Happy Fall
I hope this email finds you healthy, happy, and enjoying the beautiful autumn colors! Over the past month, I have received so many emails that I haven’t been able to respond to all of them. Most of these emails express concern about four things: Pres. Biden’s vaccine mandate, redistricting, the security of our elections, and changing the name of Dixie State. This email will address these things, and a few more. It is fairly long, and it won’t hurt my feelings if you skip parts and only read what you are interested in.
Pres. Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
Pres. Biden has issued an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to be adopted by December 5th. This ETS requires employers with 100+ employees institute policies that require each employee to be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing and wear a mask at work. In addition, the standard requires employers to determine the vaccination status of each employee, and maintain records and a roster of each employee’s vaccination status.
There are exceptions for employees to forego vaccination:
- If a vaccine is medically contraindicated,
- if a medical necessity requires a delay in vaccination, or
- if an employee is legally entitled to a reasonable accommodation under federal civil rights laws because they have a disability or sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances that conflict with the vaccination requirement.
I am opposed to this mandate for a variety of reasons, not the least being that I am frustrated with presidents ruling by executive order. I am so tired of the dysfunction in Washington D.C.
There are strong opinions on both sides of the “to vaccinate or not vaccinate” debate, and I believe we shoiuld be able to choose what we put into our bodies and determine our own health decisions. Vaccinations are available to anyone who wants one–now for 5 years old and up–so make your choices and let others make theirs. This ETS is an invasion into our health privacy. There are employers that legally require some vaccination records–healthcare workers have to get the flu shot, for example. However, the ETS expands this in unacceptable ways.
Also, this puts our business in a tight spot. We already have a huge labor shortage across all industries, and now employers are going to lose more employees over this mandate. Utah has many important industries and businesses, including health care, military bases, and tech, that receive federal money and have federal contracts. They must abide by this mandate or lose this funding.
The legislature is looking at ways to address this federal over-reach, but there is included in the ETS a clause aimed at preventing states from taking action. It preempts all State and local requirements, including in states with State Plans, that ban or limit the authority of employers to require vaccination, face covering, or testing.
The governor issued a call to special session that includes considering provisions related to COVID-19 and the workplace. I haven’t seen any bill language, but I know that there are several legislators and leadership working with stakeholders and legal counsel to see what we can do. Utah has joined a lawsuit against the federal government over this mandate, and hopefully that moves quickly.
Monocolal Antibody treatment is now available for those who contract COVID and are at risk of being hospitalized. You can find out more information here.
Call to Session Issued by Governor
Speaking of the special session, it starts on Tuesday, Nov. 9th, and there are nine items the legislature can consider. Here are all issues to be considered at the Special Session.
1. to address redistricting and to divide the state into congressional, legislative and other districts pursuant to Utah Constitution Article IX, Section 1;
2. to consider amendments to the statutes governing the State Flag Task Force;
3. to consider changing the name of Dixie State University and to create a reporting requirement to the Legislature;
4. to consider modifying the deadlines for filing a declaration of candidacy, holding a convention, and signature gathering, and clarifying provisions of code that relate to the schedule for redistricting local school board districts;
5. to consider making changes to the pretrial process on issues related to bail, pretrial release, and indigent defense;
6. to consider modifying the Unemployment Insurance tax rate for calendar years 2022, 2023, and 2024;
7. to consider provisions related to COVID-19 and the workplace;
8. to consider amendments to the Interlocal Cooperation Act; and
9. to consider a resolution expressing the Legislature’s opinion about certain banking and financial transaction reporting requirements under consideration by Congress and the federal government.
If you have read previous emails from me, you know that I dislike special sessions because it circumvents the cumbersome process of creating statute. Legislators don’t get to see the bills until the day or so before the session, and they often avoid being heard by committee. The public does not have the chance to vet them, either. I guess we will all see what we will be voting on next week. You can find the bills and watch the session at le.utah.gov, but nothing has been posted at the time of this email.
Election Integrity
I have received many emails from constituents concerned about our election integrity. The Interim Judiciary Committee held a hearing on election integrity during our October meeting. The County Clerks, the Lieutenant Governor, and any legislators working on a bill in this policy space were invited to participate in the committee discussion. The committee also received extensive public comment. The scope of the meeting was to discuss legislative policy proposals.
