H.B. 227 Student Journalist Amendments: transcript

House Education Committee, Jan 27, 2026

1. Committee chair (presiding)1:49:36

   Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of the committee, we will move to House Bill 2 27, Representative Moss, student Journalist amendments.

2. Rep. Carol S. Moss1:50:03

   Hello everyone. And I appreciate being able to present this bill. Um, this is my co-presenter. I'll let him say his name and then he'll, Hey guys,

3. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student1:50:11

   My name is Milan Venegas

4. Rep. Carol S. Moss1:50:14

   And he's a University of Utah student and a recent high school graduate from Utah County. So I'll do the introduction. He's my co-presenter. And I just wanna tell you that I was delighted to have a student reach out to me a few months ago and discussed this topic with me. Um, because, uh, he reached out to me because of my years in, in education. And I, I wanna preface this with the fact that I taught AP English in many for many years. And many, many of those students also were taking journalism and many were editors of their school papers. So they essentially had two writing classes and they learned different styles of writing and, and approaches to writing, and also learned, um, the, uh, correct way to express themselves. And, and those students have gone on. Some of them have, they're doctors, they're lawyers. I, a few are journalists I know, but, but it's just been wonder. It was wonderful training for them. And so I was happy to, um, do this bill with Milan. And I wanna just tell you a little bit about what it does. Oh, I'm sorry. Um, Madam Chair, may my intern hand out give the committee a handout. Yes, she may. Just that a handout. I forgot to say that. Um, as, as we talked about what we wanted this bill to do, the, the part I like about it so much, it is the fact that it teaches students guidelines for, uh, expressing themselves in appropriate ways and the type of subjects that they could and ought to be writing about in high school and what not to do. The ethics of good journalism, because journalism today is under assault. Many people don't have a lot of faith in it. Uh, so I think this is just a really important area for students to, uh, who take journalism to understand and know that there are restrictions and guidelines on what they can say and how they can express it. And, and there's also an issue with the fact that some student journalists, a growing number, have been censored the articles they've written. If the administration doesn't like it, if they think it's critical of them, they've not let them publish it. And we certainly know that some things shouldn't be published. I heard about one girl that wrote a, a column about why she was, um, supporting a particular presidential candidate. And I don't think that should be written about in a school newspaper. I think that should be off limits. And, and that was censored. So, um, so I, but I, I want you to know that my, um, my reason for doing this has to do with those guidelines that create standards. So if you just look at the part of the bill starting line nine, what it does is establishes standards for student expression in school, sponsored media specifies specifies limitations on student expression, provides employment protection for student media advisors, because teachers aren't always responsible for some of the kind of crazy things kids do. I think Representative Welton would know that too. 'cause I was a student body advisor, and I, I got the blame when those students kidnapped after the election, some the new student body officers and did some things, took him place that were kind of dangerous and I wouldn't have wanted to be sued, but I am not responsible for them when there is somewhere else. Right. Um, and require school boards to adopt policies on school sponsored media. And, and this would also be like yearbook too, because sometimes I've seen kids write things in yearbooks, the staff that weren't particularly appropriate, right, Milan. Mm-hmm. Um, and then it limits the school liability for student pro produced content. And one thing that, uh, Milan pointed out to me is that if you, it, when censorship happens and students feel like they can't express themselves on things that are really related to their school and how their school is run, where do they go? They go to social media. And this is, this is a danger and this is a place we, we don't wanna see kids 'cause they're getting so much misinformation. The language and the tone and everything is completely different. So I think it's very important that we keep journalism in the newsroom and in the classroom when kids are being instructed. So if you will look at, um, line 58, it outlines the, the right student journalists have to exercise freedom of speech and, um, using the facilities of the school. And a student journalist is responsible for determining the news opinion feature and advertising content. And a student media advisor may teach professional standards of English and journalism to student journalists consistent with this. Now, I also want to tell you that I, I also discussed at length, just a second, excuse me, with a journalism teacher at a local high school. And she goes to, there is a national organization that has a code of conduct, and she always goes through that with her students. So she was happy to see us do this because this really adds to that kind of responsibility that we wanna see. And, um, then on, uh, page, um, three, well, it might not be three on yours, but the section 66, it does not authorize, authorize, or protect expression that's libelous or slanderous or obscene. Those are all the things we want kids to know they cannot do. And, um, then it has some other requirements. And, um, I don't need to go through those, but if I may now let Milan give you from his point of view as a student journalist, um, why he thinks this bill is necessary and how it will help student journalists going forward.

5. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student1:56:26

   So, okay. I feel like this bill has the potential to really make journalism better overall for students. I was the type of kid that write articles kind of criticizing my administration and my school board on budget decisions and stuff like that. I was very civically involved in high school. And one particular experience I remember having, having an article censored, was about my high school parking lot actually, out of all things. So my high school was under construction for the majority of my high school experience. And we didn't have parking as students. We weren't able to park. So it was a bit of an issue, but I was, we had one available parking lot. And I, in my article, I did a lot of research and all that stuff, and I noticed that if you repaint the lines in that parking lot, you would have an additional 50 stalls, meaning that 50 more kids would be able to park there and go to school every single day. So I pointed that out and I was criticizing my administration on how exactly they were handling the situation and how we could be bettering it overall. And my administration didn't really love that. Um, they weren't really happy with me and they took down my article. So it wasn't very awesome. But it's all good. It's kind of how it goes. So, um, I feel like as soon journalists, we have been built up to be prepared to tell meaningful journalism and stories and to be truthful overall. So I feel like this bill is gonna be amazing if we are able to get this done. So thank

6. Rep. Carol S. Moss1:57:49

   You for sharing. And could you state your name and who you represent or yourself if you're representing

7. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student1:57:53

   Yourself? Um, I just represent myself. My, my name's Milam Venegas, so.

8. Rep. Carol S. Moss1:57:56

   Great. And if you could sign the clipboard

9. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student1:57:57

   Yes, of course. That'd be great. Of, thank you.

10. Rep. Carol S. Moss1:57:58

    Mm-hmm. And if I may, before I open to question the handout, I wanted you to point out that there are states now 18 states that protect student journalists and you see a variety of states across the country. But what I think is most important, and what I wrote about some of the topics that Milan and I talked about that I think are appropriate and timely for students to write about, and one that I would love to see, and maybe they already are high school students writing about their response to the cell phone policies. Should it be bell to be or should it be class to class? I mean, there's a lot of mm-hmm. Different. Mm-hmm. And you know, when, when the legislature and the governor's promoting a certain, um, requirement, um, I, I think they ought to be listening to teenagers. You know, the, the kids who are in high school or some of them are 18 years old and they have jobs and they leave school and they're responsible for, you know, younger kids and so on. Um, student reactions to school board decisions. I think my superintendent is here. I'll see how he feels about that. Budget decisions affecting students. Like Representative Welton was talking about, you know, about paying for field trips and so on. School event coverage, attendance policies, and then parking rules, which I'm mm-hmm. Listed for you. So, um, if there's anything more you'd like to say at this point?

11. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student1:59:20

    We'll, no, be OI think I'm good open for questions now. Right.

12. Committee chair (presiding)1:59:24

    Thank you. We will turn to the committee for clarifying questions. Representative Corinne Peterson.

13. Rep. Karen M. Peterson1:59:31speaker not certain

    Thank you. Um, so my daughter is a student journalist. She writes for the Statesman at Utah State University. Mm-hmm. And my grandfather was the faculty advisor over the signpost at Weber State University. So I come from a newspaper family. We own lots of newspapers in my family over the years. And, um, I very much appreciate, um, the, uh, ability to train up young journalists, the a journalists play an important role. Um, but to the bill, I do have a number of questions, so I'm gonna ask you a few. Okay? Sure. Um, the first one is you said, um, it wouldn't really be appropriate for a student to write about, about a presidential candidate, whether they liked them or didn't like them, but as they read the bill, that would be very loud. What's your thoughts about that?

14. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:00:11

    Um, you'd have to point that out. I didn't. Well, there's no prohibition to making political statements or comments about Well, that's a good point. And and again, I i I told you that this, the journalism teacher I talked to went through a code of conduct that's from a national website, and so perhaps that's in it. It just happens to be one that I heard about that a student was not allowed to print it, and I thought that was okay. Yeah. So that would be allowed with your bill as it's currently drafted.

15. Rep. Karen M. Peterson2:00:37speaker not certain

    Okay. That's good to know. Um, so as a teacher, um, you know, you have, um, probably in line 64 that a student media advisor may teach professional standards of English and journalism, which I think is important, but it doesn't preclude that media advisor, um, if a media advisor Uintah the student and said, your article's really poorly written, it's got problems. Right. Or if they said, you did not have good sources, and I don't feel comfortable printing this. Or if they said, you used a straw man argument and that's not strong opinion, um, you know, a good way to, to do your article that could, they could still print the article because it's really just that the advisor may teach them some things, but it doesn't preclude them from publishing poorly done work.

16. Rep. Karen M. Peterson2:01:22speaker not certain

    And I'm just curious as an

17. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:01:23

    English teacher, how you feel about that. Well, I, as you read that, I think that should say shall Well, it, they shall teach them, but like, could, could they not publish an article? Of course, because it was poorly Done. Of course. I mean, you know, I mean, the teacher ought to read it and say, you know, this is a bad sentence. Mm-hmm. This wording isn't very good known. Mm-hmm. That's part of it. Right. Do another draft.

18. Rep. Karen M. Peterson2:01:44speaker not certain

    Absolutely. So as this is drafted, they couldn't, I mean, if a student said, I still want my article in the paper, even though you think it Okay, not equality work. Mm-hmm. It could still be published. Right. And so I think that's another really tricky place where we're putting our administrators in. And then, um, could I respond to that a little bit as well? So I, in my newsroom, so we have our chief editors, depending what section it would be. So if it was like a student life article was an opinion based article, that's chief editor will be reading that paper and giving those clarifying notes. It's not necessarily your immediate advisor that would be going over, they're, they're more there at a supervising capacity. But your chief editor would typically be the one giving you the, those criticisms that improve their article. Because typically your chief editor is the one publishing it, not yourself. Right. So in the, in this sense of a, a high school paper, right? So you've got high school students that, uh, maybe they wrote something and they feel really strongly about it 'cause they're mad about the parking lot, whatever that issue is. Right? Um, and, and if the media advisor, the adults in the room says, this is a really poorly written article, the student would have the right to say, doesn't matter, we're put publishing anyways. Because that's, that's how this is drafted. So I just wanna make sure we're really clear on what this actually operationalizes and how that would look in a classroom. And then maybe my last question, and it might not be one you can respond to right now, but it would be worth asking, is that, um, the Supreme Court has held that there is a difference between high school newspapers mm-hmm. And newspapers, uh, you know, done by adults. That there is a difference. And, um, I do wonder if we're running a little bit into this space where we can regulate a little bit what happens in a high school newspaper. The Supreme Courts have held that. And, and sometimes we want to do that because we can create liabilities for the state. Um, broadly not, you know, our school districts that we love our, our schools that we love, we don't wanna create huge liabilities to them. We, of course, want our, our students to be able to exercise First Amendment rights. It's critical, it's important, I believe all of that. But I also think that they have given us room to regulate that because of the concerns that it can cause. Um, so any thoughts about that? And that's my last question. Thank you. I did,

19. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:03:53

    Oh, I did have a, another, I was considering it as a handout, but I didn't know if it you wanted to get into that, but they're a Tinker Standard, and then there's another one too. I've forgotten the name of that Milan maybe. Um, it's Hazelwood versus Meyer. Okay. But I understand what you're saying and, and I, you know, may, I probably should have talked about that more. I just didn't know if I wanted to get that far into the, but I understand. I can drop a quick summary of the history lesson real quick. So in 1988, the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood and Meyer that school administrators are able to censor student sponsored media when they have reasonable legitimized pedological concerns. But they don't specify what those pedological concerns actually are. So what this bill is centrally doing is outlining what those pedological concerns are able to be. So that sense, so students are not censored for trying to talk about their parking lot and criticizing their administration.

