"We The People" Means All the People

H.B. 28 Emergency Responder Voting Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Rosemary Lesser
Position: Support
Issue Area: Voting

Overview: 

• Authorizes a registered voter assisting with an emergency on election day to cast an electronic ballot if the area affected by the emergency is located outside the voter's county of residence

Status: Being heard on the House floor

H.B. 29 Sensitive Material Review Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Ken Ivory
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: First Amendment; LGBTQ+ Rights

Overview: 

• Allows parents, students, LEA officials, or elected officials (of that district) associated with schools/school districts to bring challenges against books or other instructional material (materials distributed in class, websites, presentations, etc.)
• Materials are then made unavailable in schools immediately and evaluated and deemed either i) objective sensitive material (any description of genitalia in a sexual context, sodomy, "criminal porn," etc.); (ii) subjective sensitive material; or (iii) not sensitive.
• Objective-sensitive materials remain unavailable in schools. Subjective sensitive materials are made available with parental permission and undergo a review process.
• If three school districts or one school district and 5 individual charter schools determine the same book to be objective sensitive, it's pulled from all schools across the state.

Status: Voted favorably out of the House Education Committee 

H.B. 92 Voting Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Kera Birkeland 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Voting

Overview: 

• Election officers will only be required to send mail ballots to active voters who affirmatively request (in their voter registration form or another written document) to receive mail ballots

H.B. 111 Employment Training Requirement Limitations
Sponsor: Rep. Tim Jimenez 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: DEI

Overview: 

• Prohibits public and private employers from having any requirement that employees agree to any beliefs on diversity or inclusion

Status: Voted favorably out of the House Business & Labor Committee

H.B. 112 Sex Education Instruction Amendments 
Sponsor: Rep. Tim Jimenez 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: LGBTQ+

Overview: 

• Deletes "human sexuality" from what can be taught in sex ed in K12 schools

H.B. 203 Involuntary Commitment Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Nelson Abbott
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Criminal Justice, Unhoused

Overview: 

• Provides for court-ordered civil commitment of a person (i) charged with a crime; (ii) incompetent to proceed; (iii) has mental illness and (iv) has diagnosed anosognosia or unreasonably refused treatment

H.B. 214 Election Modifications
Sponsor: Rep. Norman Thurston
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Voting

Overview: 

• Provides that, for a ballot that is mailed to be valid, the election officer must receive the ballot before the polls close on election day

Status: Voted to be held in the House Government Operations Committee

H.B. 224 Medical Surgery Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Marsha Judkins
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: LGBTQ+

Overview: 

• Prohibits performing a "primary sex characteristic surgical procedure" or a "secondary sex characteristic surgical procedure" on a minor

H.B. 233 Election Code Modifications
Sponsor: Rep. Andrew Stoddard
Position: Support
Issue Area: Voting, Criminal Justice

Overview: 

• Bill requires a county clerk and a county jail to coordinate to provide the opportunity for eligible inmates of the jail to register to vote and vote by mail; establishes notice requirements relating to the opportunity for an inmate to register to vote and vote; and provides for an option, in the discretion of the county clerk and county jail, for in-person voting by jail inmates.

H.B. 253 Use of Sex-Designated Facilities in Public and Higher Education 
Sponsor: Rep. Phil Lyman
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: LGBTQ+

Overview: 

• Bathroom bill applicable to LEAs and higher ed institutions

H.B. 261: Equal Opportunity Initiatives

Sponsor: Rep. Katy Hall, Sen. Keith Grover
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: DEI, 1A

Overview 

• Prohibits higher ed institutions, public ed system, and other governmental employers from: (i) requiring an individual to provide certain submissions (like asking about their beliefs on diversity and inclusion) or attend training that promotes differential treatment; (ii) using an individual's certain characteristics in decisions regarding aspects of employment or education.
• Requires higher ed institutions to publish all course titles and syllabi for mandatory courses
• Requires higher ed institutions to annually train employees on "the separation of personal political advocacy from an institution's business"
• Requires higher ed institutions to eliminate any training on "discriminatory practices" (defined as engaging in or maintaining a policy, procedure, practice, program, office, initiative, or required training that (i) based on an individual's personal identity characteristics" promotes differential treatment, influences employment decisions or admission or advancement decisions; (ii) asserts directly or indirectly that an individual, by virtue of their personal identity characteristics, is inherently privileged, oppressed, racist, sexist, oppressive or a victim, etc.)
• Violations of the requirements reported to the Board of Higher Education for public colleges or the Utah Board of Education for K-12 schools; institution then has 180 days to “cure the violation” or may lose state funding

Status: Passed through the House floor, now being heard on the Senate floor

H.B. 269 Ten Commandments in Public Schools
Sponsor: Rep. Michael Petersen
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: IA

Overview: 

• This bill requires public schools to display a poster or framed copy of "The Ten Commandments" and accept and display a donation of "The Ten Commandments" if a copy is not already on display 

H.B. 284: Initiative Amendments

Sponsor: Rep. Jason Kyle
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Voting

Overview 

• This bill would implement the constitutional amendment provided for in HJR 14 if passed

H.B. 303 School Curriculum Requirements
Sponsor: Rep. Jeffrey Stenquist
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: IA, LGBTQ+

Overview: 

Classroom neutrality bill. Prohibits teachers and school staff from endorsing or disparaging: (A) religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheistic belief or viewpoint[.]; (B) political or social belief or viewpoint; or (C) viewpoint regarding sexual orientation or gender identity; or (ii) invite, suggest, or encourage a student to reconsider or change the student's: (A) religious, denominational, sectarian, agnostic, or atheistic belief or viewpoint; (B) political or social belief or viewpoint; or (C) sexual orientation or gender identity. Teachers and staff are not prohibited from wearing religious clothing or accessories or displaying personal photographs of their family (though remains questionable if those photos can reveal their religion, sexual preference, etc.). The bill allows the American and Utah flags to be hung in the classroom, along with another nation or state that is relevant to the curriculum. No Pride flags or any other flag noting political or religious beliefs in any way.

