with, uh, the regulatory body to address these issues and feel much better about the bill if we could get there. Thank you.

  22. Speaker (presiding)12:18

      Thank you, representative Daley Provo, further discussion to the bill Representative Kohler.

  23. Rep. Mike L. Kohler12:24

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. High rise in, uh, in opposition to this and a couple of things. We have been, I have another milk bill. It is a cleanup bill, kind of with the Department of Ag and the Department of Health who have been working on similar things. And to my colleague's credit, we've spent probably three or four days working on comparisons and competitive language to try and work out a deal. And, uh, we didn't get there. Let me tell you a little, and I've been around a lot of it probably as much as most of you put together. But that said, this bill that is being proposed right now separates two things that it, that we have to think about. We all, when we think of raw milk, we all can think of a the farmer friend or an uncle or whatever, and they're milking a couple of cows and they're out in the pasture, wandering around, they milk 'em, put in a bottle, and we pick up the dairy from the dairy, we go pick up our milk and we know everybody in the loop. That is the most ideal way to participate in raw milk market. 'cause number one is you get the same processes every day. You get the same milk, uh, likely from the same cows. And if there is a surprise in that, you're gonna be immune to it really quick, nothing changes. What this bill does and what my bill does as well is changes the game a little bit. And that's where we differ. Her bill does not do, uh, does not make a differentiation between the market that where you get the milk from a per, from a provider and moving it into a market. Both her bill and my bill allows for raw milk sales in a marketplace away from the farm and away from the producer of that farm milk. The difference is, is in production. Now, if you take a regular grade A or, uh, pasteurized milk dairy, they have inspections at least quarterly, and there's a long list of things they have to do to make sure their product is, is clean and good and, and, and produced in a way that, that it needs to be. And it, some of that has to do with interstate commerce, but some of it's just common sense. Uh, in this case, they're removed almost all of those regulations. So if I am the little, the farmer and producing my raw milk in the regular place where I sell it to my, my neighbors, to move that to a, uh, where it goes to a third party into a market, uh, I'm suggesting. And so is the Department of Health and Department of AGT have some higher standards. Those can be in the, should be in the production area, in the separation, in the way the cows are, uh, taken care of with the vets. And a lot of this is nuanced changes because, uh, my colleague has made many different changes to make closer to what we have. But there are some differences when it comes right down to the production facilities and what is required, uh, to make sure that, that when it goes to a market, and there's a little bit different assumption in the, in the public of what type of products you're getting, that it actually reaches those standards. So I would ask your opposition to this, or at least a possibility of, of waiting till we get my bill to compare. We've made some changes based on some things today that we, after our last iteration of comparisons, we couldn't agree to meaning the Department of Health, et cetera. So I I was often in opposition to it and I expect that my bill would be ready in a couple of days. Thank you Representative Kohler.

  24. Speaker (presiding)15:33

      Further discussion to the bill Representative Snider.

  25. Rep. Casey Snider15:37

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, uh, I too rise in strong opposition to this bill and I, I love raw milk. I grew up on it. I've milked cows up from the time I was about 10 years old all through college. I even married the Cash County Dairy Princess. I, uh, I just put that out there as a title I, I love this industry and I believe in the benefit of the product, which is why we've had these discussions year over year. But there becomes a point where we maybe go too far and this bill has taken us too far. It's why the Department of Ag and Food is in opposition. It is why the Utah Farm Bureau stands in opposition. We are, in essence, bifurcating the dairy industry, making a sharp contrast, not between farms, but between products and on the same farm. If you produce raw milk, you will be treated one way under the standards of this bill and in and interact with the health departments in a certain way. And if you produce milk that you sell to a producer, Gossner cheese or, uh, the Beaver Creamery that we had here on the floor a few weeks ago, you will be treated completely different. The same product, albeit even pasteurized that may be safer, is held to a higher standard and a higher regulatory burden than raw milk, which goes through no processing guarantees, has a shorter shelf life and has different health concerns tied to it. Now, I I do think there is language available that may solve this. I know that the sponsor has some concerns with that, which may be addressed in a, in a, a subsequent bill held by the good representative from Wasatch County. This bill takes us far, far away from what we need to be doing in the dairy industry, and I would encourage my colleagues to vote no on this bill. Thank you.

  26. Speaker (presiding)17:28

      Thank you, Representative Snider. Further discussion to the bill. Uh, let's see. Representative Eliason, Steve Eon. Oh, is it, oh, sorry. I apologize. Representative Joe Eon. My bad.