20. Rep. Karen M. Peterson2:04:46speaker not certain

    And if that make, does that make sense? Yes, It makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But I do, I do think that, you know, we, we do have an ability to regulate here more than we would with a even a, a college paper. So that's my thoughts. Thank you.

21. Committee chair (presiding)2:04:59

    Thank you for that. Thank you Representative MacPherson.

22. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:05:04

    Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I do have a number of questions as well, so I apologize in advance. I'll try to be quick here. But walking through the language of this bill, I've got a number of questions, some concerns as well. So if you would look at, starting at line 89, a student media advisor may not be dismissed. A suspended, disciplined, reassigned transferred subject determination, non-renewal, otherwise retaliated, rated, retaliated against for, and then it lists out refusing to infringe upon conduct that is protected under the First Amendment or acting protect a student journalist engaged in conduct authorized under subsection five or the First Amendment. So I'm, I guess what I'm asking here, this, this seems to bypass any state law that may be in place. So I guess I, I'm asking, um, is there any indication here that if the, the state has put together certain prohibitions on displays or other, other media type, uh, or, uh, non-governmental, uh, uh, displays of information, which we have in many sections of code in, in state board rule, and a student were to advertise or discuss that in a way that would be in violation of board policy or rule or state law and a media advisor were to try to prevent that or would to enable that? I'm guess I'm asking, is this a, an issue you see here, I'm, I'm wondering why we're not including state law or code or state board rule in addition to the First Amendment protections, which have been as discussed pre previously, um, already discussed in, in, um, federal Supreme Court rulings, that there is some infringement allowance by the state. So I'm just curious why we're bypassing that.

23. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:06:58

    Well, that's a legitimate question representative and, and not being familiar with his part of the code and, and the attorney who drafted and drew this from, you know, previous code. And so, I mean, this is something I definitely would be happy to discuss with him. And, but I, I can't give you a definitive answer. I mean, it didn't occur to me because we think of a lot of scenarios. I mean, you see with this bill, there are a lot of different scenarios, and I don't know that we could cover everyone. It, every single one. I mean, it has to be a little bit broader. But thank you for that suggestion or idea.

24. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:07:33

    Thank you. And, and, um, and if I could just, I wanna bring up, uh, an exact scenario that happened recently, and I wanted to know how this may apply in that scenario. My middle daughter was in a journalism class in her senior year, a high school. And in that class, um, one of the previous, uh, newspapers that went out to the school had an article from a student that was describing some legislation that had come out from the legislature, and that was supported by Governor Cox, um, restricting bathroom use to, uh, birth, sex designations. And there was some discussion in this op-ed article from the student that specifically in the quote was that there was blood on the hands of the legislature and on the governor, uh, for this. Um, and it, it was a very inflammatory article. Obviously, my, my daughter had requested the very next month to write a, an op-ed, um, supporting the other side of the argument. And her, um, media advisor and her, the editor of the newspaper, which was her journalism teacher, uh, refused to let her publish one. Um, and it took, uh, a couple of months actually of, of him requesting edits and changes and removing nearly 90% of her content before they allowed it to be published. So I'm curious, under your language of your bill here, how, how would this change that scenario?

25. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:08:53

    Well, you know, you're giving one specific situation. I can't really, you know, with, with I, well, I'd assume your daughter would be protected because that is her opinion and that is her first re free speech. But, but I, I mean, I think that media advisors should certainly have let there be a rebuttal to that. Mm-hmm. I think that was agreed inappropriate and all teachers don't do everything appropriately, that's for sure. Uh,

26. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:09:20

    But this bill seems to state more protections for the media advisors and for the employees, the LEAs, uh, for not, um mm-hmm. Interfering, but no protections for the actual speech that's intended to be protected here. That's my concern, is that this bill seems to be written specifically to protect the organization, the lea a over how it were to conduct itself, rather than going specifically looking at, uh, what is, what are we talking about when it comes to journalism and free speech when it comes to students access? Are we putting the protections in the wrong places here? That's, I guess, where, where my fundamental concern with this bill and the direction of it right now.

27. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:10:06

    Okay. Um, that's a valid concern. I, I, as, as I read this draft, I mean, I did think of teachers and media advi who are teachers and media advisors. They usually teach other things that, you know, they have to be protected too, because as I said, you can't always control. I taught high school, you can't always control everything kids do. And they do some kind of stupid things sometimes. And so, um, you know, I didn't think of that, but you know, you can think of examples, but I mean, there ought to be a balance. I do think there should be some protections for the advisor, otherwise, who's gonna wanna be the journalism teacher, the student newspaper advisor, Um, to add on.

28. Milan Venegas, University of Utah student2:10:44

    So when my parking lot article, like was published and then removed by our adminis, like by our administration, our administration did in fact, retro man, my journalism teacher, and just, they weren't very nice to him whatsoever for kind of just supporting me in my thought process and criticizing my administration for how they could be bettering the situation for students. So that's kind of where that idea kind of came from, of giving those protections to media advisors. So they just aren't, they aren't hurt for what we are saying, if that makes sense. So

29. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:11:20

    Thank you, and I appreciate this explanation. Again, my concern is fundamental to the direction of this right now, that protections are going the wrong way, les towards the journalistic approach of speech and regulating that and more protection of the status quo or the environment in which that it happens. So I don't know how to fix that right now, but I have some concerns over that overall. But thank you.

30. Committee chair (presiding)2:11:45

    Thank you, representative Libe.

31. Rep. Karianne Lisonbee2:11:48

    Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. I have also some, some thoughts and perhaps a question or two. So, um, as I've read through your bill, I, I'm a little struck with, I I don't think there's another designated student club, um, with legal cause of action anywhere else in Utah Code. And please prove me wrong if there is, but I couldn't find one that Utah Code stipulates there's a cause of action for the students involved in the club directly, or their parents to act against the school. This seems probably out of balance and, and maybe some of the other commenters were alluding to this. Um, and then I just want to kind of explore, um, the, the comparison or the equivalency that's trying to be drawn between a student journalist in a public funded school who is acting on a volunteer basis, participating in a club, and somebody that is hired to report the news and, um, acts under journalism ethics in the public sector, the public square. Um, it, there is no comparison. I mean, Hazelwood is pretty clear that states can broadly censor, not narrowly, broadly censor student newspapers, um, student musicals, yearbooks speeches, and so they can censor on grammar research quality, suitability for the audience, sensitive or private topics, associating the school with a viewpoint, advocating illegal activity, all of those things. And more so, um, I have, I think you can probably tell some serious concerns with the language in the bill. Um, I would love to sit down and have a conversation with you and with this lovely student here who's come and, and been willing to present this bill with you, um, as the language is right now in the bill, though there, it's extremely problematic and it really goes outside of the norm of what we've visited in this, in this, um, you know, committee and even what you have previously supported or been concerned about in the past representative. And, and so I'm, this is something new and I'm just exploring it. I apologize that I did not read the bill before committee. I've just read it now and, um, and this is just my first blush response. Um, but again, I'm happy to continue having conversations, but this is not something I could support in its present form. Thank you. Thank you,

32. Committee chair (presiding)2:14:45

    Thank you. Any further questions from the committee? Seeing none, we will go to the public for comment. Is anyone here? Alright. Please come on up. State your name and who you represent and sign in.