H.B. 316: Inmate Assignment Amendments
Sponsor: Rep.Karianne Lisonbee
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: LGBTQ+, Criminal Justice

Overview: 

• Bill prohibits Dept of Corrections or county jails from assigning inmates of the opposite biological sec in the same housing area

H.B. 396: Workplace Discrimination Amendments

Sponsor: Rep. Brady Brammer
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: 1A

Overview 

• Prohibits an employer from compelling an employee to communicate or otherwise act in a manner that the employee believes would burden or offend the employee's religious beliefs; codifies Groff v. DeJoy

H.B. 417: School Materials Amendments 

Sponsor: Rep. Ken Ivory
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: 1A, LGBTQ+

Overview 

• Provides criminal penalties for teachers, school librarians and other school staff who allow objective sensitive materials to be accessible to students; Requires any material available to students to be “the least sexualized, violent, or vulgar material that communicates” the principles the material is supposed to teach;
• Requires LEAs to inform parents of all subjective sensitive instructional materials available AND each instructional material that a student borrows;
• Provides a private right of action against LEAs that allow student access to sensitive material; Waives governmental immunity for a violation; and
• Prohibits LEA governing boards from restricting the public display or recitation in a public meeting of any instructional material that is available in schools;

H.B. 460: Government Employee Conscience Protection Amendments

Sponsor: Rep. Michael Petersen 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: 1A

Overview 

• Bill would require a governmental entity to grant an employee’s request not to perform a certain task due to their sincerely held religious, moral, or philosophical beliefs if granting the request would not result in undue hardship to the governmental entity

S.B. 57: Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act
Sponsor: Rep. Scott Sandall 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Indigenous Justice, Civil Liberties 

Overview: 

• Allows Legislature to prohibit the enforcement of a federal directive in Utah if the Utah Legislature determines the directive to violate state sovereignty

Status: Passed the Senate and now referred to the House Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment Committee

S.B.88 Juvenile Justice Amendments
Sponsor: Rep. Stephanie Pitcher
Position: Support
Issue Area: Criminal Justice

Overview: 

• Clarifies requirements regarding the collection of a DNA specimen from a minor adjudicated by the juvenile court to be for felonies and Class A misdemeanors for the most part and provides that a minor may not be placed in a correctional facility as an alternative to detention

Status: Passed the senate

S.B.105 Student Privacy and Modesty in Public Education
Sponsor: Rep. Jen Plumb
Position: Support
Issue Area: LGBTQ+

Overview: 

• The bill would require public schools to accommodate students’ reasonable expectation of “individual privacy and personal modesty” and would prohibit any LEA from requiring or encouraging a student to undress or change clothes in the presence of other students or individuals. The bill requires schools to provide single-occupant facilities for all students who prefer a private changing space.

SB 136: Reauthorization of Administrative Rules

Sponsor: Rep. Kera Birkeland 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: LGBTQ+, DEI

Overview 

• Reauthorizes all the administrative rules, except for the Educational Equity in Schools Rule

SB150: Exercise of Religion Amendments

Sponsor: Rep. Todd Weiler 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: 1A

Overview 

• This bill provides legal protections related to the free exercise of religion.

S.B. 200: State Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice Amendments

Sponsor: Rep. Karianne Lisbonbee 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Criminal Justice

Overview 

• Bill would repeal the provisions in the Utah Code that establish the Sentencing Commission and roll its responsibilities into the State Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice. It also requires sentencing and supervision length guidelines to be reauthorized by the Legislature annually by concurrent resolution.

HJR 2: JR for Gender Reassignment Surgical Health Benefits
Sponsor: Rep. Sahara Hayes
Position: Support
Issue Area: LGBTQ+

Overview: 

• Directs Public Employees' Benefit and Insurance Program to provide gender reassignment surgical benefits to state employees

HJR 8: Joint Resolution Amending Rules of Civil Procedure on Disqualification of a Judge

Sponsor: Rep. Cheryl Acton
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Civil Rights and Liberties 

Overview 

• Bill allows each side a "preemptive strike" of a judge in a civil case.

HJR 12: Joint Resolution on the Illegal Immigration Crisis

Sponsor: Rep. Trever Lee
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Immigration

Overview 

• Joint resolution to address "problem of illegal immigration" that: (i) describes problems that illegal immegration causes for the state; (ii) condemns the federal government for its failure to respond appropriately to the illegal immigration crisis; (iii) expresses the leg's suport of legal immigration; (iv) urges the federal government to solve the problem of illegal immigration or allow states to solve problems caused by it; (v) urges Congress to pass federal legislation relating to immigration

HJR 14: Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution - Statewide Initiatives

Sponsor: Rep. Jason Kyle
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: Voting

Overview 

• This constitutional amendment would require that ballot initiatives and referenda receive 60% of the vote before passing rather than 50% (if they include a tax increase, which is a fuzzy point).

HJR 16: Joint Resolution Ratifying an Amendment to the United States Constitution 

Sponsor: Rep. Mark Wheatley 
Position: Oppose
Issue Area: N/A

Overview 

• Ratifies the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution