The House Rules Committee declined to take action on the bill sponsored by Pleasant Grove Republican Rep. Craig Frank Wednesday night. Rep. Becky Lockhart, the committee chairwoman, has sole authority to revive the bill this session but said she would not.

Frank, who carried the bill on behalf of the conservative Sutherland Institute, wanted certain bills to include information on how the law would strengthen the stability of a family, affect the authority and rights of parents and assist the family to "perform its function."

None of the terms was defined, which set up potential problems in interpretation, said Salt Lake City Republican Rep. Jim Dunnigan. "How are they going to determine how it's going to help my family?" he asked. "I like the concept. I just think it's so subjective I don't know how they're going to be able to do this legitimately."

Frank said the family impact analysis could be at least as useful as fiscal notes. Whether a bill received such treatment would be up to legislative leaders, committee chairpersons or bill sponsors, he said.

But committee members said House Joint Resolution 2 would have required legislative staffers to make judgments better left to psychiatrists or sociologists.

"That's not what we're really good at," said Michael Christensen, director of the legislative research and council office.

Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, worried that a legislative staffer with non-Utah perspectives might "come in here and start to write totally different from how anyone here would think." He cited people from New York or Pittsburgh as examples, to the amusement of committee members.

Besides, he said, figuring out family impacts is the responsibility of lawmakers. "This is why we were elected," he said.

Lockhart, R-Provo, cast the sole vote against letting the bill die. After the meeting, she said she promised Frank she would support the bill.