Tuition bill heads to House

After refusing to hear testimony from Latino leaders, business leaders, students and others packed into a hearing room, a House committee voted Thursday to repeal a law that allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition for college.

The House Education Committee voted 9-5 to move HB7 to the full House but not before members voiced harsh words toward federal inaction on immigration reform and concerns about legal liability.

But many of those who packed the committee room complained that only one side of the debate had been heard after the bill's sponsor, Rep. Glenn Donnelson, R-North Ogden, yielded most of his time to an out-of-state attorney.

"Only one side was allowed to speak," said Lorena Riffo-Jensen, who opposes the repeal. "That's wrong when we're dealing with people's lives. . . . It's un-American."

This is the first time the bill, sponsored by Donnelson since 2004, will be debated on the floor.

According to House rules, public comment during committee meetings is not required. Rep. Duane Bourdeaux, D-Salt Lake, had unsuccessfully moved to continue the debate until a future committee meeting so that public comment could be heard.

Committee Chairwoman Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, said, "I'm really sorry if the public is offended."

She told the crowd the committee had heard public comment on the bill at prior committee meetings — last session when the bill was moved to interim study, and during the interim when a joint Education Committee voted to support the bill.

Rep. Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, said he tried two years in a row to amend the House rules, partly to set guidelines for public comment. Becker said there should be a set guideline for how committees handle public comment.

"We are there to represent the public and believe quite strongly that creates an obligation to listen to the public," Becker said. "I have been in meetings where I was embarrassed by the way we've treated the public."

"If we can pass this through the House, and it goes to the Senate, maybe we can send a message to Congress that 'look, we have a problem,' " Donnelson said.

Donnelson gave his time in presenting the bill to Kris Kobach, lead attorney in a lawsuit filed against a similar tuition break in Kansas, and to a former University of Utah graduate student who said the law was unfair.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Evans was asked by lawmakers to explain whether Utah's law complies with federal law. Saying his office is neutral on the bill, Evans noted that existing state law "will be sustained on all grounds."

HB7 would repeal state law passed in 2002 that allows students who have lived in Utah for three years and graduated from high school, or the equivalent, to pay the same tuition rate as resident students.