Senators are getting a bit humorless about being paperless.
Business was held up intermittently and halted altogether about 4 p.m. Wednesday because of problems that computer tech Greg Johnson hasn't yet divined.
For the umpteenth time this session, several lawmakers' computer terminals couldn't access the virtual versions of bills before them. Even when they would come up, they would as often as not suddenly disappear.
The Senate, unlike the glitch-free House, had been flying blind for several minutes Wednesday morning and had passed a few minor pieces of legislation based on sponsor's live descriptions of their bills when Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, apparently put out that his shadow was all he was seeing in the screen in front of him, rose and asked that their work stop until the computers could be fixed.
"We need to be very, very careful that we don't pass bills that we have not read properly," he said.
Until the problem is fixed, lawmakers are ready to rely on old-fashioned but historically reliable hard copies of bills in binders.