S.B. 38 Consumer Protection Modifications: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This won't be nearly as exciting as the last bill. Um, I do have an amendment that I'm hoping, um, the committee, it's in Representative Matthews name, and I also walked out of the speaker presenting his only bill and my committee so I could be here. So I appreciate you taking me out of order. Um, so this, uh, I'll let you introduce yourself. Oh, sorry. Oh, please go ahead. Katie

Haas, director of the Division of Consumer Protection. Yeah. So,

uh, Katie will be joining me. Ms. Haes will be joining me in my presentation. So this bill,

I'm Katie Haas. I'm the Director of the Division of Consumer Protection. And I hope you have security ready just in case you know, lightning strikes twice. Thanks. So, um, this is an interim committee bill. Um, to my knowledge, uh, it has unanimous support. It's a technical, very technical update to Utah's consumer protection law. It clarifies the division's authority to investigate potential violations. It updates, filing and reporting requirements for both individuals and businesses. And it strengthens rules around surety bonds and certificates of deposits, including when the division can recover costs. It also ensures that regulated entities keep their information current. It clarifies that state issued documents do not imply endorsement. It establishes when the division can deny, suspend, or even revoke certain filings. And it requires businesses to eliminate, I'm sorry, to maintain registered agent in Utah for legal services of lawsuits and subpoenas. Um, so the, the key points are is it clarifies and strengthens division's, investigatory and enforcement powers to ensure compliance with consumer protection laws. It updates, filing and reporting requirements, strengthens surety bond rules and mandates that entities maintain that registered agent I mentioned and provides clear authority to correct errors, recover costs, and or deny, suspend or revoke registrations or documents when entities fail to meet legal obligations.

With that, I'll, I'll kick it to Ms. Haw for a minute, a minute or two.

Um, I think he covered that. This is really just streamlining. We have so many statutes that we enforce at the division. We have a, I think over 30 statutes and 30 employees. And so this is just to simplify most of our stuff. And there's a substitute, and the substitute speaks to our representation by the Attorney General's office. Um, that is covered in a different section of code. So this is striking all that language so that there's no inconsistencies. We've worked with the attorney general's office on this language, um, just to make sure that there's no conflicting language in any of our statutes compared to the overarching client attorney-client relationship that exists. So, um, I, I'm speaking a bit to the sub right now.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

Yes. Well, this is such a tiny bill. I'm wondering if you could speak to line 4,600. Just kidding. It's like, oh crap. That might be hard.

For real. This time, I promise, um, I move that we adopt the first substitute of SB 38.

And to the, to the sponsor, It's technical. I, in fact, I said on the Senate floor, I, I didn't know what I had done to offend the interim committee chairs where they put this bill in my name, but I was going to repent and try to be better. So,

It was Katie. Katie suggested it. Okay, Now I know.

I, okay.

Got it. Um, I make a motion that we favorably recommend First,

Oh, do the amendment. Oh, yes. There's amendment As a technical, Uh, the first amendment, I don't even show her mine, but yes, whatever the amendment is to this bill, It's, it's, it just changes the subsection. Uh, it was a mis fixing a typographical error. Oh, There it is. My apologies. Yes. My, my emotion is that we adopt, Sorry, one second. It

Got it.

In that case, I retract my other, other motion. And my actual motion is that we favorably recommend first substitute SB 38.

I'll waive. Okay.

Waive, and then to the maker of the motion, I'll waive.

You.

Okay. I'll double check that. Thank you.

Mr. Chair. Motion to adjourn.

