Weekly Update 02/22/15

I had a great time with so many District 64 friends at the Utah County Lincoln Day Dinner.

We are now heading into the home stretch. There are now just 14 work days left in the 2015 session.

A View from the Inside

There have been two things that I have been a part of that are very interesting from the insider’s perspective.

The first was a call of the house. Recently, there were five house members missing from the floor for a vote. After every present had voted, the vote was 35-35. 38 votes are needed to pass the bill. A “call of the house” was requested and the sergeants at arms locked down the chamber (to keep anyone from leaving and having their vote not count) and went to look for the missing members that hadn’t been excused. Within a few minutes, three of them were brought to the chamber to vote and the bill ended up passing. I learned from this experience that every House member’s vote counts and we should be informed and ready to vote on every issue.

The other unusual event was a closed caucus meeting. While the Senate Republicans regularly close their caucus meetings to the public, the House Republicans rarely do that. This past week, a closed caucus was scheduled and held. The only people allowed in the room were the House Republicans and full-time staff. It was very interesting to see people engage in open and frank dialog and even a roll-call vote. While I don’t think the caucus should be closed very often, it was helpful in this case to be able to speak one’s mind. I appreciate that there is a time and place for both open caucus meetings and an occasional closed meeting.

Insider Fact for the week: The House has only voted down one bill so far this session.

What About Daylight Saving Time?

I am afraid that nothing is going to happen this year. There is general support for not changing the clock twice a year, but there is not agreement about which way to go. One concept that is popular with outdoor activity, business and tourism in mind would be to stay on Daylight Saving Time year round, moving light to the evening for the winter months. But that would make us out of sync with our neighbors. During the summer we would be the same as Montana, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, but for four and a half months each winter, we would be different than all of our bordering states.

Personally, I’m not too worried about what the map looks like and how we compare to our neighbors. We are already out of sync with Arizona for most of the year and always different than Nevada. But being different apparently bothers many people. So, that leaves the idea of joining with Arizona and shifting toward more light in the mornings which is somewhat popular with farmers. I think you now get a feel for the problem. Since the opposition to any proposed change will be fairly loud, no matter what it is, the legislature is likely to keep the status quo, which is quite possibly the least popular option of the set. This is unfortunate but it is emblematic of the type of problems policy makers face

What to Expect Now

Even though we are over halfway through the calendar, we are nowhere near halfway done with our work. Most of the substantive policy issues are still unresolved and there are a lot of bills in the process. Everyone tells us that the work will speed up dramatically from here on out. We will have longer times scheduled for committee hearings and floor time, leading up to the essentially “all-day” floor session on the last day. We have an agreement this year to make a concerted effort to reduce the number of bills voted on the floor that did not get two public hearings.

Upcoming Events

I have two town hall meetings scheduled – next Saturday morning (February 28) at 7:30 a.m. at the Nebo School District offices in Spanish Fork and the following Saturday (March 7) at 7:15 a.m. at the Clark Auditorium on the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center campus in Provo. Check the events page on my web site for more details later.