33. Maryann Christensen, Utah Legislative Watch2:15:06

    Marianne, Christians Christensen. I'm Executive director of Utah Legislative Watch. Um, Utah Legislative Watch is against this bill. We don't think that parents send their kids to college to do anything but learn their skills. Part of learning about journalism is to have instruction that corrects them when they go into Yellow Journal journalism, when they're colored in their reporting rather than neutral in their reporting. And it's very appropriate for their instructors to censor them when they get outside the best practices of journalism. Um, there is power in the press as the saying goes, and it, it's a very important power that we need to recognize. The Spanish American War was started over yellow journalism. It was a campaign that was launched to purposefully mislead the public through news stories to produce a specific outcome. And the specific outcome for that war was to oust the Spanish from this hemisphere so that they could control the sugar trade. There is power in what the students can say, and they, they just need guidance while they're in school. Parents send their journalism schools, their journalism students to school to learn best practices. All other parents send their children to schools to not be, um, propagandized by journalism students that can just print whatever they want. So, um, I would appreciate your no vote on this legislation. Thank you.

34. Committee chair (presiding)2:16:51

    Great, thank you. This Is high school, you said college.

35. Maryann Christensen, Utah Legislative Watch2:16:54

    Oh, well, even more so with high school.

36. Sara Jones, Utah Education Association2:17:03

    Good afternoon committee. I'm Sarah Jones with the Utah Education Association. UEA doesn't have a position on the bill at this point, but I have raised some concerns with Representative Moss and I appreciate her willingness to talk through those. Uh, we share some of the concerns in common with what's been brought up. Um, in particular the need for greater, greater clarity on the potential impact to licensed educators, such as Representative MacPherson was talking about, um, kind of unintentionally from the language or the creation of liability, um, in the end of the bill, starting on lines one 12 about, uh, for school employees, um, if they, uh, the word is interfere with what the student is doing. So we look forward to being able to work on clarifying language. Thank you.

37. Committee chair (presiding)2:17:52

    Alright. Thank you. Anyone else from the public? Do we have anyone online? All right. Seeing none online, we will come back to the Committee for Action. Representative Welton,

38. Rep. Doug Welton2:18:08

    Uh, I would make the motion that we hold this bill.

39. Committee chair (presiding)2:18:11

    Would you like to speak to that?

40. Rep. Doug Welton2:18:13

    Actually, there, there's a lot that I really like about this and, and I apologize to Milan. I realized that he reached out to me in the end of the year, and I, I missed his, his email. And so I do apologize for that. You could have done this, but I, I work in the space of, of debate and civics and civic engagement. And one of the things that I would like to see more is more civic engagement. Like, have the hard conversation. And I think that's an important thing in our society that we learn while we're young with the appropriate guardrails. You know, so for example, using the example over here, they'll have blood on their hands, I think was an inappropriate allowance. And then to restrict the other side, I think there needs to be a reasonable place for, uh, students to express at the right age, the appropriate age, to engage in, in discussions of the world. Like if, if they don't discuss anything until graduation date, and now you're throwing them into the world, that's a, that's a tough place to be. And so I think that there needs to be a place, but there are a lot of concerns with the structure of the bill, uh, that I think need to be worked out before you can move forward. And so, uh, I like the idea, but I, I just don't think we're there yet.

41. Committee chair (presiding)2:19:29

    Representative MacPherson.

42. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:19:32

    Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a substitute motion That is an order. Um, I'd like to make a motion to table this bill, and I want to explain why, if that's all right. Go Ahead. I, I, I actually just fundamentally think that this bill needs to be re reworked from the ground up. I, I, I just don't think that it's in a position where, at this point in the session, that we can make adjustments that are needed to satisfy the requirements of it. While I'm supportive overall with the goals you're trying to accomplish, I, I don't think that current vehicles in a position do so, and I think putting it back on our agenda later is just going to, um, in my honest opinion, it's just gonna take more time that we don't necessarily have, this is a very busy committee, and I just don't think this bill is in its current form or in any adjustable form right now, ready for prime time. I, I think that it needs to be kind of looked at from the ground up again on how we can approach this from a, from a different direction if the policy goals are intended to be solved. So with that, that's my motion.

