Utah State Legislature

The State Legislature has been in session for three weeks now and I have learned a few things about the Legislators of our State in this current session.
First: The Republicans and Democrats both have their agenda which is quite Different from one another but the same at the same time. The Republicans want the show Washington that they are not agreeing with its policies and want more state sovereignty. They are doing this by passing a number of message bills aimed to show Washington that we as a State are going to do what we wish. The First and most controversial bill of this kind is Margaret Dayton's SB011 "Utah State-made Firearms Protection Act" Which simply states that guns produced and sold in Utah are property of Utah and under control of Utah thus not covered by the Interstate Commerce Act. The biggest controversy of this bill is simply it is against the Federal Constitution. If the State passes a unconstitutional bill such as this we are going to have a very expensive battle on our hands with the Federal Courts. Now I am all for State's rights but challenging the Constitution through the Federal Court system is not the way for us as a State to approach this matter. The second bill that has me concerned is SB036S01 "Wolf Management Act" This yet again is a message bill that has currently passed both the House and the Senate and sent to the Governor for his signature. This bill asks for the Federal Government to take Utah off the Endangered Species list leaving wolf management up to the state. Now this may at first seem like an alright idea but when one researches further they will find that Utah has not had a single wolf in our state for an extended period of time for the last ten years. The Democrats are also for State rights but are doing it in a way that they consider more healthy for the state I.E passing resolutions stating their views instead of bills which could land our State in court battles. They also are passing Bi-Partisan bills that help all of the state not just a certain sector. SB0087 repealing the taking away of money from school districts from Salt Lake, in order to come up with a State wide true equalization bill. I think Washington needs to take a page out of the State's book and practice true Bi-Partisanship.

Second thing that I have learned is that the people of Utah can have a much larger impact if they just become active in the process. While attending committee after committee and hearing many bills presented that would do harm to the state fail just due to the fact that the public showed up in numbers and voiced their opinion. We need to keep in mind that our country and our state runs by way of democracy meaning that we as citizens control our own fate. We elect our officials and that means that they are serving us not the other way around, but if we just sit back and let them "do their own thing" they get into what they want to do and vote how they would vote. Many legislators and elected officials will head to the calls of the public If and only if THE PUBLIC MAKES THEMSELVES HEARD.


In short I encourage you all to go the www.le.utah.gov and research and find a bill that concerns or interest you and make yourself heard and become and active citizen by writing your senator or represenitive and make yourself heard! Also on that website you can listen to both the House and the Senate realtime including all committee meetings.