Channel 2 News has expressed major concern lately about the way our Utah State Legislators so often vote for or against bills that they have not even read, and that this year there are more than 1000 bills being presented.
One of the first things I noticed when I began my service as the legislative chair of the URSEA about ten years ago was how much time it takes to study a bill. And at the end of the session I was amazed at how many bills had been debated. Over the last ten years, the average number of bills presented is more than 800 per year, and the number passed is over 500.
Once when I expressed concern about the numbers to a legislator, he told me that legislators are expected to vote on every bill. I have tried to find actual wording in the legislative process that confirms what he said, with no luck, so I don’t know if that is true. But even if it isn’t true, for a bill to pass it must have at least 50% approval, so for 500+ bills to pass in a session, plus those that don’t pass, well over 50% of the legislators would have had to vote on over 50% of the 800+ bills presented.
To expect legislators to study over 800 bills during a six week session is a very unrealistic expectation. So I have suggested to some legislators each year that they do something to limit the number of bills presented, which for some reason they seem not willing to do. It makes one wonder if perhaps there is a political advantage the way things are: if a legislator doesn’t have time to study all of the bills, it would be easy to just vote for the bills presented by legislators of their political party.
Maybe it is time for the Legislature to come up with a way to limit the number of bills presented, other than extending the length of the legislative session, so bills can be properly read.
Fred Ash, Sandy