Legislative Updates - 26 January 2026

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Utah GrassRoots Legislative Update—26 January 2026
(1 week into the 2026 General Session of the Utah State Legislature)

Contents:

• Page 1: Introductory comments on the new legislative session
• Page 2: Utah House Majority Caucus Policy Priorities
• Pages 3-4: Bills catching our attention: --House Bill 85 (HB85), “State Sovereignty Amendments”, asserting local sovereignty in the face of directives from international organizations; --Senate Bill 47 (SB47), “Reauthorization of Administrative Rules”; and --SB90, “Occupational Licenses for Veterans and Service Members”, requiring the Division of Professional Licensing to accept equivalent military training and experience for various licensing requirements.

Dear Friends:

This is GrassRoots’ first legislative update of this year’s General Session of the Utah State Legislature. We hope to be sending weekly updates on legislative happenings during the session, and will be concentrating on bills that we find to be friendly to the principles of limited, constitutional government on one hand, or, on the other hand, friendly to big, intrusive government. As you may know, the principles of GrassRoots are summarized as Limited Government, Constitution, Representative Government, Free Market Economy, Participatory Republic, Family, and Separation of Powers.

We would encourage and challenge you, if you see one or more bills that interest you, contact your representative and/or senator about it/them. We think they usually hear enough from paid lobbyists (some would say more than enough), but they may not hear enough from you.

At this time (one week into the session), there are about 600 numbered bills for this session on the Utah Legislature website, maybe a little more than half of the bills that will be numbered by the end of the session which, under the Utah Constitution, will go for 45 days. Here are some bills and issues that we consider to be noteworthy.

Utah House Majority Caucus Policy Priorities

There is an interesting summary of priorities to be found at House Majority Caucus Policy Priorities . We heartily agree with the priorities of Cost of Living, Strong Families, Limited Government, and Accountability and Transparency mentioned here. Various of the other broad priorities mentioned also sound reasonable. It is reasonable to expect that there will be some debate and disagreement. This should not be feared. And if these really are priorities for the House Majority Caucus, we think there are some questions that should be persistently asked, even if the most honest answers would imply some big changes from the status quo.

• Do we have appropriately limited government in Utah? Or should it be much smaller?
• With a population of 3.5 million and state government appropriations of $31 billion for the current fiscal year, Utah government is spending $8-9K per person per year, or $32-36K per family of four per year. Does this qualify as Limited Government? Does this spending help reduce the Cost of Living in Utah?
• Can we concentrate on working productively to provide for our families and serve in our communities, or are we exhausted with bureaucracy and regulations?
• Does the Legislature exercise sufficient oversight of the judicial and executive branches? Or does the Legislature mostly throw lots of money and rule-making powers at the other branches?
• Is there a culture in the Legislature of reading and understanding a bill before voting it into Law? Or are legislators expected to “trust leadership” or “trust the experts” or “trust the committee”?
• What remains to be done to make our elections, and other functioning of government, sufficiently transparent?

Bills catching our attention

HB85, “State Sovereignty Amendments”, sponsored by Representative Shepherd and Senator Winterton, would:

• define “international organization” to mean the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, or the World Health Organization;
• prohibit the governor or the chief executive officer of a political subdivision from declaring a state of emergency exclusively in response to an international organization's proclamation declaring a state of emergency;
• declare that an international organization has no power, jurisdiction, or legal authority in the state; and
• prohibit the state, state agencies, and local governments from implementing or enforcing an international directive issued by an international organization.

HB85 passed the House 55-11 on January 23rd, and awaits action by the Senate. A declaration of emergency is often the excuse given for some of the worst abuses of human rights. We saw this in abundance during the COVID scare of 2020-2021, in which many government entities got seriously out of control. Government officials in Utah should abide by our state and national constitutions, and never assume Probable Cause exists for an emergency declaration, or for any regulation or directive, just because a faraway international organization says so. GrassRoots favors a “yes” vote on HB85.

SB47, “Reauthorization of Administrative Rules”, sponsored by Senator McCay and Representative Lee, would reauthorize all administrative rules. SB47 awaits consideration by the Senate Rules Committee. To the extent that executive branch entities are making any administrative rules that are legislative in their nature, this would appear to us to be a violation of Utah Constitution, Article V, Section 1, and the Legislature ought not to be authorizing such activity. (Said section says: “The powers of the government of the State of Utah shall be divided into three distinct departments, the Legislative, the Executive, and the Judicial; and no person charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments, shall exercise any functions appertaining to either of the others, except in the cases herein expressly directed or permitted.”) To the extent that executive branch entities are making any administrative rules that are executive in their nature, it would appear to us that the “authorization” for such rules belongs, not with the Legislature, but with the executive branch officer in whom the relevant executive power is constitutionally vested (typically the Governor (see Utah State Constitution, Article VII, Section 5)). As we say this, we are in no way questioning the propriety of the Legislature exercising oversight over the Executive Branch, including all administrative rules. But we do not believe a blanket legislative “authorization” of all administrative rules to be either necessary or proper. GrassRoots favors a “no” vote on SB47.

SB90, “Occupational Licenses for Veterans and Service Members”, sponsored by Senator Balderee and Representative Val Peterson, would require the Division of Professional Licensing, in consultation with the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, to:

• prepare a document, spreadsheet, or other resource available to the public that details when a veteran or service member's past skills, experience, credentials, training, or education obtained in the military are substantially equivalent to current required training or education requirements for a license and can substitute for unfulfilled licensure requirements; and
• accept a veteran or service member's past substantially equivalent skills, experience, credentials, training, or education obtained while in the military when granting a license.

SB90 passed the Senate 27-0 on January 23rd, and awaits action by the House. Should we have occupational licensing requirements in a free country with a free market economy? Only when there is Probable Cause to believe that such regulations will result in benefits of safety, integrity, and so forth that clearly exceed the cost of infringing on individual liberties. And regulatory hurdles to making an honest living should be eliminated or minimized. SB90 is a good step, reducing some such regulatory hurdles for people with relevant military training and experience. GrassRoots favors a “yes” vote on SB90.

If you have any questions about these bills, GrassRoots’ position on these bills, or related matters, please contact either of us or any other member of the Board of Utah GrassRoots.

Sincerely,

Steve Stromness
Vice-Chairman, Bill Review Coordinator, Utah GrassRoots
steven.stromness@gmail.com
435-637-5248

Don Guymon
Chairman, Utah GrassRoots
donguymon@gmail.com
801-574-9461

PS Do you want to contact a legislator? Go to le.utah.gov and click on “Legislators”.

Do you want to read and follow legislation yourself? Go to le.utah.gov and select “Bills” then “2026 Bills”.

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