Lawmakers may have to report conflicts of interest each year

Legislators may have to update their conflict-of-interest reports yearly.

Two resolutions, HR2 and HJR10, would clarify that conflicts need to be amended before each session to reflect things like new employment. HR2 would make the change specifically for the House, while HJR10 would clarify it for the entire Legislature.

Both bills passed the House Rules Committee unanimously Wednesday.

Sponsoring Rep. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake, said that the current rule is read by some legislators to mean that they only need to update the conflict forms every two years.

The rule changes are a far cry from previously proposed rule changes by Romero, which would have required House members to announce all conflicts before speaking. The changes were not well received during interim meetings of the House Rules Committee, however. Instead, the conflict of interest forms have been posted online at the House Web site, www.le.state.ut.us/house.