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Prioritized Pandemic Policy Issues

Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide the Utah Legislature with a list of policy items to consider in
response to the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 and the multi-faceted impact it has on the state. Policy issues
are divided into four categories to show the degree of priority:

▪ Tier I: Urgent Issues That May Warrant Special Session Action

▪ Tier II: Important Issues but Not Urgent
▪ Tier III: Longer-Term Issues for Consideration
▪ Tier IV: Other Considerations That May Not Require Legislative Action

Within each tier, the policy issues are organized by subject area. Please reach out to the relevant team within
OLRGC with any questions or for more detailed information.

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND GENERAL COUNSEL

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Tier I
Urgent Issues That May Warrant Special Session Action
Government Operations:
▪ Require voter registration, and voting, to be done remotely or by mail (except as necessary for people
with disabilities). This may require changes to, or suspension of:
- In-person voter registration.
- Early voting centers.
- Election day polling places.
- Voter registration by provisional ballot during early voting or on election day.
- Requirements regarding poll watchers.
- Requirements regarding to whom ballots are mailed.
- Requirements regarding canvassers to “publicly” review reports.
- Other procedures that are required to occur “in-person”.
▪ Consider addressing signature gathering. The governor has already addressed signature gathering via
executive order.

Economic Development and Workforce Services:

▪ If possible, under federal restrictions, lessen or temporarily suspend any work and work-search related
requirements for all forms of public assistance, including unemployment insurance benefits, TANF,
and SNAP etc.
▪ Ensure applications for public assistance can be done remotely.
▪ Suspend or temporarily suspend the waiting week for unemployment insurance benefits, which
requires that a claimant is not eligible for benefits for the first eligible week claimed.
▪ Expand eligibility for child-care subsidies, particularly for essential workers with school-age kids 12
and under.
▪ Provide assistance for child-care facilities to stay open, including possibly procurement assistance for
smaller centers that may struggle to find supplies needed for operation and to meet licensing
requirements.
▪ Defer payment of Transient Room Tax, so all available funds can be used for rent, payroll etc.
▪ Provide emergency loans or grants to businesses, possibly through the Industrial Assistance Account.

Business & Labor:

▪ Temporarily prohibit evictions and foreclosures for commercial and residential properties, except in
instances of criminal nuisance.
▪ Waive able-to-work requirement for unemployment insurance for those sick from or caring for
someone sick from a pandemic illness.
▪ Review and potentially amend the state’s Price Controls During Emergencies Act if current statute is
not enforceable as intended.

Health and Human Services:

▪ Create legislative oversight of any executive branch pandemic-related task force or agency actions
and emergency management or response generally.
▪ If disparities in terms of resources or severity of outbreak exists among public health districts, create
an exception from the usual funding allocation formula for state and federal funds.
▪ Medical device bank for supplies, i.e., personal protective equipment.
▪ Extend prescribing and dispensing authority for certain experimental treatments.
▪ Adjust Medicaid funding mechanism in statute.

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND GENERAL COUNSEL

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Revenue and Taxation:
▪ Defer quarterly/monthly income tax payment.
▪ Extend personal property tax deadline.
▪ Change income tax filing deadlines to align with federal delay.
▪ Waive or modify income tax extension prepayment requirements.

Public Education:
▪ Create extensions for administrative rulemaking process.1
▪ Amend the Open and Public Meetings Act generally to allow for electronic meetings in the case of
pandemics, etc. This could be similar to legislative rule for the Legislature in 2020 GS or by allowing
local school boards to meet remotely.2
▪ Waive or modify assessments and accountability:
- State board has suspended statewide assessments for 2019-2020 but will need to be addressed
by executive order or legislation.3
- Create an exception to requirement to assign a letter grade or overall rating under certain
emergency conditions. Instead of legislation every year to exempt one year at a time, the
exception could include a change in providers, interruption in assessment, natural disasters,
school closures, etc.
- Allow USBE to not designate a school turnaround cohort for the 2019-20 school year.4
- Waive requirement to publish school report cards for the 2019-20 school year.5
▪ Protect compensation for non-teaching and non-administrative staff (hourly employees,
paraeducators, bus drivers, etc.) in schools. USBE is directing schools to keep employees employed
even if they’re doing work other than their job description.
- Authorize the State to continue pay where employees are not able to work, such as stay-at-
home orders, but do not have direct pandemic illness-related reasons for not working.6
- Require districts and charter schools to pay the employee at the employee’s regular rate of pay
for hours scheduled but not worked if school is canceled for reasons related to a pandemic or if
an employee misses work due to a possible pandemic infection, effective from date of
enactment and retroactively to the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. 7

Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology:

▪ Maintain strong virtual networks and infrastructure:
- Ensure that any “essential workers” designation is also bestowed upon public utilities
employees and UT telecom providers that are classified as Internet Service Providers rather
than public utilities.
- Acknowledge FCC's "Keep Americans Connected Initiative" through resolution and also call
on all private providers and public utilities communications providers to sign on to the FCC's
Initiative, if they have not done so already. Regulators are in the process of trying to determine
which Utah telecom providers have pledged to accept the FCC initiative. Since many telecom

1
Recommendation of the Utah State Board of Education.
2
U.C.A. § 53G-4-202.
3
U.C.A. § 53E-4-303, -304, -305, and -407.
4
Recommendation of the Utah State Board of Education.
5
Recommendation of the Utah State Board of Education.
6
Recommendation of Terry Shoemaker, Executive Director, Utah School Superintendents’ Association/Utah School Boards
Association.
7
Minn. S.F. 4639/H.F. 4415 (2020).
 4
providers are not regulated by the PSC, this is a place that legislative action might be more
necessary--think rural broadband access for telehealth, charges for increased teleworking, etc.8

Transportation:
▪ Provide a grace period to extend the validity of licenses that must be renewed in person to keep people
from having to go to the Driver License Division (DLD) and put themselves and others at risk since
once every 16 years, a person has to renew in-person at the DLD. Regardless of what the state does,
an expired driver license will not be valid ID for boarding a flight or some other uses for
identification.
▪ For motor vehicle registration:
- Provide an affirmative defense or “fix it” ticket for a person driving with expired registration.
If the person obtains the emissions inspection and registers the vehicle within a certain time
frame (which could vary based on the health emergency), the person would not have to pay a
fine for the violation.
- Some vehicles in some areas are required to have an emissions inspection prior to registering
the vehicle. Provide a moratorium on that emissions test requirement to allow for social
distancing practices but still allow the individual to register their vehicle. This option has some
federal preemption issues, though.

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice:

▪ Evaluate and possibly update healthcare standards and responses for jails and prisons. Jails and
prisons are likely to be especially vulnerable to outbreaks, so tests and proper screening and
quarantine recommendations for those released are likely necessary to keep internal outbreaks at bay
and minimize the effects of the outbreak outside the facility.
▪ Similarly, efforts to reduce the number of new inmates can help lower the likelihood that an infected
individual will bring the virus into a facility. Such measures might include expanding the discretion of
judges regarding mandatory minimums.

Political Subdivisions:
▪ Repeal or limit county and local health department powers to issue a shelter-in-place order.
- Alternatively, codify shelter-in-place order regulations for local opt-in—this could include
guidance for law enforcement.
▪ Expand teleworking capabilities for state employees.
▪ Shelter-in-place concerns:
- Toll or modify city/county land use deadlines.
- Toll or modify city/town/county budget requirements.
- Toll or modify municipal annexation deadlines.

8
Recommendation of the Office of Consumer Services.
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Tier II
Important Issues but Not Urgent
Government Operations:
Require voter registration and voting to be done remotely or by mail, except as necessary for people with
disabilities. This may require changes to or suspension of:
▪ In-person voter registration.
▪ Early voting centers.
▪ Election day polling places.
▪ Voter registration by provisional ballot during early voting or on election day.
▪ Requirements regarding poll watchers.
▪ Requirements regarding to whom ballots are mailed.
▪ Requirements regarding canvassers to “publicly” review reports.
▪ Other procedures that are required to occur “in-person”.

