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House Judiciary

Wednesday, April 15, 2026·1h 11m·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Judiciary Committee advanced two bills on a single day: Senate Bill 85, coordinating military and civilian protection orders in domestic violence cases, passed unanimously 10-0 after a sequencing fix was adopted; House Bill 1283, prohibiting employer seizure of identification documents, passed on a narrow 6-5 vote despite bipartisan concerns over vague language and unresolved drafting issues.

Key Actions

·SB 85 – Military/Civilian Protection Order CoordinationPassed

Controversies

SB 85 — sequencing of steps for officers checking military protection orders

Representative Soper argued the bill as written required officers to first determine whether a person is military before checking the NCIC database, which is 'worded a little bit backwards' from actual practice, and warned a defense attorney could argue officers violated the law by checking the database first. Chief Dingfelder countered that the bill 'would work perfectly fine' and 'wouldn't cause any undue burden.' Amendment L003 incorporated a reasonable suspicion standard that appeared to resolve the issue.

+ 3 more controversies

Notable Quotes

“A military protection order, otherwise known as an MPO, is an order issued by a commanding officer to protect victims by restricting a service member's actions and movements. These orders typically arise from situations involving interpersonal violence, sexual assault and harassment. When a commander issues an MPO, military law enforcement enters it into the FBI's National Crime Information center database, the NCIC. The problem is that MPOs are only enforceable on a military installation, leaving a dangerous gap in protection for victims.”

Michelle Reichardt, Regional Liaison, Defense State Liaison Office — Reichardt was explaining the core problem SB 85 is designed to address — that military protection orders have no force off a military installation, leaving domestic violence victims unprotected in civilian settings.

+ 4 more quotes

Votes

Amendment L003 to SB 85 (incorporating reasonable suspicion standard and correcting sequencing of officer steps)Passed
SB 85 as amended — favorable recommendation to Committee of the WholePassed
Yes (7)Espenoza, Garcia, Ricks, Soper, Zokai [Yara Zokaie, Carter, Mr. Chair [Javier Mabrey
Absent (1)Bacon — Excused
Amendment L008 to HB 1283 (changing retention limit from 24 to 10 hours, adding civil cause of action, raising mens rea threshold)Passed
Yes (6)Bacon, Espenoza, Garcia, Ricks, Carter, Mr. Chair [Javier Mabrey
No (1)Soper
HB 1283 as amended — favorable recommendation to Committee of the WholePassed
Yes (6)Bacon, Garcia, Ricks, Zocai [Yara Zokaie, Carter, Mr. Chair [Javier Mabrey
No (2)Espenoza, Soper
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TranscriptPreview
Miss Shipley, call the roll. Representatives Bacon. Oh Espinoza. Linnell, Garcia here with so much energy. Kelty Here. Ricks. Sorry brother. Very present Sloth here. Soper here. Okay, somewhat Present. Carter present. Mr. Chair here. All right committee members, we're going to start with Majority Leader Durant actually. Rep. Hartsuk. Thank you Mr. Chair. Good evening. Committee. We have a very simple bill in front of you so Senate Bill 85 that you're looking at. What this bill does is more of a coordination between local law enforcement and military law enforcement. Currently right now in the state we don't have a system and what we have is a lot of MOUs that exist around installations between local law enforcement and military law enforcement. For when there's an incident that is off base that involves a military person, then they deal with that. They usually notify the on base personnel and and then it's determined what is the extent, how do they want to handle that. What this bill is specifically saying regarding domestic violence of assault, if that happens and local law enforcement responds and they determine that one of the individuals that is in the domestic violence incident…
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