Legislative Session and Getting involved: A Student Perspective

So the legislative session has come and gone. It is crazy to me that we as a state pass a whole years worth of legislation in the matter of 45 days. My thoughts on this session can be summed up with a few points.

-I believe that we as a State wasted too much time on sending Anti-Federalism bills to Washington that in the end is going to cost the tax payers millions of dollars to defend in court cases.

-Although many message bills were past good legislation was also passed in my opinion. The highlighted bills are as follows

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/sb0150s01.htm "Reading Requirements for Student Advancement-Sponsored by Karen Morgan" It is about time that we take an active role in the education of our students.

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0032S01.htm "Rainwater Harvesting" Sponsored by Scott Jenkins. Simply this bill allows for an individual to collect rain water in rain barrels to be used at a later time.

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/hbillhtm/HB0107.htm "Animal Shelter Requirements" Sponsored by Rep. Seelig Requires that when an animal shelter receives an animal to call the owner if the animal has tags or a microchip

-http://le.utah.gov/~2010/htmdoc/sbillhtm/SB0276.htm "Promoting Healthy Lifestyle in Public Schools" Sponsored by Pat Jones While this bill was not passed the back story is quite interesting and i call the bill a success. Sen Jones originally drafted a bill banning high sugar and fatty foods from vending machines. In committee the argument was brought up that physical education and food choice education is not an active part in our childrens curriculum. Thus this bill was born while it did not have a committee hearing and was not heard on the floor it was assigned to a task force over interm to be studied. So in a nut shell it will be looked at and will most likely pass next year.


Those were just a few of the bills that I enjoyed watching unfold this session.

Now onto the next topic of my post getting involved. Next week the local caucus meetings will be held. I encourage you all to go out and find your caucus location from this site: http://www.utdemocrats.org/resources/view/144774/ for democrats and for republicans well the republican website did not put forth the effort to list the caucus locations and instead refers you to your county website for the information. So look at your county website and you will be able to find it there. This is the grassroots chance that you have to actually have a say in how you want policies to unfold in your community. YOU CAN ACTUALLY HAVE A SAY IN THE GOVERNMENTAL PROCESS :)

Thank you all and have a great week. I will do another post here soon starting with national legislation so be on the look out. Go out and be great this week