Economic Development and Workforce Services:

▪ Lengthen periods of eligibility for public assistance, including SNAP, TANF, and possibility
unemployment insurance.
▪ Seek waiver to adjust deadlines, if needed, for participants to reenroll in SNAP.
▪ Provide retraining to displaced workers for high demand occupations, possibly through Utah Works.9

Health and Human Services:

▪ Expand SafeUT statewide crisis intervention application or the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team—
particularly with vulnerable populations, including those recently released from incarceration.
▪ Facilitate or coordinate protective gear supply stockpiles.
▪ Address telehealth services if gaps in current law emerge.
▪ Address surprise billing as it relates to pandemic illness cases.
▪ Support public health measures to “spread the word” about containment.
▪ Address the effects of freeing up prison and jails on (1) substance use disorder treatment and (2)
Medicaid capacity.
▪ Extend limited Medicaid coverage, including Primary Care Network.

Revenue and Taxation:

▪ Distribute state money to individuals.
▪ Provide business assistance or loans.
▪ Prohibit fines and fees.
▪ Create workshare program to allow partial unemployment claims by those whose hours are reduced.
▪ Increase sales tax vendor discount as mechanism to provide business assistance.
▪ Offer no-interest state loans.
▪ Delay the remittance of sales tax for 90 days.

Retirement:
▪ Have URS continue close communications with the RIE Committee, Leadership, and the Legislature.
Have URS and the Legislature/RIE Committee work together this Interim and beyond to see what
retirement challenges we will likely face and develop appropriate options to address them. Retirement
issues have very long-term impacts and policy decisions need to be based on careful evaluation of
potential options, sound financial and actuarial information and impacts, and careful analysis of many
legal constraints and risks both at the state and federal levels.

9
Recommendation of Talent Ready Utah Center.

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND GENERAL COUNSEL

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Business & Labor:
▪ Sick leave:
- Pay for sick leave for employees affected by a pandemic illness in addition to sick leave
offered through federal packages.
- Mandate paid sick leave.
- Provide tax credit for businesses that offer paid sick leave.
- Encourage employers not to require a doctor’s notice for use of sick leave.
- Prohibit an employer from firing an employee for absence due to quarantine or being sick
during a pandemic emergency.
▪ Low-interest loans or grants to hotels with a requirement that hotels:
- Provide housing for homeless during a pandemic emergency to help stop spread of virus.
- Provide medical beds for overextended hospitals.
▪ Require state financial institutions to defer payments for at least 90 days:
- Payments as extensions to leases or contracts.
- No late fines/penalties.
▪ Prohibit state financial institutions from charging interest or late fees for payments during this time,
which would include prohibiting payday lenders, etc. from charging interest or fees on a loan during
emergency.
▪ Provide grants and loans to small businesses affected by a pandemic: grants to help cover working
capital (consider setting a grant cap) and loans available at a low interest rate (set minimum-maximum
loan amount, i.e., Michigan Small Business Relief Program).
▪ Allow restaurants to sell alcoholic products for customers to take home or be delivered to home.
Alcoholic products are a big revenue stream for restaurants and other businesses but are not allowed
off premises for take-out, etc.
- Alternatively, allow restaurants to return alcohol purchased from DABC for a full refund.
▪ Allow beer to be delivered to home with other groceries.

Public Education:
▪ Compulsory education and absenteeism
- Consider whether the criminal penalties of compulsory education, which is based on
attendance, should apply to parents if they do not ensure their children complete required
remote education requirements during a pandemic.10
▪ Create flexibility in the use of the Capital Local Levy and funds in the Capital Outlay Programs.11
▪ Amend deadlines for local reports to USBE, state auditor, and for reports to the Legislature.12
▪ Amend minimum standards for the graduation requirements the State Board sets for the 2019-2020
school year.13
▪ Allow for flexibility in the use of restricted funds to allow for the provisions of the same or similar
services remotely, i.e., special ed aides providing services to special ed students, or using funds to pay