At the meeting, the County Clerks presented information on their current election integrity procedures and proactively brought several original policy solutions to the table. Solutions aimed at addressing potential issues highlighted in other states’ recent auditing efforts were also discussed.Existing practices aimed at ensuring election integrity include:
- A minimum of 87 audits (3 per county) are conducted each election. These audits include:
- Logic and Accuracy Audit – Before each election, every piece of voting equipment is tested in a public meeting using a large sample of test ballots to ensure that it is functioning correctly and accurately counting votes.
- Signature Audit – 1% of all signatures are tested to ensure fidelity.
- Ballot and Tabulator Audit – 1% of ballots are randomly selected by the Lieutenant Governor’s office and are tested to make sure they were counted by the tabulators exactly as marked by the voter.
- Running the Voter List against the National Change of Address List to update voter addresses and remove voters who have moved.
- Never connecting counting equipment to the Internet.
- Receiving weekly updates of deceased voters from the Department of Vital Records.
- Making a voter inactive if they have not voted in two consecutive general elections, or if they appear on the National Change of Address list, to prevent mailing a ballot to a non-voter or incorrect address. These individuals must reapply if they want to receive a vote-by-mail ballot.
- Keeping the voter rolls up to date by automatically updating voter registration records every time a driver’s license address is updated or a new license is issued.
- Verifying the identity of each voter at the time of registration through their driver’s license number or the last four of their social security number.
- Regularly searching for and removing duplicate voter registrations.
- Using ERIC, a multi-state voter registration check, to identify voters who have moved out of the state.
Current Proposals:
- The Lieutenant Governor creates a statewide voter list audit policy and regularly audits random voter registration records year-round.
- Random and unannounced Lieutenant Governor attendance at Logic and Accuracy audits, post-election signature audits, and ballot audits, adding a random selection of ballots to audit.
- County clerks certifying in every election’s state audit report that the voter rolls were properly maintained according to the law, administrative rules, and county procedures.
- Codifying processes and standards regarding elections equipment, chain of custody, and ballot processing, including a formal prohibition on connecting voting machines to the Internet (although machines are not currently connected, this would codify that practice).
- Instituting a fine for voters who attempt to vote twice. This penalty could be appealed.
Here is a link to the audio of the meeting. This is an ongoing discussion, and several legislators have bill files in this policy area.
Redistricting
The Legislative Redistricting Committee and the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission (UIRC) is wrapping up this once-in-a-decade process. In the special session on November 9, the legislature will approve maps for Utah’s Congressional, State House, State Senate, and State School Board Districts.
I have received a few emails concerned about how the maps will be drawn and asking me to strongly consider the Independent Redistricting Commission’s maps. I know the Commission has worked hard to get Utahn’s input, and I will carefully look at each map presented.
Go here to see the UIRC maps. Scroll down and click on which maps you would like to see.The legislative committee’s maps will be coming out on Monday.
You can submit your own map for consideration by using the state-of-the-art map drawing tool. Be sure to stay up-to-date by following the committee on Twitter & Facebook, and visiting redistrict.utah.gov.
Dixie State Name Change
I have written about this before, and the emails I receive are probably not from constituents in my district. However, in case you are curious, I support the name change to Utah Tech University. I don’t love the name, but it is the name the stakeholders have settled on. A huge amount of effort to adress concerns and to get input has gone into this. There are unhappy people who don’t want the name change, but I think it is the right choice.
Thanksgiving
This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the exceptional state in which we live and for the people who make it so great! I do not take for granted this opportunity I have to serve you. Enjoy a happy and safe Thanksgiving with your loved ones.
October Interim
We met together last month for interim committee meetings to discuss draft legislation for the 2022 general session and other pressing issues across the state. Read the interim highlights here.
Podcast
If you are ever wondering what to listen to, wonder no more! Try the House Majority’s latest podcasts. Last month’s episodes covered outdoor recreation with Rep. Jeff Stenquist and audit reports with the Legislative Auditor General! Listen now on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.