  27. Rep. Steve Eliason17:41

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I actually rise in support of this bill on that. I want to just kind of give a little bit of a per of a perspective, and I'm not, I'm not suggesting that some of the arguments made aren't valid and, and we definitely do need to consider, and I don't know where the bill sponsor's gonna wanna go going forward, whether they work together or not, with the representative from Wasatch, uh, county. But just a little perspective as, as a child. And, and in my youth, up until I was a freshman in high school, I lived on a dairy farm and I can remember as a very young child, um, putting the caps on the milk, uh, with my dad, and we would haul that milk down to the local stores and drop it off to the local store so that people could walk in by that milk. We would then take it over to my uncle's store where walk-in traffic would come in and, and buy the rest from him. And ironically, um, I actually called my dad. My dad is 92 years old and I called him two days ago and I said, dad, all of those years, was there any permit? Was there any kind of regulatory, uh, environment? And, and I know I'm, I'm, I'm old, but my point here is there were no permits. There was, there was nothing in that small community in Idaho. And, and I asked him, I said, dad, how many people died from, from the raw milk? And he said, none later we ended up selling our milk to craft. We had a contract with craft still, there was no regulatory environment. Kraft is who regulated it because they had standards that they had to meet. So we had to meet all of the grade A dairy stuff from, from, from Kraft and the, and the milk was safe because they wanted to make sure that they were providing a product that was safe to the consumer. My point here is not that we shouldn't be having some oversight here, but my question is, is at what point and how far do we go, especially when you have one side of a, of a potential market that's saying, Hey, these guys are infringing on our market, so therefore we want to get regulatory bodies actually involved to make a little bit more hard for our, our competitors and vice versa. I think this is a reasonable solution whether we hold it, whether we work together on this, that's still for the body to decide, but I think we need to keep in mind how far we have come with so much stink and regulation that these farmers are having a really, really hard time just trying to make ends meet and look at the price of their milk that they have to charge just to try to be competitive because of all that kind of a, of a regulatory oversight. So I actually rise and support of this bill and I appreciate the sponsor for bringing it to the body.

  28. Speaker (presiding)20:07

      Thank you, Representative Eliason. Further discussion to the bill Representative Libe.

  29. Rep. Karianne Lisonbee20:18

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to move an amendment. Oh gosh, I didn't even mean to do that. Okay, that was great. Um, line 2 31, strike line 2 31 and then on line 2 32, delete B and replace it with a in the parentheses. Okay. Representative, uh, let me just repeat that motion back to make sure I've got it correctly. So on line 2 31, you would like to make a, a verbal amendment to strike the entire line and then on line 2 32 replace the B with an A. Is that correct? Okay.

  30. Speaker (presiding)21:16

      Uh, that motion is in order. Would you like to speak to it?

  31. Rep. Karianne Lisonbee21:18

      Yes. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, the, the debate on this to bill has been interesting. I raised six kids on raw milk and they all survived and they didn't get sick and they were quite healthy and still are. And I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to purchase raw milk. We purchased it from stores and we also purchased it directly from producers. Um, I, a lot of the conversation around raw milk is based on industry protectionism and concerns with protecting, you know, large producers and I get that, but this bill doesn't limit large producers. So, um, in passing this, we're not saying large producers, you can't do this. There are large producers that have been producing in Utah for many, many years and we have, um, purchased their milk in our family and we've also purchased from small producers. I support this bill, it's an important step forward. Other states are working in this similar vein to loosen up these regulations and I urge the body support. Thank you.

  32. Speaker (presiding)22:31

      Thank you. Uh, representative Libe, Representative Shelley on the motion to amend. I am, I'm in favor of that motion Representative ch uh, okay. We're going to discussion on the motion to amend if your light is on. It is to speak to the motion to amend. Okay. Uh, representative Lim be back to you on the motion, uh, to, for summation on the motion to, uh, to amend. I'll Wait. Thank you. Okay, representatives, we'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before us is the house, do a verbal amendment and strike line 2 31 of the bill. And then on line 2 32, replace the B in with the go and place that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes. The bill's been amended and before the body for further consideration. Okay. Back to debate on the bill board was lit up like a Christmas tree. Now nobody wants to debate, so back to you. Oh, there we go. Representative Wilcox.

  33. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox24:19

      Motion to circle, Mr. Speaker, That motion is in order. Would you like to speak to it? Going back through this, I know there's, uh, there's a lot of, uh, passionate feelings on both sides. I don't want to give the same speech, but I could give the same speech of growing up on raw milk, uh, out in West Weaver and carrying that stuff after we got done milking back, back and forth, uh, after, you know, be with the old steel cans, all that stuff. And, um, I remember what happened to our farm, uh, when that changed. There's, I have other concerns, but one of those concerns that I have that I think we need to figure out is not creating a disparate market, not creating different standards as much as we can, or certainly not different regulatory agencies that are responsible for it. I'd love to figure out a way to come to, to a solution there before we move forward. And that's what I suggest that we do is to circle so we can have some time to, to figure that out.

  34. Speaker (presiding)25:20

      Thank you rep, Representative Wilcox, Representative Shelley on the motion to circle.

  35. Rep. Kristen Chevrier25:25

      I do not agree with the motion to circle. Thank you Representative Shelley.

  36. Speaker (presiding)25:30

      Further discussion on the motion to circle seeing none. Back to Representative Wilcox on the, to sum on the motion to circle.

