Sahara Hayes

• H.B. 194 Utah State Board of Education Ethics Amendments · House floor debate (day 45) · Mar 6, 2026

  Moves that the House concur with the Senate amendments to the bill.

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  Mr. Oh, thank you Mr. Speaker. Not to disappoint, but I motion that we concur with the Senate amendments.

  ▶ Watch at 1:22:01

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Presents S.B. 297 as a technical correction defining qualifying school personnel in code, saying the listed roles already work in schools and it creates no new program or funding.

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  Thank you Mr. Chair and committee for having me today. Um, like I said, I'm not Senator Bus, but I'm gonna do my best impersonation. Um, so we'll see what we got. So, SB 2 97, um, is a technical correction. Two years ago, the legislature expanded the scope of, um, like, of the definition of student health, um, counseling within schools. So when we made that change, um, it, it put in some vague titles. So if you look on lines 34 and 35, which are, are currently crossed out, they've got qualifying personnel means a school counselor or other counselor, a school psychologist or other psychologist, a school social worker, or other social worker and other, that, that …

  ▶ Watch at 1:16:01

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Responds that the bill reflects roles already working in schools and that qualified staff remain in key roles, with less-trained staff handling day-to-day tasks.

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  Yeah, I'd be happy to. Um, and I'll do my best, but my understanding is that this is, the goal of this bill is to reflect what's already happening. So it's so that we're getting reality in line with our code and, and vice versa. There's been a lot of work the last few years to make sure that, that the most trained and qualified people that we have in these roles aren't doing like the day-to-day. So if you're, if you go to a doctor's office, you're gonna have a, a tech first who goes in and goes over your charts with you and you might see a nurse before you get to the doctor. And so that's, that's …

  ▶ Watch at 1:19:47

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Relays that the sponsor is open to amendments on the intern language and asks Rep. Teuscher to restate his question.

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  Which, which part? Sorry, I got lost the sponsor texting Me. Yeah, no, it's, uh, Um, she said in, in case you, I, Senator Bus has texted me, she says, interns already do this work, but if it's a concern, we're open to amendments. So, fun fact, if anybody has concerns with the interns, uh, I have permission to work with the committee on amending that. Um, and then can you get back to your, the rest of your question? 'cause I am a little bit,

  ▶ Watch at 1:21:26

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Explains that the "other" language in the definitions captures the listed counseling and psychology titles.

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  Those are all, I, I don't think any of those would fit under the current definition of what you see in line 34 of a school counselor, a school psychologist, a school social worker. I mean, that's where the other comes in the or other psychologist or other social worker or other counselor. 'cause right now that sort of bucket is capturing all of those titles already with the others.

  ▶ Watch at 1:22:25

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Speaks on behalf of the sponsor, saying she is willing to remove the intern language, and asks the committee to support the favorable recommendation.

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  Thank you. Um, thank you for the lively back and forth. I do appreciate it, even if it puts me on my toes sometimes. Um, thank you to Representative Thurston for bringing up House Bill 2 81. I did pull it up and you're correct, it does not touch interns, but you know what it does say in 2 81, um, from mental health services, it includes a school psychologist, a school social worker, um, marriage and family therapist, a clinical mental health counselor. So it, it does, it does tie in to what this bill is doing. Um, the, the bill sponsor has been very clear with me that she is happy to potentially take out the intern language. …

  ▶ Watch at 1:30:23

• S.B. 297 School Social Worker Amendments · House Business, Labor, and Commerce Committee · Mar 4, 2026

  Calls the proposed amendment friendly and says the sponsor would be happy to make the change if it addresses colleagues' concerns.

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  That is a friendly amendment. I would, I'd be curious if that would alleviate some of the concerns of my colleagues. If so, then I think we're happy to make that change.

  ▶ Watch at 1:34:00

• H.B. 112 Political Advertising Amendments · Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Hayes presented H.B. 112, which adds social media, including paid influencer marketing, to political advertising disclosure rules, sets a fine schedule in place of a misdemeanor, and limits fines to one per advertisement.

