The upcoming state legislative session
On Jan. 17, lawmakers will flock to the Utah State Capitol. The quiet marble hallways will be filled with the clack of heels and dress shoes as representatives make laws that affect students’ personal and educational lives.
Henry Wright, a former state legislative intern, said students can expect to see bills ranging from water issues to higher education appropriations in this hurried 45-day legislative session.
“It’s a whirlwind of 45 days of legislators trying to get laws passed,” Wright said. “I know there’s a lot of things going on right now about water issues, the Great Salt Lake, a lot of higher ed bills and potentially DEI stuff.”
The full legislative docket is available on the Utah Legislature’s website, le.utah.gov, and can be viewed by anyone. Some released bills include an amendment to the Higher Education for Incarcerated Youth program, which, if enacted, would “include youth held in certain types of detention, and makes technical and conforming changes,” as stated in the bill’s summary.
Other released bills include Cannabis Business Tax Credit Amendment, Firearm Reporting Requirements and Salary Supplement for School Speech-language Pathologists and Audiologists.
Beau Jenson, a former intern for Sen. Kathleen Riebe, said the legislature is critical for the function of everyday life.
“The state legislature is pretty much the sole vocal body in determining the laws and regulations that every career has to go through in Utah,” Jenson said. “How students will go on to raise their families, what their kids will learn, where they will be able to live, what parks they will be able to enjoy … All of these things are in the Utah State Code. You would think that a lot of this would be done by the federal government, but it’s notoriously in a gridlock.”
According to the Utah State Constitution, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives must jointly convene the legislature into session if a poll conducted by each shows two-thirds of all legislators agree to convene the session.
Senators set five requests for legislative priority, and representatives are given four legislative priority requests, pending some exceptions found in the legislative rules, section JR4-2-102.
However, Jenson said lawmaking doesn’t immediately start on the first day.
“The first day is very ceremonial,” Jenson said. “That’s very different from what the end of the session looks like. The last day of the session is working tooth and nail to grind every last bill out. They have to be done by midnight on the last day of the legislative session.”
Jenson said the hard deadline is due to the fact that Utah has a citizen legislature with an extremely limited session that lasts only 45 days.
“We spent the least amount of time legislating than any other state. So that’s why Utah’s legislative session is such a big deal: it goes by so fast, and there’s so much to do in such little time,” Jenson said. “Almost all of our legislators have some type of day job. A lot of them are lawyers and developers, but we also have teachers and nurses, doctors and stay-at-home moms, piano teachers — just normal people.”
Wright said he saw firsthand how responsive representatives were.
“Most legislators are willing to engage with students that they represent,” Wright said. “You can send them an email if you have a question about what’s going on or have a specific policy that you enjoy or you don’t want to have passed. Most of the time, they’ll email you back.”