  37. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox25:38

      I'll waive. Thank you. Okay,

  38. Speaker (presiding)25:40

      we'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before is the house circle second substitute HB 1 79. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Place that motion again. All in favor of circling second substitute. HB 1 79 Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Vote We'll rule that motion fails. Act to your Representative Shelley, on summation.

  39. Rep. Kristen Chevrier26:08

      Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you for all the comments. Um, I just want to point out that one of the things that we are trying to do right now is to protect and promote our small producers. And this is part of a larger effort to accomplish that. Um, the other thing that is, is good about this bill is that it it keeps, um, it allows the producers more access to the consumers and the consumers, more access to the producers, which does strengthen them. Um, also there are two tiers in the the, in this, um, in the raw milk code. One of them is the farm gate sales and that's a completely different situation and it's not touched by this bill. Um, the other is the retail sales. And under the retail sales section, the producers are required to test according to industry standards and using, using all of the tests that, that you would use for regular industry standards and probably more because we're not pasteurizing it. Um, and then there has to be a six month record of those tests. And if there is an outbreak and the department comes in and they have access to all of the records for the past six months for testing, um, I think the real issue at stake here is not who's regulating what, but it is the, the opportunity for people to make their own choices and to, uh, facilitate a free market. And I don't, I don't think that we want to be part of shutting down the free market. I also just would like to mention that we don't go, um, to such great lengths to regulate energy drinks and other things that we know are causing chronic illness in our society. We don't even care about those. Those are available at every store. There are, there shops all over the place where you can go through a drive through and buy all of these things and yet a small percentage of the population wants to have the opportunity to use raw milk. Nobody is forcing it on them and they will know what they are buying. I think it's time that we give people a choice and let them decide what they think is most healthy for them and their families. Thank you.

  40. Speaker (presiding)28:48

      Uh, thank you Representative Gricius voting will now be open on second substitute HB 1 79. Representative Thompson, would you like to vote? Seeing all present, having voted voting is now closed. Second substitute HB 1 79 passes this by with 46 yes votes 20 no volts and will be sent to the Senate for its consideration.

• Feb 12, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (37 turns)

  1. Rep. Kristen Chevrier5:50

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. I'd like to move the second sub

  2. Speaker (presiding)5:52

     Representative, that motion in order. Would you like to speak to him?

  3. Unknown speaker5:56speaker not certain

     No. Let The sponsor Thank you. Uh, representative What?

  4. Speaker (presiding)6:09

     Okay. Uh, we do have that second sub, uh, representative Chevrolet. Would you, uh, give us your thoughts on the second sub as well as maybe tell us the difference between The, so the second sub is what I spoke to and second sub to. Okay. So will you just maybe just highlight the differences between the first and second sub?

  5. Rep. Kristen Chevrier6:28

     You know, we have had so many different versions of this bill that, that it's really hard to say except that the second sub does all the things that I listed.

  6. Speaker (presiding)6:38

     Thank, thank you Representative Shelley. Uh, let's go to discussion to the motion to adopt second sub. Your light is on. It is to speak to the motion to adopt second sub Representative Thurston, or Representative Thurston, anybody's light to speak to the second sub. We'll come back to you representative Tom Peterson on the motion to adopt second sub for summation, I'll waive summation has been waived. We'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before is the House adopts second substitute on, uh, HB 1 79 under Representative Cha's name. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes the bill's been substituted and before the body for its consideration. Okay, now we'll go to, uh, delib, uh, debate on the bill. Representative Daley Provo.

  7. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost7:40

     Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the sponsor yield to a series of questions? Representative C, will you yield to a series of questions? Yes, representative. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I also am enthusiastic about, uh, the availability of raw milk, but I do wanna make sure, um, as a, the legislative body in our state, that we are paying attention to some careful oversight. So I wonder if the sponsor could, um, help me understand what, um, what happens if somebody files a complaint against a producer? What are the requirements for U DAF as far as maintaining the anonymity of a complainant?

  8. Rep. Kristen Chevrier8:19

     If UD Thank you, Mr. Speaker, if U AAF has complaints filed, they are able to go to the producer. There has to be, the complaint has to have substance. So whatever, whatever the complaint is, has to be clear. And then if there's reasonable suspicion that there is an issue, then then U DAF can issue a cease and desist and then they can go in and inspect and rectify the problem.

  9. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost8:49

     Mr. Speaker, my question was actually to the ability for U DAF to keep the name of the complainant anonymous.

  10. Rep. Kristen Chevrier8:57

      Thank you. The, the answer to your question is that it's important for someone who is being accused to be able to know the name of their accuser. And so the, the name of the complainant is public, as is the content of the complaint.