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  Thank you. I'll try to use it judiciously. Thank you. Um, so this bill does two things that deal in political advertising. The first is it adds social media to the definition. Um, it's currently not in code. Um, so that would include, um, both if you are, if you're paying to run an ad so that you're, you're paying to target it. But that would also include, um, influencer marketing. So more and more we're seeing marketing happen where you pay someone with a large social media following to promote your product. Um, in this case it would be your candidacy. So it would include that in the definition as well. Um, and just to iterate, this is only …

  ▶ Watch at 1:33:35

• H.B. 112 Political Advertising Amendments · Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Hayes described a past election case in which a paid social media account promoted attacks on an opponent without disclosure.

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  Absolutely. So a couple years ago during the election cycle, we saw some influencer marketing. So, um, there was an account that was being paid and I, I know I was being paid 'cause it was in the person's disclosures, um, by a candidate to say nasty things about their opponent. Um, and then it wasn't disclosed at all. So then there were comments on this account saying, I didn't know you guys did endorsements, things like that. So we just wanna make sure that any time you're paying to promote candidacy or to disparage an opponent or things like that, that it's being disclosed like other political advertising since so much advertising is happening on social media now.

  ▶ Watch at 1:36:24

• H.B. 112 Political Advertising Amendments · Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Hayes said current code does not require a paid-for disclosure on social media advertising, unlike mailers and flyers.

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  No. 'cause it's not in code. Well, I, I, I apologize. So it was on their financial disclosures. It's not, it wasn't in the advertisement. So they're paying for advertising that we don't currently re require to have like a paid for buy on. So the same way that if you send out a flyer or a mailer, you need to say paid for by, um, committee to elect or whatever your campaign's name is. Um, that doesn't currently apply to any social media advertising.

  ▶ Watch at 1:37:09

• H.B. 112 Political Advertising Amendments · Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Hayes said unpaid posts would not be covered, while paid digital advertising would require disclosure.

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  Sure. So this would be included in paid digital advertising. So again, if you're just posting and saying, this is what happened in my committee this week. Um, my understanding too, 'cause I, when I've presented this before, people have been confused saying, isn't it already required that we put in like Boost to post? If you're, if you're paying, if you're exchanging money to advertise yourself through a digital platform, yes it would require disclosure.

  ▶ Watch at 1:40:17

• H.B. 112 Political Advertising Amendments · Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Hayes summarized that the bill clarifies existing disclosure questions in code, adds protection against attacks, and noted county clerk support.

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  Um, thank you first of all for your consideration in the questions. I, I wanna clarify if you are, uh, disseminating an ad on something like Instagram, it currently already asks who pays for it. This is, this is adding clarity to code. Um, this is already a question that's being asked. We're just trying to update it in code. Um, and it also as, um, center NU is pointing out it, it does add a layer of protection, um, against attacks against you as well. So if for some reason if, um, I wanted to say that um, my opponent smelled funny and had never showered, I would need to disclose that that was paid for by me, um, …

  ▶ Watch at 1:45:43

• S.B. 180 School Nutrition Amendments · House Education Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Rep. Hayes said the policy question is whether children should have access to free nutritious meals and argued that the bill's income threshold is a worthwhile investment.

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  Thank you, Mr. All right. I, I apologize to the sponsor on the motion to hold. Um, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know this, or, you know, the last week, I would just say this is the policy question, and I think the representative nailed down the policy question, and that is what children should have access to, to this nutritious meal at a free cost. And so that is the question. And the policy says in the bill that it should be for families that are making $60,000 or less for a family of four. And if we look at the cost of living and that right now, um, one out of 10 families in Utah facing food insecurity, …

  ▶ Watch at 44:00

• S.B. 180 School Nutrition Amendments · House Education Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Rep. Hayes said food is a basic need and that funding school meals for children is worthwhile, citing the recent government shutdown's strain on food banks.

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  Thank you. I think that, um, keeping people fed is, that's the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy, right? This is a basic level need. And when I think about the purpose of government, I think it is largely to fill needs that you cannot survive without. And food is a thing that you cannot survive without. And so I think anything, I mean, we recently saw when there was the government shutdown, just what a huge strain that put on food banks and things like that. People are dependent on feeding, and this is kids. I think we need to be, I, I, I can see nothing wrong with putting funding towards feeding kids.

  ▶ Watch at 45:23

• S.B. 180 School Nutrition Amendments · House Education Committee · Mar 3, 2026

  Rep. Hayes asked the sponsor where the bill stands in the funding process.

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  Um, and I do have a question for the sponsor, if that's okay. Do you know where this is at in the funding process?

  ▶ Watch at 46:04

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