We have passed the time were legislators can no longer simply submit bills, yes the madness has, somewhat, come to an end…well, except for the boxcars.

For those of you who don’t know, a “boxcar” is a bill that has been “numbered and titled” but does not have anything in it. In other words, if you think of a bill as a book, a boxcar would be one with a cover and a title, but contain nothing but blank pages. Legislators do this for two main reasons – either they want to delay time to mount opposition to a bill or they have not lined up enough support to pass a bill…yet.  In either case, boxcars are scary things because we know that the legislator is up to something, but all we have is a bill title that will only leave us guessing.

It is for this reason that I would like to draw your attention to the following bill titles that hold plenty of interest, but are lacking in actual substance:

HB 329 – Campaign Finance Amendments, B. Ferry
HB 358 – Voting by Mail, N. Hansen
HB 360 – Public Education Grants, K. Sumsion
HB 368 – Election Day Voting Centers, R. Chavez-Houck
HB 372 – Wrongful Death of Unborn Child, C. Wimmer
HB 405 – Transportation Surcharge, D. Ipson
HB 415 – Email Communications, K. Powell
HB 432 – Hate Crime Amendments, S. Sandstrom
HB 433 – Foreign Exchange Student Amendments, C. Wimmer
HB 376 – Monkeys as Pets, C. Herrod
HB 392 – Zero Based Budgets for State Agencies, C. Frank
SB 187 - Requirements for Initiative and Referenda Circulation, W. Niederhauser
SB 193 – Redistricting Advisory Committee, C. Bramble
SB 204 – Mid-Term Vacancy Amendments, B. McAdams
SB 215 – Transportation Revisions, B. McAdams
SB 226 – Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Amendments, C. Bramble
SB 227 – State Energy Amendments, C. Bramble
SB 233 – Wolf Management Act, A. Christensen
SB 255 – State Symbols Amendments, G. Davis
SB 261 – Ethics Amendments, S. Jenkins

At the time of publishing, all of these bills sit silent – if something changes and is interesting, I will be sure to let you know.