This is a bill that came through the Business Interim Committee and I'm, I'm not sure, uh, what I did to Senator Vickers to get assigned this, but I will apologize to him after this presentation so it doesn't happen again. But this is a very technical bill. Um, he's not listening, but this bill amends the division's investigatory, uh, authority to conduct investigations related to statutes. The division administers and enforces amends filing requirements for a person to make with the division amends provisions related to an entity surety bond and certificate of deposit provides circumstances under which the division may recover costs from a surety bond or a certificate of deposit. Provides that a person correct information contained in a filing the person makes with the division. If the information becomes incorrect or incomplete, provides that certain persons may not represent the division or the state endorses or approves the person, clarifies the issuance of certain documents, does not constitute approval or endorsement by the state or division. Provides circumstances under which the division may deny, suspend, or revoke certain documents. Requires that a person registers with the division, maintain a registered agent in the state. That's important. Provides requirements for the information a person shall maintain for a registered agent in the state. By the way, a registered agent is where a company says, if you're gonna sue me, this is where, this is the person you serve the lawsuit on, or a subpoena amends provisions relating to the division's, enforcement powers and penalties the division may impose and a whole bunch of other stuff. So with that, I'll yield to any questions.

Oh, thank you. Uh, Mr. President, as permitted by the Utah Constitution. I move that we suspend the three reading requirements.

I'll circle move motion Circle. Yeah. Can we do that now?

So now that, that is a purpose for, uh, moving the bill straight across today Under suspension of the rules.

Mr. President, I move that SB 38 pass.

A little bit of a personal privilege. So I'm hoping the interns are listening and, uh, I guess Senator Bus is not here. I just wanna explain. A lot of people don't understand why the house only, uh, reads and debates a bill once and the Senate does it twice. So both the House and the Senate have the three reading requirements. When we, when, um, when Mr. Lloyd reads in the bill, we count that as the first reading requirement, and then of course we know the second reading and the third reading. You're all familiar with that in the house. When they get the committee report and they read in the committee report, the house counts that as the second reading and that's why they do all bills on third reading. So it's a different chamber rule. So we both have the three reading requirement, we just interpret it differently. And with that explanation, Mr. President, I move that for the rest of the day as permitted by the Utah Constitution, we suspend the three reading requirement in the Senate. Thank

Um, sure. It just, uh, incorporates the two separate house amendments and then it also, um, removes some redundancy in, in the code

I'll waive Motion is

Thank you Mr. Speaker ProAm. I do wanna make sure to clarify that I'm not reading off of a paper, but this is a 9,500 line bill. So I do have some cliff notes, if that would be, I'll check on those. Um, but by and large, this bill is mostly, um, a technical update to Utah's consumer protection laws. Um, it clarifies the division's authority to investigate potential, uh, violations. Um, update, filing and reporting requirements for individuals and businesses and strengthens the rules and, uh, surety bonds certificates of deposit, um, and allows, um, for the division to recover costs. Um, it also requires that regulated entities keep their contact information current, uh, clarifies. State issued documents do not imply endorsement. Um, it establishes when the division can deny, suspend or revoke certain filings and requires businesses to maintain a registered agent in Utah for legal, um, services, lawsuits, subpoenas, that sort of thing. Um, and with that I'm open to questions.

I'll waive. Thank you,

Uh, thank you Mr. Speaker brought to a motion to adopt second substitute SB 38. The motion is to adopt second substitute Senate bill 38.

Um, sure. It just, uh, incorporates the two separate house amendments and then it also, um, removes some redundancy in, in the code

Thank you Mr. Speaker ProAm. I do wanna make sure to clarify that I'm not reading off of a paper, but this is a 9,500 line bill. So I do have some cliff notes, if that would be, I'll check on those. Um, but by and large, this bill is mostly, um, a technical update to Utah's consumer protection laws. Um, it clarifies the division's authority to investigate potential, uh, violations. Um, update, filing and reporting requirements for individuals and businesses and strengthens the rules and, uh, surety bonds certificates of deposit, um, and allows, um, for the division to recover costs. Um, it also requires that regulated entities keep their contact information current, uh, clarifies. State issued documents do not imply endorsement. Um, it establishes when the division can deny, suspend or revoke certain filings and requires businesses to maintain a registered agent in Utah for legal, um, services, lawsuits, subpoenas, that sort of thing. Um, and with that I'm open to questions.

Thank you Mr. President. I'm gonna move to Concur. Um, Representative Matthews took two house amendments, uh, to the first sub and rolled those into a second sub. They both just pointed to, uh, to the correct, uh, sections of the code. So they're very, very technical in nature. Did not change anything substantively, substantively. So I move to Concur.