  11. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost9:15

      Okay, Mr. Speaker, um, my other, my next question is whether or not UAF would have the ability to conduct an inspection short of their recognizing that there was an outbreak. Are they only able to do an inspection if an outbreak has been recorded? So nothing prior to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

  12. Rep. Kristen Chevrier9:36

      If there is an outbreak, they can do a cease and desist and come in and do all the necessary inspections require three clean te three clean tests, or a 14 day completion of the cease and desist. If the three clean tests come before the 14 days, then then that's fine. In other circumstances, the the circumstances vary. There are fines if they have to do the cease and desist for an outbreak. If they do a cease and desist under other circumstances, the fines vary from $500 for a mislabeling to, um, the, the 500, 1,003,000 graduation. If there's an outbreak. And if it's just mislabeling, then they can issue the cease and desist. They come in, they fix the labeling problem, and then it's done.

  13. Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost10:27

      Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I just want to share some concerns and as I said, I am always really, really glad that raw milk is available. I purchase raw milk on a regular basis and, um, and, and enjoy the, the fact that it is available. I also enjoy the fact that I know that there is standard, there's industry standard testing and regulation of, of the milk. And I'm a little bit concerned that this pulls that back a little too much, particularly in light of the fact that, um, earlier options for testing prevents an outbreak. The last thing we wanna do is, is not have the ability for you to have to come in and, um, ensure that the public is safe until after an outbreak, which by definition means many people have already gotten sick. And then as to the, the first question that I said, the reason every other, in every other portion of the industry, people can make anonymous complaints. There is a, an extreme chilling effect for somebody to, um, to file a complaint, especially if it's in a small community. Um, if they've gotten sick and they, they or they've seen something and they feel like U DAF might have an interest in making sure that products are safe, we need to be able to, to make sure that, that people can, can file those complaints without risk of retribution. And, you know, given that there are already high standards for whether a complaint has to be credible, I don't understand why somebody would not, would not be, um, able to, to file that without, um, fear for retribution or, or ill will, especially in a small community. Um, I would be really, really grateful if the sponsor would continue to work with, uh, the regulatory body to address these issues and feel much better about the bill if we could get there. Thank you.

  14. Speaker (presiding)12:18

      Thank you, representative Daley Provo, further discussion to the bill Representative Kohler.

  15. Rep. Mike L. Kohler12:24

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. High rise in, uh, in opposition to this and a couple of things. We have been, I have another milk bill. It is a cleanup bill, kind of with the Department of Ag and the Department of Health who have been working on similar things. And to my colleague's credit, we've spent probably three or four days working on comparisons and competitive language to try and work out a deal. And, uh, we didn't get there. Let me tell you a little, and I've been around a lot of it probably as much as most of you put together. But that said, this bill that is being proposed right now separates two things that it, that we have to think about. We all, when we think of raw milk, we all can think of a the farmer friend or an uncle or whatever, and they're milking a couple of cows and they're out in the pasture, wandering around, they milk 'em, put in a bottle, and we pick up the dairy from the dairy, we go pick up our milk and we know everybody in the loop. That is the most ideal way to participate in raw milk market. 'cause number one is you get the same processes every day. You get the same milk, uh, likely from the same cows. And if there is a surprise in that, you're gonna be immune to it really quick, nothing changes. What this bill does and what my bill does as well is changes the game a little bit. And that's where we differ. Her bill does not do, uh, does not make a differentiation between the market that where you get the milk from a per, from a provider and moving it into a market. Both her bill and my bill allows for raw milk sales in a marketplace away from the farm and away from the producer of that farm milk. The difference is, is in production. Now, if you take a regular grade A or, uh, pasteurized milk dairy, they have inspections at least quarterly, and there's a long list of things they have to do to make sure their product is, is clean and good and, and, and produced in a way that, that it needs to be. And it, some of that has to do with interstate commerce, but some of it's just common sense. Uh, in this case, they're removed almost all of those regulations. So if I am the little, the farmer and producing my raw milk in the regular place where I sell it to my, my neighbors, to move that to a, uh, where it goes to a third party into a market, uh, I'm suggesting. And so is the Department of Health and Department of AGT have some higher standards. Those can be in the, should be in the production area, in the separation, in the way the cows are, uh, taken care of with the vets. And a lot of this is nuanced changes because, uh, my colleague has made many different changes to make closer to what we have. But there are some differences when it comes right down to the production facilities and what is required, uh, to make sure that, that when it goes to a market, and there's a little bit different assumption in the, in the public of what type of products you're getting, that it actually reaches those standards. So I would ask your opposition to this, or at least a possibility of, of waiting till we get my bill to compare. We've made some changes based on some things today that we, after our last iteration of comparisons, we couldn't agree to meaning the Department of Health, et cetera. So I I was often in opposition to it and I expect that my bill would be ready in a couple of days.

  16. Speaker (presiding)15:32

      Thank you Representative Kohler. Further discussion to the bill Representative Snider.

