LEGISLATIVE REPORT: WEEK 1

Hello from Capitol Hill. The 2025 Legislative Session of the 66th Legislature began this week and we’ve hit the ground running. The 45-day annual Session allows for a true citizen legislature. Each January, teachers, engineers, farmers, attorneys, ranchers, accountants, retirees, real estate agents, and more come together from every corner of the state to serve in the Legislature. Such a variety of backgrounds, expertise and experiences bring real-world perspectives as policies and budgets are debated and voted upon.

I consider it a tremendous privilege and sacred trust to serve and represent you. Our Founding Fathers envisioned government of the people, for the people, and by the people on ALL levels. Elected officials are not in charge of our state. We, the people, are in charge. I invite you to come to the Capitol or virtually join a committee meeting and share your concerns and recommendations as a bill is debated. You may also email or text me your ideas, concerns, and recommendations so that together we can make Utah even better for our families, businesses, and communities.

Exclusive Invitation Just For You: Family Night At the Capitol

I would like to personally invite each of you to the Capitol for a special event I’m hosting just for our House District 63. Here are all the details. RSVP quickly as space is limited.

RSVP HERE

Helpful Resources For You

There are many free and easy to use resources to stay informed and involved during the legislative session. At the website le.utah.gov, you’ll find the following:

Daily interactive calendar
Listing of all bills
Interactive budget showing how our taxes are used throughout the state
Bill tracking (sign up to be notified whenever anything happens to a bill that is of interest to you)
And many other useful details.

Locals on the Hill

This week our communities were represented very well on Capitol Hill with our mayors, city councils, youth city councils and their advisors. Their combined vision, leadership, and involvement is critical on local and statewide issues. Our future is bright with the next generation of leaders who are serving on our youth city councils. It was also a privilege to be with the 5th graders from Rees Elementary in Spanish Fork and their amazing teachers and parents. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to me this week.

State of the State Address

It was an honor to be in the House Chamber last night when Governor Spencer Cox gave his annual State of the State Address. In case you missed his remarks, you can watch/read them here.

Policy Priorities This Legislative Session

During this legislative session, we will pass policies that address today’s problems and create generational benefits for our local neighborhoods and the entire state.

Beginning with Utah’s early inhabitants, explorers, and pioneers, the people of Utah have always acted boldly to secure a bright and prosperous future. Today, Utah enjoys an elite economy, abundant natural resources, and unmatched opportunity. No wonder we are one of the nation’s fastest growing states.

During the next 45-days, we will stay true to Utah’s core values. Our focus on families, common-sense solutions, fiscal prudence, and long-term thinking remains foundational to our success and prosperity. With your input and involvement, we’re focusing on policies surrounding:

Bolstering our education system

Keeping daily life affordable for Utahns

Investing in our infrastructure

Ensuring the safety of our communities

Holding government agencies accountable

Click here to learn more about each of these crucial policy areas which were created with your input and recommendations. This policy roadmap builds on Utah’s rock-solid foundation as the best-managed, most philanthropic, happiest, and freest state in the nation.

Public Safety and the Southern Border Crisis

The Biden administration’s inaction at the Southern border has strained our communities, public safety, and education systems. While supporting legal immigration, we must protect our communities. That’s why we’re introducing bills to hold accountable criminals that are here illegally, including stricter penalties for fentanyl trafficking, recruiting minors into gangs, driving without a license, and other crimes. By taking these steps, we are reinforcing our commitment to both the rule of law and the safety of all Utahns.

Higher Education

This year, the Utah Legislature is reimagining higher education to better serve students and the workforce. By streamlining operations, reducing administrative costs, and investing in high-demand programs, we aim to make education more affordable and impactful. Expanding career and technical education will equip students with practical skills for well-paying jobs while strengthening Utah’s economy. With a decline in college-age students on the horizon, now is the time to take bold action to ensure higher education remains a driver of growth and opportunity. Watch this short video to learn more.

Bill Highlights and Position Perspectives

Amongst the many bills debated and voted on this week on the House floor, I’d like to share my position perspectives on one particular bill that has been in the news this week. In addition, below are all of the bills debated on the House Floor this week and how I voted.