43. Committee chair (presiding)2:20:34

    Thank you. And to the bill sponsor.

44. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:20:39

    Well, I would prefer that it be held and give me an opportunity. I mean, I, this is definitely a foray into a different area, and just to one of the recent comments about parents don't send their kids to school to be propagandized, this is a elective to subject. Remember, not every student takes journalism or works on the school newspaper. And like I said, I had a lot of AP students who did, but, um, and, and I really value the comments I've gotten, and I'd be happy to work with people and I, I'm not saying it would be ideal, but, um, I'd like a chance to have a, make some changes and at least get part of what I wanna do, which is teaching students appropriate way to write and way to, um, um, talk about those subjects that they care about and that, that are in their minds. And they, their concerned with, like I said, about cell phone use and that some of those other things. I think those are appropriate topics, but they need to learn how to do it constructively and ethically. And that, that was my reason for doing this with Milan. I thought it, I thought it was worthy of, uh, looking at, so I prefer that the committee put a hold on it and if it, I don't think it's ready, I won't bring it back.

45. Committee chair (presiding)2:22:03

    All right. Thank you to the committee for debate on the substitute motion Representative Hayes.

46. Rep. Sahara Hayes2:22:11

    Thank you. I'm opposed to the substitute motion. I just wanna take a moment to remind us that this is day eight. We have time and the, we're not here to be rubber stamps. We're here to work. And I think we're all committed to working. I think we have good comments in this committee for the bill. And to scrap it entirely as a concept is, is dismissive to the work that has already been done. I think we have the opportunity here to come together and create and work on a bill that is going to be really excellent and help student journalists, and we should take that opportunity and not shy away from it. So I pose that motion. Thank you.

47. Committee chair (presiding)2:22:50

    All right. Back to the maker of the motion.

48. Unknown speaker2:22:52speaker not certain

    Yeah, just say briefly. Most of these problems I think that we're talking about could probably be fixed in policy. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a newbie.

49. Committee chair (presiding)2:22:59

    Um, it was back to the maker of the underlying motion. I apologize.

50. Rep. Doug Welton2:23:04

    I sound late. Um, I, I, I would oppose the, the motion to table as well. I, I do think that we've been asked to do the work in the committees and, uh, this is a, a low number bill and a, a bill that's of importance to our outgoing, uh, representative. And, uh, so I, I do recognize that there is a lot of work to be done and, uh, I, I don't discount that. I think there is a, a lot of work to be done here, but there's time to get it done. Uh, I think it's, it's worthy of, of tackling. And I also trust the representative that if she doesn't get it to a place where it needs to be, she won't bring it back

51. Committee chair (presiding)2:23:41

    And back to the maker of the substitute motion.

52. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:23:43

    Thank you. I'll just restate it briefly. I think that we could probably solve most of these problems in policy or board rule. We don't need to make a statewide statutory requirement.

53. Committee chair (presiding)2:23:54

    Alright, thank you. We'll do a roll call vote on the substitute motion.

54. Committee clerk2:23:58

    You restate the motion. The motion is to table house bill 2 27. Oh, There we go.

55. Committee clerk2:24:11

    Representatives. Lyon. Yeah. Hayes. No. Liz and B. Yes. McPherson? Yes. Millard. Yes. Moss?

56. Rep. Carol S. Moss2:24:24

    No, I forgot. We're on that. That's the substitute, right? I, I'm, I'm writing down that.

57. Committee clerk2:24:31

    Corinne Peterson. Yes. Val Peterson. Yes. Perche? Yes. Thompson? Yes. Welton? No. Chair. Defay? Yes.

58. Committee chair (presiding)2:25:05

    All right. That motion carries nine to three with Representative Hayes Welton and Moss voting. No. Yep. Thank you representative.