  17. Rep. Casey Snider15:37

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, uh, I too rise in strong opposition to this bill and I, I love raw milk. I grew up on it. I've milked cows up from the time I was about 10 years old all through college. I even married the Cash County Dairy Princess. I, uh, I just put that out there as a title I, I love this industry and I believe in the benefit of the product, which is why we've had these discussions year over year. But there becomes a point where we maybe go too far and this bill has taken us too far. It's why the Department of Ag and Food is in opposition. It is why the Utah Farm Bureau stands in opposition. We are, in essence, bifurcating the dairy industry, making a sharp contrast, not between farms, but between products and on the same farm. If you produce raw milk, you will be treated one way under the standards of this bill and in and interact with the health departments in a certain way. And if you produce milk that you sell to a producer, Gossner cheese or, uh, the Beaver Creamery that we had here on the floor a few weeks ago, you will be treated completely different. The same product, albeit even pasteurized that may be safer, is held to a higher standard and a higher regulatory burden than raw milk, which goes through no processing guarantees, has a shorter shelf life and has different health concerns tied to it. Now, I I do think there is language available that may solve this. I know that the sponsor has some concerns with that, which may be addressed in a, in a, a subsequent bill held by the good representative from Wasatch County. This bill takes us far, far away from what we need to be doing in the dairy industry, and I would encourage my colleagues to vote no on this bill. Thank you.

  18. Speaker (presiding)17:28

      Thank you, Representative Snider. Further discussion to the bill. Uh, let's see.

  19. Unknown speaker17:32speaker not certain

      Representative Eliason, Steve Eon. Oh, is it, oh, sorry. I apologize. Representative Joe Eon. My bad.

  20. Rep. Joseph Elison17:41

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Um, I actually rise in support of this bill on that. I want to just kind of give a little bit of a per of a perspective, and I'm not, I'm not suggesting that some of the arguments made aren't valid and, and we definitely do need to consider, and I don't know where the bill sponsor's gonna wanna go going forward, whether they work together or not, with the representative from Wasatch, uh, county. But just a little perspective as, as a child. And, and in my youth, up until I was a freshman in high school, I lived on a dairy farm and I can remember as a very young child, um, putting the caps on the milk, uh, with my dad, and we would haul that milk down to the local stores and drop it off to the local store so that people could walk in by that milk. We would then take it over to my uncle's store where walk-in traffic would come in and, and buy the rest from him. And ironically, um, I actually called my dad. My dad is 92 years old and I called him two days ago and I said, dad, all of those years, was there any permit? Was there any kind of regulatory, uh, environment? And, and I know I'm, I'm, I'm old, but my point here is there were no permits. There was, there was nothing in that small community in Idaho. And, and I asked him, I said, dad, how many people died from, from the raw milk? And he said, none later we ended up selling our milk to craft. We had a contract with craft still, there was no regulatory environment. Kraft is who regulated it because they had standards that they had to meet. So we had to meet all of the grade A dairy stuff from, from, from Kraft and the, and the milk was safe because they wanted to make sure that they were providing a product that was safe to the consumer. My point here is not that we shouldn't be having some oversight here, but my question is, is at what point and how far do we go, especially when you have one side of a, of a potential market that's saying, Hey, these guys are infringing on our market, so therefore we want to get regulatory bodies actually involved to make a little bit more hard for our, our competitors and vice versa. I think this is a reasonable solution whether we hold it, whether we work together on this, that's still for the body to decide, but I think we need to keep in mind how far we have come with so much stink and regulation that these farmers are having a really, really hard time just trying to make ends meet and look at the price of their milk that they have to charge just to try to be competitive because of all that kind of a, of a regulatory oversight. So I actually rise and support of this bill and I appreciate the sponsor for bringing it to the body.

  21. Speaker (presiding)20:07

      Thank you, Representative Eliason. Further discussion to the bill Representative Libe.

  22. Rep. Karianne Lisonbee20:18

      Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to move an amendment. Oh gosh, I didn't even mean to do that. Okay, that was great. Um, line 2 31, strike line 2 31 and then on line 2 32, delete B and replace it with a in the parentheses.

  23. Speaker (presiding)20:55

      Okay. Representative, uh, let me just repeat that motion back to make sure I've got it correctly. So on line 2 31, you would like to make a, a verbal amendment to strike the entire line and then on line 2 32 replace the B with an A. Is that correct? Okay. Uh, that motion is in order. Would you like to speak to it?

  24. Rep. Karianne Lisonbee21:18

      Yes. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, the, the debate on this to bill has been interesting. I raised six kids on raw milk and they all survived and they didn't get sick and they were quite healthy and still are. And I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to purchase raw milk. We purchased it from stores and we also purchased it directly from producers. Um, I, a lot of the conversation around raw milk is based on industry protectionism and concerns with protecting, you know, large producers and I get that, but this bill doesn't limit large producers. So, um, in passing this, we're not saying large producers, you can't do this. There are large producers that have been producing in Utah for many, many years and we have, um, purchased their milk in our family and we've also purchased from small producers. I support this bill, it's an important step forward. Other states are working in this similar vein to loosen up these regulations and I urge the body support. Thank you.

  25. Speaker (presiding)22:31

      Thank you. Uh, representative Libe,

  26. Rep. Kristen Chevrier22:34

      Representative Shelley on the motion to amend. I am, I'm in favor of that motion Representative ch uh, okay.

