Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday vetoed two bills that were passed by the 2026 Utah Legislature earlier this year.
They included:
- HB462, sponsored by Rep. Tiara Auxier, R-Morgan, which would have used about $325,000 to create a grant program for rural school districts to put Wi-Fi on school buses
- HB164, sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, who sought to require health care providers and their employees to tell a patient how to file a complaint with Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing if the patient expresses concerns about a provider’s conduct. It would have also required disclosures to a patient before a doctor could enter into a settlement agreement that precludes a patient from filing a complaint with DOPL.
Cox explained his reasoning for the vetoes in a letter to lawmakers.
In that letter, Cox said he vetoed Auxier’s bill because he’s concerned about “signaling to our students that we value more time spent on devices rather than more time interacting with one another face-to-face.”
As for Gricius’ bill, the governor said he vetoed it because it would have conflicted with provisions in another bill lawmakers also passed, SB117, which he said “better accomplishes the stated intent.”
Cox, in his letter, also explained his misgivings about a bill that the Legislature passed a second time after he vetoed an earlier version last year, but that he would allow it to become law without his signature because of legislators’ persistence.
That bill is HB195, sponsored by Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan, which allows the state to deal in “precious metals” like gold and silver and requires state leaders to create a precious metals-backed electronic payment system the state can use to pay vendors.
Read the full report at UtahNewsDispatch.com.
