Committee members advanced a bill increasing the transparency of the names of those who sign public contracts.

 

House Bill 1100, which requires a name be printed on public contracts, passed the House State Affairs committee by a unanimous vote on Monday (1/22) and the House of Representatives passed the bill on a 65-1 vote.

 

Rep. Susan Wismer, prime sponsor of HB 1100, testified at the committee hearing that during her time serving on the legislature’s Government Operations and Audit Committee she noticed while reviewing public contracts the “printed name did not show up on the signature line” making it difficult to tell who had signed the document.

 

She added it is “important for (the) public to identify who is signing public contracts.”

 

“This is a pretty simple, straightforward, common sense change,” Rep. Larry Rhoden said of HB 1100.

 

An amendment to the bill introduced on the House floor added that failure to comply with the printed name requirement did not void the terms or purpose of the contract. There is no penalty included within the bill should a printed name not be included within the contract.

 

For updates on HB 1100 and other pieces of legislation, check the ASBSD Blog, Bill Tracker page and Twitter feed.