  27. Speaker (presiding)22:47

      We're going to discussion on the motion to amend if your light is on. It is to speak to the motion to amend. Okay. Uh, representative Lim be back to you on the motion, uh, to, for summation on the motion to, uh, to amend. I'll Wait. Thank you. Okay, representatives, we'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before us is the house, do a verbal amendment and strike line 2 31 of the bill. And then on line 2 32, replace the B in with the go and place that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes. The bill's been amended and before the body for further consideration. Okay. Back to debate on the bill board was lit up like a Christmas tree. Now nobody wants to debate, so back to you. Oh, there we go. Representative Wilcox.

  28. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox24:19

      Motion to circle, Mr. Speaker,

  29. Speaker (presiding)24:22

      That motion is in order. Would you like to speak to it?

  30. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox24:27

      Going back through this, I know there's, uh, there's a lot of, uh, passionate feelings on both sides. I don't want to give the same speech, but I could give the same speech of growing up on raw milk, uh, out in West Weaver and carrying that stuff after we got done milking back, back and forth, uh, after, you know, be with the old steel cans, all that stuff. And, um, I remember what happened to our farm, uh, when that changed. There's, I have other concerns, but one of those concerns that I have that I think we need to figure out is not creating a disparate market, not creating different standards as much as we can, or certainly not different regulatory agencies that are responsible for it. I'd love to figure out a way to come to, to a solution there before we move forward. And that's what I suggest that we do is to circle so we can have some time to, to figure that out.

  31. Speaker (presiding)25:20

      Thank you rep, Representative Wilcox, Representative Shelley on the motion to circle.

  32. Rep. Kristen Chevrier25:25

      I do not agree with the motion to circle. Thank you

  33. Speaker (presiding)25:28

      Representative Shelley. Further discussion on the motion to circle seeing none. Back to Representative Wilcox on the, to sum on the motion to circle.

  34. Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox25:38

      I'll waive. Thank you. Okay,

  35. Speaker (presiding)25:40

      we'll go ahead and place the motion. The motion before is the house circle second substitute HB 1 79. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Place that motion again. All in favor of circling second substitute. HB 1 79 Say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Vote We'll rule that motion fails. Act to your Representative Shelley, on summation.

  36. Rep. Kristen Chevrier26:08

      Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you for all the comments. Um, I just want to point out that one of the things that we are trying to do right now is to protect and promote our small producers. And this is part of a larger effort to accomplish that. Um, the other thing that is, is good about this bill is that it it keeps, um, it allows the producers more access to the consumers and the consumers, more access to the producers, which does strengthen them. Um, also there are two tiers in the the, in this, um, in the raw milk code. One of them is the farm gate sales and that's a completely different situation and it's not touched by this bill. Um, the other is the retail sales. And under the retail sales section, the producers are required to test according to industry standards and using, using all of the tests that, that you would use for regular industry standards and probably more because we're not pasteurizing it. Um, and then there has to be a six month record of those tests. And if there is an outbreak and the department comes in and they have access to all of the records for the past six months for testing, um, I think the real issue at stake here is not who's regulating what, but it is the, the opportunity for people to make their own choices and to, uh, facilitate a free market. And I don't, I don't think that we want to be part of shutting down the free market. I also just would like to mention that we don't go, um, to such great lengths to regulate energy drinks and other things that we know are causing chronic illness in our society. We don't even care about those. Those are available at every store. There are, there shops all over the place where you can go through a drive through and buy all of these things and yet a small percentage of the population wants to have the opportunity to use raw milk. Nobody is forcing it on them and they will know what they are buying. I think it's time that we give people a choice and let them decide what they think is most healthy for them and their families. Thank you.

  37. Speaker (presiding)28:48

      Uh, thank you Representative Gricius voting will now be open on second substitute HB 1 79. Representative Thompson, would you like to vote? Seeing all present, having voted voting is now closed. Second substitute HB 1 79 passes this by with 46 yes votes 20 no volts and will be sent to the Senate for its consideration. Okay, representatives, we're gonna do a committee report. So Madam reading clerk for committee's report.

• Feb 25, 2026 Senate Business and Labor Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (29 turns)

  1. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:08:06

     house bill 1 79, second substitute. And milk amendments Representative Shelley, Oh, can you bring me the milk?

  2. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:08:18

     Thank you Chair and committee. Just have to get my visual aid out here. Um, this bill has been, this is our visual aid and we're, we're offering the, um, gallon chug challenge if anybody wants to take it. Um, this bill has been in the work since June, and we are very grateful for all of the input that we've received. Hours of work by UD Aaf, farm Bureau, my colleagues and advocates, and raw milk producers. And we've finally reached a sweet spot and we're, we're all very happy about that. HB one 50, uh, 1 79, the third substitute with an amendment. Do I need to in introduce those ahead of time or do we, Yeah, let's see. So you were looking at, are you looking at sub four, sub Three, Sub three, Sub three. And then there are, there is amendment one that goes with that. Okay. Yeah, why don't you just address that sub Okay. And amendment, yeah. As you know, present that, and then we can, after you've done that, then we can consider action on it. Okay. Thank you. Um, so the third sub with the amendment restructures how milk is regulated in Utah. It does not remove oversight. It modernizes and clarifies, it creates a tiered regulatory structure. Retail sales remain permitted, inspected, and tested by the department. It removes the requirement that the farmer own 51% of the store that he or she sells in. It allows for a designated agent to deliver milk to a store, and the department maintains oversight for outbreaks on every level. And that is my presentation. I'm happy to answer questions.