10
See U.C.A. Title 53G, Chapter 6, Part 2.
11
U.C.A § 53F-8-303 (Capital Local Levy); U.C.A. Title 53F, Chapter 3, Part 2 (Capital Outlay Programs).
12
E.g. U.C.A § 53G-4-404; § 53E-1-201, -202, -203; and § 53B-1-301.
13
Board Rule under U.C.A. § 53E-4-204. Also see, Wash. H.B. 2965 (2020), which allows school districts to apply to the state board
for waivers to graduation requirements for students on-track to graduate in the 2019-2020 school year but cannot meet current
requirements due to school closures.
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special ed aides to remain employed but potentially doing slightly different work from their job
descriptions.14
- Legislation that would allow this flexibility under certain circumstances or within parameters
could include:
o Transportation
o LAND Trust
o TSSA
o Special Education - State allocation15
- Consider amending Utah Code Section 53F-2-203 to provide flexibility just for the 2020 and
2021 fiscal years, i.e., for circumstances other than an education budget deficit.
▪ State recognition for new leave provisions related to pandemic absences.16
▪ Designate all education employees as essential service workers, including educators and education
support professionals.17

Higher Education:
▪ Allow carry-over for the Utah Promise Scholarship for at least one year since carry-over from one
fiscal year to the next for unused funds is currently not permitted and institutions anticipate being
unable to exhaust funding available, given the current shut down.
- State aid/scholarship programs that have the specific requirements outlined in the statute (vs.
Administrative Rule or Board policy) prohibits USHE and UTech from making exceptions and
being flexible with students when they are unable to maintain scholarship eligibility in urgent
situations like this.18

Transportation:
▪ Add a host rider to transit vehicles to encourage and facilitate separation between riders. Train hosts
are available on some trains but not all. This could also be a negative for smaller vehicles, though,
because that is one more body on the vehicle, so signage might be a better option for buses.
▪ Consider limiting capacities of buses or trains. This may also require increased frequency of vehicles,
so passengers aren’t stranded at stops for extended periods if a vehicle is already at capacity.
▪ Consider public transportation sanitation standards. UTA is already making efforts to disinfect
surfaces of stops and vehicles, but perhaps more could be done.
▪ Consider how to keep rest stops open, clean, and disinfected since UDOT’s website indicates that all
their services are still up and running and rest stops have been a concern on social media
▪ Consider sanitation standards for the scooters and green bikes downtown and other ride shares like
Uber and Lyft.

Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology:

▪ No statute or policy changes identified by the Public Service Commission at this point, to address
service terminations (for RMP or Dominion) during an emergency, but, the legislature might want to

14
Recommendation of Royce VanTassell, seeking authority for charter schools to expend funds, Terry Shoemaker, Executive
Director, Utah School Superintendents’ Association/Utah School Boards Association.
15
Recommendation of Terry Shoemaker, Executive Director, Utah School Superintendents’ Association/Utah School Boards
Association.
16
Recommendation of Terry Shoemaker, Executive Director, Utah School Superintendents’ Association/Utah School Boards
Association.
17
Recommendation of UEA.
18
Recommendation of USHE and Utech.
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inquire of the municipal and cooperative utilities to ensure that customers of those utilities have
similar protections.
▪ Encourage outreach measures by the Division of Public Utilities, the Office of Consumer Services,
and Division of Consumer Protection (all within Dept of Commerce) to consumers on low-income
programs for public utilities (UTAP (a.k.a. "Lifeline") program, Utah Universal Service Fund, service
disconnection/non-payment waivers, etc.) and coronavirus scams (https://www.fcc.gov/covid-scams).
Funding would be needed for administration.19

Political Subdivisions:
▪ Allow for additional paid leave for state employees.
▪ Modify city/county council vacancy requirements in situation where a quorum cannot be convened.
- Local budget issues, including disbursement of federal/state funding to political subdivisions.
▪ Delay payment of property taxes (more of a tax issue but has impact on local budgeting).

Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment:

▪ Identify professions that should be classified as “essential employees,” and clarify what that term
means and what protections/obligations they would have.
▪ Suspend fees on hunting and fishing licenses to get more people out into nature. The legislature may
want to act quickly because of social distancing issues with congregating too many people at fishing
locations. There may also be an impact on rural communities’ infrastructure.
▪ Eliminate or suspend fees for state parks to help people engage in outdoor social distancing. The
legislature may want to act quickly; some popular national parks closed during the pandemic because
they could not enforce social distancing practices. There may also be an impact on rural communities’
infrastructure.
▪ Reduce regulations on oil, gas, and mining operations. (LRGC is keeping a list of stakeholder-
requested rule changes).
▪ Change Utah Code Subsection 73-3-10(2) to allow the Division of Water Rights to send decisions
electronically. The statute currently requires the division to send decisions by mail.

Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice:

▪ Strengthen anti-fraud measures to make sure scammers using pandemic fears are aggressively
targeted. The FBI has begun targeting such scams, but state authorities may also want to focus on this.
▪ Temporarily suspend the fines associated with an expired license. This most likely could be done at
the executive level but there may be some elements that require a legislative response.

19
Recommendation of Office of Consumer Services.
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Tier III
Longer-Term Issues for Consideration
Government Operations:
▪ Revisit the grant of emergency power for the governor to suspend enforcement of statute as well as
the separate grant of power to the lieutenant governor regarding elections during emergencies.

Business & Labor:

▪ Provide for curbside pickup of alcoholic products at state stores and package agencies.
▪ Allow political subdivisions to enact rent freezes for up to two years.
▪ Authorize the state to buy gift certificates from restaurants to provide food to the homeless.

Health and Human Services:

▪ Permit mobile “pop up pharmacies” in emergencies for underserved areas—pharmacies usually
required to be at a single physical location, so mobile pharmacies are not allowed.
▪ Increase planning and preparedness for a COVID-19 resurgence in the fall.
▪ Allow and encourage all health care facilities—including non-essential medical services, like family
practice clinics—to continue to treat patients (limitation is in place to preserve personal protective
equipment).
▪ Address delivery of prescriptions to elderly and at-risk if any gaps in existing law have emerged.
▪ Expand opportunities for volunteer health care providers if any gaps in existing law have emerged.

Public Education:
▪ Consider a stimulus program creating jobs for people to work remotely with students, possibly one-
on-one.
▪ Encourage partnerships with local technology companies.
▪ Consider implications of remote learning on student data privacy.
▪ Allow a student who loses home due to financial issues related to pandemic to retain residency in the
school district.20
▪ Add public health concerns as an allowable reason for a local school board or charter school to not
allow the use a school building as a civic center21 Add public health concerns as an allowable reason
for a local school board or charter school to not allow the use a school building as a civic center.22
▪ Expand online, digital, and competency-based learning programs, including:
- Digital teaching and learning grants program23
o Increase funding.
o Relax/amend grant application, reporting, and implementation progress requirements
for the 2019-2020 school year.
- Competency-based education24
o Allow school districts to retroactively establish a competency-based education program
for the 2019-2020 school year.
▪ Allow districts to use remote or virtual instruction to meet the state’s school-day requirement.25

20
U.C.A. § 53G-6-302.
21
U.C.A. § 53G-7-210.
22
U.C.A. § 53G-7-210.
23
U.C.A. § 53F-2-510.
24
U.C.A. § 53G-7-215.
25
New Jersey S. 2027 (2020).

