Halfway there: What bills have people been watching during this year’s legislative session?

SALT LAKE CITY — This year’s Utah Legislative Session is a little over halfway through, and Utahns are watching closely as certain bills advance, are passed or struck down.

 

Dr. Holly Richardson, Utah Policy editor and Deseret News columnist said she makes sure to keep an on what is being covered during the legislative session.

“In my role as the editor of Utah Policy, I look every day at the agendas and what committees are going to cover,” Richardson said. “So, we’re past the halfway point in the legislative session now, and things are really picking up.”

Richardson said she found the bill HR4 interesting.

“There’s a resolution that would just ask U.S. Postal Service to please do a stamp in commemoration of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon,” Richardson said. “I’m a big fan of Martha, I think that’s really fun.”

Another bill Richardson said she had been keeping an eye on was the daylight saving time bill, HB120. The Senate Business and Labor Committee voted 7-1 on this bill on Feb. 19, preventing it from reaching the Senate floor.

Richardson said she served on a state records committee for eight years, causing her to keep an eye on changes made to an open records law known as the Government Records Management Act (GRAMA).

“(The bill) is really concerning to me,” Richardson said. “So when I served as a legislator, in 2011, it’s already been 14 years, transparency was really important to the legislative body.”

Richardson said the legislators would pass bills when she was a legislator with the focus on making government work more open and transparent to the public. 

“I feel like we’re going back the other way and it’s deeply concerning to me,” Richardson said. “I can listen and hear the arguments, I know what they’re saying. But I don’t agree with them and I don’t understand why they feel this need to keep the work of the public out of the eyes of the public. I don’t understand that approach. It’s really a concern for me.”

Listen to hear more on the importance of GRAMA and government transparency 👇

 

Dr. DeLaina Tonks, executive director of Mountain Heights Academy said she’s keeping an eye on bills focused on education.

“There’s one that targets the statewide online education program, which is for part-time online students, and adds some additional reporting burdens… administrative burden that we’re following fairly closely,” Tonks said.

Mountain Heights Academy started working with online students in 2009, according to Tonks. She said the school’s online student population doubled in size during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, we do it well, and serve a lot of students that otherwise would not be served across the state,” Tonks said. “In fact, 25% of our student population are students on an IEP, we have an additional 15% of students on a 504, which means they need some accommodations and kids who aren’t getting their needs met in other settings for a variety of reasons.”

Related: Crime, banning cellphones, tax cuts: What to expect in the second half of the Utah legislative session

Cassie Bingham, director of the Center for Social Impact at Utah Valley University said she’s been keeping an eye on HB261.

HB261, publicly known as “the DEI bill,” was passed last year. Bingham said she was hoping to see some developments during the 2025 legislative session in relation to this bill.

“Higher education, institutions, you know, public institutions in Utah were really affected (by this bill,)” Bingham said. “Some people kind of know that they were affected in terms of, like, what language staff members could use on campus. Obviously, including the language of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Bingham said she feels some people might not know how the bill affected the operations of some identity-based programs on campus. 

“And not just programs that were programs for students of color, but also programs such as LGBTQ centers, and also programs such as women’s centers,” Bingham said. 

According to Bingham, the UVU Women’s Success Center was affected by the passing of HB261, and the center had to shut down. 

“We’ve been watching to see if there would be anything else passed that would continue to build upon that (bill.)” 

A Woman’s View with Amanda Dickson airs on Sunday’s from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.