  3. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:10:07

     Okay. We'll come back to the committee for, um, clarifying questions. Senator Sandall.

  4. Sen. Scott D. Sandall1:10:17

     Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I kind of want to congratulate the, uh, representative. Uh, she did listen and, uh, you'll notice I had a had a sub ready to go, but, uh, she made the corrections in her sub. And, uh, I think we're at a point where I'm comfortable with what we've done. I just wanna make sure that everybody on the committee and those listening understand that this is a fundamental change in what we're doing with raw milk. Uh, we have up to this point only it allowed raw milk to be in a spot where ownership was with the raw milk producer or in a face-to-face contact, so that the consumer knew like very distinctly that the milk that they were buying was not pasteurized. Uh, we're now changing that. We're flipping that requirement. Uh, but in doing so, we're also requiring that those dairies that produce the milk now subject themselves to all the testing and licensing requirement, including the fees that will go along with that. So I just want people to know that raw milk, raw milk will be more available, but it's going to be subject to all of the standards, licensing, test testing, and the fees that go along with it. So I just, I didn't want it to seem like it was a minor change. It's been something that, uh, for my first session here, we've dealt with almost every year, something to do with this. And I hope we finally land on a space where we don't have to keep doing it. So, anyway, thank you Mr. Chair.

  5. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:11:55

     Thank you. Senator Sandall. Other, other discussion or questions for the sponsor?

  6. Unknown speaker1:12:02speaker not certain

     Yeah, seeing that, we'll, let's come back to the committee and let's make a, make some motions chair. So first motion, uh, would be to, pardon me. Well, we're just, we're just doing the sub. Yeah. First motion would be to, uh, do entitle and body what we are on. Which one are we on? We're on three. Three. And we're moving to, oh, we were, we were, uh, around one. Aren't we see we're on two and we're moving to three to three.

  7. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:12:38

     Yes. Motion to delete entitle and body second substitute. Move it to third substitute. I, I'll just make that motion since I already elaborated. Might be easier. Any discussion to that motion?

  8. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:12:52

     Senator Ipson, did you have discussion of the motion or, okay. Um, back to you. Do you have any further summation on it?

  9. Sen. Don L. Ipson1:12:59

     No. Thank you. Just the motion to a amen to sub No, uh, I will pa waive as well.

  10. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:13:04

      Well, let's place that motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say nay. Aye. Aye. Holland, any opposed? Rule It passes unanimous. Let's see. We've got seven to zero. Is that correct?

  11. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:13:21

      Okay. Now the next motion is to a move amendment number one in, uh, I think that's in your name too.

  12. Unknown speaker1:13:28speaker not certain

      Isn't represent Sherry Ray? Yes. Yes. Amendment number one. I'll make that motion as well. Um, any discussion to that motion? Any sum? No, thank you. I waive, I'll waive as well.

  13. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:13:41

      We'll place that motion. All in favor of the motion to amend, please say aye. But they Don't. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Rule that pass unanimous. Seven to zero. Okay.

  14. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:13:53

      Now to the bill. Any further discussion from the committee? Seeing none. Is there anyone in the public that like testify in this bill? Okay, we have three. Please come forward. Please sign in and tell us who you are, who you represent, if anyone, and, uh, give us your brief testimony.

  15. Terry Camp, Vice President, Public Policy, Utah Farm Bureau Federation1:14:13

      Sure. Um, so Terry Camp, I'm the Vice President of Public Policy for the Utah Farm Bureau. Uh, Utah Farm Bureau is comfortable with the third substitute. Um, producing raw milk takes careful planning from a facility and infrastructure, uh, standpoint, just like pasteurized grade A operations. Uh, we believe this bill achieves a reasonable balance and we really appreciate the sponsor working with us to address our concerns and urge the committee to move it forward.

  16. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:14:41

      Thank you. Okay.

  17. Amber Brown, Deputy Commissioner, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food1:14:43

      Um, my name is Amber Brown, deputy Commissioner for the Department of Agriculture and Food. Um, like the sponsor, uh, noted in her presentation. We spent a long time working on this bill over several months during the session and before the session. And we feel like it's got to a place that, that we can be comfortable with it. Um, we want to make sure that those that are selling in a commercial setting have appropriate guardrails in, in place so that the public is safe and is aware of what they're getting in that regular testing and in inspect inspection is happening. And we're comfortable with the lesser regulation for those other levels as long as we can act in the event of an outbreak. So, um, we, we support the bill at this point. Appreciate the sponsor working with us. Thanks.