Policy Perspective: HB267 Public Sector Labor Unions

On January 23, the bill HB267 Public Sector Labor Union was presented to the House Business, Labor and Commerce Standing Committee on which I serve. This bill is specifically related to public labor unions in Utah. There are many public labor unions within the state and all public labor unions would be involved in this legislation. To explain what this bill would do and not do, clarify misinformation and misunderstanding being shared on social media, and to address the questions that some public-school teachers have expressed, below are questions and answers, background about the bill’s details, and my voting rationale in the committee meeting.

Questions:

With the proposed HB267 bill:

- Will public labor unions continue to exist?

- - Answer: Yes

- Will public labor unions continue to collect membership dues?

- - Answer Yes

- Will public labor unions be able to collect membership dues with auto pay set up by union members?

- - Answer: Yes

- Will public labor unions be able to continue to negotiate on behalf of their members, fight for teachers’ salaries and benefits, and workplace conditions?

- - Answer: Yes

- Would public labor unions be banned from using public buildings, parks, community centers, libraries, and the like?

- - Answer: No

- Will public labor unions be able to meet in public buildings if they are treated the same way as any other organization that uses a public building?

- - Answer: Yes

- Will members of a public labor union be able to elect who leads the public labor union?

- - Answer: Yes

- Are teachers the only public labor union affected by this bill?

- - Answer: No

- Is HB267 an attack on our public teachers?

- - Answer: No

- Will HB267 reduce the amount of funding to teachers?

- - Answer: No

HB267 is designed to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in how public resources are used while continuing to support Utah’s public employees. This bill would accomplish four main things:

It prohibits public sector collective bargaining.

It prevents taxpayer resources from subsidizing public labor unions.

For public sector unions that use payroll deductions to collect dues, it provides greater transparency for public employees into how those unions spend their dues.

It provides educators and potentially other public employees with optional personal professional liability insurance to give them additional peace of mind that they’re covered in case of an employment dispute.

As I have researched the issues at hand, I have found the following:

The Utah Taxpayers Association supports this bill.
Americans For Prosperity supports this bill.
Utah Parents United supports this bill.
This bill does not impact private sector unions.
This bill does not affect the retirement benefits of teachers, police officers, firefighters or any other groups of public employees.
Collective bargaining ban:
- The bill does not ban employees from joining unions or employee associations, nor does it limit public employers from listening to the ideas, requests, and concerns of public unions, employees groups, or individual employees. Instead, the bill broadens the table, ensuring all employees have the opportunity to be heard and bring forward their ideas to improve working conditions.
- Public sector collective bargaining is fundamentally different than private sector bargaining. In the private sector, collective bargaining typically focuses on dividing the profits between capital and labor. But there is no profit in government, and the government can’t go out of business. This means the natural constraints that limit private sector bargaining don’t exist in the public sector.
- In most cases, although the union is designated as the sole bargaining agent for the workers – in reality only a fraction of employees are union members, leaving many employee voices unrepresented in the process.
- When public sector unions negotiate, they aren’t sitting across the table from shareholders, they’re sitting across from taxpayers.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a strong supporter of private sector unions, agreed that collective bargaining makes no sense in the public sector, because the employer is the people.

Increases transparency:
- For public sector unions that use payroll deductions to collect dues, the bill requires unions to report annually to their membership and the Labor Commission:
- How many members belong to the union, and
- How much money the union spent on 1) representing union members in disputes, 2) lobbying, 3) political donations and other political activities, and 4) affiliate or umbrella organizations.
- This reporting will ensure union members have full view into how the union spends members’ dues.

Personal Professional Liability Insurance:
- Many public employees don’t realize that the Division of Risk Management already provides coverage for public employees while they’re fulfilling their official duties.
- This bill provides educators and potentially other public employees with optional personal professional liability insurance. This bill directs the Division of Risk Management to offer optional professional liability insurance to school employees. Funding is being requested to cover up to half of the premium for employees who opt into professional liability insurance.
- This will provide a way for employees to have peace of mind if they’re ever falsely accused or otherwise find themselves in an employment dispute-ensuring that no teacher is forced to choose between feeling protected and joining a union

In light of all this information, I voted in support of this bill in the committee meeting. The committee’s vote to support this bill means this bill will move forward in the legislative process for further discussion, debate, and vote.