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND GENERAL COUNSEL

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▪ Requests from UEA:
- “A Temporary funding of $2,000 per kid in any accredited private school. (Private schools
obviously save the state tens of millions of dollars a year, someone could put a number on
this)”26 (raises constitutional issue).
- “Use restaurants to provide meals to children who were dependent on meals provided during
their school hours. Restaurants could be paid from the school lunch liquor funds.27 (implicates
constitutional issue, schools are currently providing meals).
- Waiver on deadlines for evaluation, performance plans, teacher nonrenewals, contract
deadlines in regard to hiring, and other requirements that may not be feasible and which apply
to teacher employment.
- Some enabling language for the State Board to enact waivers in regard to certain crucial issues
during a time of crisis in the future.
- Additional school funding resources to address the equity issues involved in the “homework
gap,” i.e., the differences in resources available to students statewide based upon their zip
codes and other issues that impact the ability of students to continue learning and teachers to
reach such students on a statewide basis.
- Address the following in upcoming special sessions:
o Additional constitutional language in S.R.J. 9 which would reinforce importance of
making public school funding a top priority of the state of Utah;
o Some statutory guardrails for the statutory funding mechanism for the funding of
growth and inflation (pursuant to H.B. 357); and
o A guarantee of the 6% funding of the weighted pupil unit going forward into the next
fiscal year.
- Provide protection for teachers who have now been compelled to utilized personal cell phones
and individual resources to communicate with students directly and individually, including
immunity from any charges or claims arising from teachers being compelled to reasonably
communicate with students in regard to learning and school attendance.
- Reform regarding the pendency of teacher disciplinary actions.

Higher Education:
▪ Implement at the state level similar federal Department of Education guidelines to colleges and
universities, along with accrediting agencies, that give regulatory flexibility to institutions to
temporarily move programs online.
▪ Utah has existing state workforce development programs through higher education institutions and
technical colleges and that could be amended or scaled to train people who are unemployed due to
coronavirus. Existing programs that can be scaled or broadened to train more people include:
- Scholarship programs for individuals to pursue industry certificates:
o Section 53B-2a-116, Technical College Scholarships
o Section 53B-8-115, Career and Technical Education Scholarships
- Programs to train people for specific industries that could be tailored to industries needed for a
pandemic response:
o Title 53B, Chapter 26, Part 2, Nursing Initiative
o Title 53B, Chapter 26, Part 1, Strategic Workforce Investment
- General scholarship programs that can be used to provide economic stimulus
o Title 53B, Chapter 8, Part 3, Access Utah Promise Scholarships

26
Recommendation of Rep. Handy.
27
Recommendation of Utah Restaurant Association.
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- Incentive loan programs for specific industries that could be tailored to industries needed for
coronavirus response:
o Title 53B, Chapter 10, Part 1, Terrel H. Bell Teaching Incentive Loan Program
o Title 53B, Chapter 10, Part 2, Talent Development Incentive Loan Program

Revenue and Taxation:

▪ Provide fast track tax refunds.
▪ Suspend the restaurant tax.
▪ Forgive tax payments.
▪ Create flexibility in use of Capital Local Levy.
▪ Help get federal money to low income residents.

Political Subdivisions:
▪ Add services related to coronavirus response/recovery to Special Service District and Local District
allowable services.
▪ Suspend state agency fines.

Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology:

▪ Oil prices being down, that industry is going to have a hard time as they have started laying people off
because of prices; also, transportation (of fuels) will have to be evaluated later.28
▪ A lot of study nationwide is going into evaluating the load impacts of the current situation. At this
preliminary point, we don't know enough about it to recommend whether any rules or statutory
changes are appropriate. We expect RMP and DEU will address the issue in future filings with us.
First, the utilities' forbearance will likely lead to increased bad debt expense. Historically this is a
relatively small number, but it does peak in times of recession. Exactly what that increase and its
timing look like is not yet clear. There is talk among utilities of seeking some sort of deferral for those
expenses. In essence, they will later ask for ratepayers to collectively cover some or all of the
increased bad debt expense caused by an unforeseeable event. This is a stay-tuned item. The line
between unforeseeable event that ratepayers should cover and business risk for which the utility is
compensated can be a fine one.29 We have already heard rumblings of some labor effects at coal mines
that, if persistent or deeper, might affect coal supplies for power plants. Those mines contractual
obligations might not be able to be fully met. If that's the case, and the plant-side coal reserves are
insufficient, it might make sense to prioritize coal use for power generation (as opposed to contracts
for other uses, export, etc). The governor has ample power under the Energy Emergency Powers of
the Governor Act.30

Native American:
▪ Provide one time-funding to each of Utah’s tribes to specifically address unique health and education
challenges related directly to a pandemic.

Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment:

▪ Reduce regulations on farm-to-home food sales.

28
Recommendation of Sen. Winterton, PUET Chair.
29
Recommendation of Public Service Commission, Division of Public Utilities, Office of Consumer Services.
30
Recommendation of the Division of Public Utilities.
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Tier IV
Other Considerations That May Not Require Legislative
▪ Action
The Judiciary has taken some steps to try to reduce exposure by moving things to teleconferencing or
suspending jury trials. May want to suggest reaching out to Chief Justice Durrant and see if legislative
support is needed. Some ideas:
- Possibly extending the statute of limitations for civil and criminal actions to maybe reduce the
number of actions filed. This has been an issue raised in other states as courts are moving to
suspend or delay actions.
- Resources for courts to possibly move more hearings to phone or teleconferencing. The courts
are trying to implement this, but it may worth seeing if resources are needed because
technology is generally an issue for the courts.
▪ Have legislators exercise their political and social capital and passing on public health messages to
constituents and then to trust those professionals. The state’s epidemiology shop is nationally top-of-
class, and there is a chance that asking for unimportant statistics and projections can do more harm than
good.
▪ Health and human service items where state action may not be feasible because federal action is needed
include:
- Increase child welfare case timelines.
- Address the availability of domestic violence and child welfare resources.
- Reopen enrollment in health care exchanges, which are run by the federal government for Utahns
and, therefore, cannot be opened without federal action. Change in employment status is already
a “qualifying event” that allows enrollment mid-year.
▪ Possible State Board actions include:
- State board is applying for a waiver of federal assessment and accountability requirements (the
request process requires a public comment period that ends April
21 https://usbe.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3dzqLqtcrFb02PP)
- State board may need to consider the impact of school closures and assessment suspension in:
o defining the final remedial year and exit criteria for schools currently in turnaround.
(HB420 and 53E-5-306) (includes charter schools)
o school accountability plans for charter schools (53G-5-406)
- Amend graduation requirements for the 2019-2020 school year (board rule under 53E-4-204)
- Work with UBHE to ensure consensus on the concept of “completion” of concurrent
enrollment courses (53E-10-302)
- Amend deadlines for reports from LEAs to USBE
- Guidance from the DOE re: providing services to students with
disabilities: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/memosdcltrs/qa-covid-19-03-12-
2020.pdf
- State Board has waived minimum school day and instructional time requirements
o Iowa, S.F. 2408 (passed 3/17/2020): Waives the state’s minimum school-day and
instructional time requirements for schools closed on or before April 12, 2020 to prevent
the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
▪ Possible Utah Board of Higher Education action: Work with USBE to ensure consensus on the concept
of “completion” of concurrent enrollment courses31
▪ Technical College feedback:
- Anticipating a significant decrease in 4th quarter data (with lingering issues in the 1st and
2nd quarters next fiscal year and performance funding) including:

31
U.C.A. § 53E-10-302.

OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND GENERAL COUNSEL

 13
o enrollment with the temporary shut-down that will vary in extent between institutions;
and
o student job placement, given an economic downturn.
- Will not reach projected tuition and fee revenues.
- Subsequent enrollment increase: people displaced through this unprecedented event and
economic downturn will result in students returning to school.
▪ URS has been working with the governor’s office about an emergency Executive Order and Retirement
Board Resolution that would allow certain URS retiree to become temporarily reemployed by
participating employers to ensure adequate staffing of Critical Government Functions during the
governor’s declared state of emergency for COVID-19. This would prevent qualifying retirees to not
have their retirement allowances cancelled if they don’t have a one-year separation from their retirement
date. Do not recommend any action on post-retirement rules or items to study for a special session. Post-
retirement rules are annually a popular item for many stakeholders, but issues can be studied in the
interim as needed.
▪ The 880-page federal CARES Act passed the Senate 96-0 last night and is expected to pass the House on
Friday morning. This bill has provisions on penalty-free withdrawals from retirement accounts and a
temporary waiver of Required Minimum Distributions. If this bill passes, URS will take the steps to
implement these federal law changes, but legislative action is not required.