  18. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:15:26

      Thank you. This will be our last, uh, public testimony. Go ahead.

  19. Tamar Watson, resident1:15:30

      Hi, my name's Tamara Watson and I'm here representing myself today. I was raised on a family farm in Spring City, Utah, raising sheep, alfalfa, as well as, uh, garden fruits and vegetables. Honestly, I was a foodie before I even knew it was a thing in my career. I've worked be, besides so many Utah producers and stakeholders in this room engaged in the local food movement, I consider all of them friends, like the sponsor and even, um, sandal, I appreciate the work that has been, uh, engaged in that have engaged in various discussions. Sometimes heated like farm talk is maybe even using a couple of choice farm appropriate words, but I believe that we finally arrived on a policy we can all be happy with while we need to feed the world. It's also very important that we feed our local communities, and this means that there must be space in policy to permit the production of raw milk and pasteurized truthfully, at the heart of this bill, it isn't about raw milk. It's more a reflection of our current challenges of our agriculture industry, changing marketing demand, and over-reliance on centralized food and consumers wanting different choices. All of these are important while maintaining a safe food supply, I remind my regulatory friends in the room. Raw milk isn't about a public health apocalypse. It's a niche product generally sought out by a very, very health conscious consumer that wouldn't be caught dead eating a late night bean burrito. The policy outlined in the bill balances consumer demand with producer responsibility while also outlining processes to manage food safety and retail scalability. I ask you for all agriculturalists statewide to support this bill. Let's get her done. Thank you. Appreciate it.

  20. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:17:23

      Okay, we'll close public comment and come back to the committee now for further deliberation or action.

  21. Sen. Don L. Ipson1:17:29

      Uh, Senator Ipson. Thank you Mr. Chair. I I make a motion that third substitute house bill 1 79 as amended receive a favorable recommendation from this committee.

  22. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:17:41

      Okay. The motion before is just to favorably recommend third substitute house Bill 1 79. Uh, discussion to that motion. Seeing none come back to you. Oh, I'm sorry, Senator Weiler.

  23. Sen. Todd Weiler1:17:54

      Well, yeah, I was just wondering if we're gonna let a response from the late night, uh, uh, bean burrito lobbyists before we vote.

  24. Unknown speaker1:18:02speaker not certain

      I got clear conflict. Yeah, I'm guilty. Apparently the committee said no. Okay. Alright. Just checking. Just checking.

  25. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:18:12

      Yeah. Representative Shelley,

  26. Rep. Kristen Chevrier1:18:14

      Um, I just, I appreciate you taking time to hear this and all of the work that has gone into this from so many different directions. And our objective is to promote local production and to increase access to local produce and, and, uh, milk in this case. And also, just so you know, the label says that it has the safe handling instructions on it and that raw milk, no matter how carefully produced, can be dangerous

  27. Unknown speaker1:18:45speaker not certain

      As you brought the, did you bring the cookies? I, I didn't get anyone to make the cookies. I was trying, sorry.

  28. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:18:52

      Senator Ipson a Okay, we'll place the motion. All in favor? All in favor of, uh, favor redirecting, say aye. Aye. Aye. Can you post say nay? Pass unanimous. Seven to zero. Thank you.

  29. Sen. Evan J. Vickers (Committee chair)1:19:08

      Thank you very much. Okay. Ought puts?

• Mar 6, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)24:13

     Third substitute House Bill 1 79 Milk Amendments by Representative Shelley. Representative Shelley.

  2. Rep. Kristen Chevrier24:19

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Motion to concur with Senate amendments. Thank You Representative. That motion is, in other words I'd speak to it. Yes, I would. The amendments were actually made by us. They were not Senate amendments and it was an effort to, um, gain consensus and we were able to bring UDA and the Farm Bureau and the producers altogether and pass through Senate Committee and Senate House unanimously.

  3. Speaker (presiding)24:44

     Thank you Representative Shelley. Discussion to the motion to concur with the Senate amendments Representative Snider.

  4. Rep. Casey Snider24:50

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. I, uh, Mr. Speaker, I think I gave one of my finest speeches ever heard on this floor in opposition to this bill just a few weeks ago. And despite my valiant efforts, this bill squeaked through. Um, but I would like to commend the sponsor for her hard work in the last several weeks on a very tough issue that this body has grappled with for a very long time. And she has done yeoman's work on this and I am proud to support the bill as it has come back. So thank you Mr. Speaker.

  5. Speaker (presiding)25:24

     Thank you Representative Snyder. Further discussion to the bill or further discussion To the motion to concur. See none. Back to your representative. Uh, ch I Waive summation has been waived. Going place The motion. The motion before is House Concur with Senate Amendments on third substitute HB 1 79. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule that motion passes voting will now be open on third substitute HB 1 79 vote quickly. Representatives seeing all present and voted voting is now closed. Substitute HB 1 79 passes this body with 65 yes votes zero. No votes will be sent to the Senate for the signature of the president. Madam Reading Clerk