Tag Archives: legislative life

New data show how little time the Legislature spends per bill

Posted on March 1, 2019 by Adam Brown

The median bill enacted in 2018 received a total of only seven minutes of House and Senate floor debate before passage. Today the Utah Legislature concludes the fifth week of its seven-week General Session. The pace is about to pick … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on New data show how little time the Legislature spends per bill

Analysis of voting patterns in the 2018 Utah Legislature

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Adam Brown

The Utah Legislature concluded its 45-day General Session last Thursday at midnight. Once again, I’ve scraped the voting records to produce this statistical summary. Update (3/14/2018): The Utah Legislature’s website initially showed HB457 as having passed. Their records were corrected … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Who missed the most votes in the 2017 Legislature?

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Adam Brown

Absenteeism declined  in 2017. My previous two posts had some good news about the 2017 Legislature: Vetting time improved a little, giving the public more time to see most bills, and bipartisanship remained the order of the day. But now … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Who missed the most votes in the 2017 Legislature?

The 2017 Utah Legislature passed a record number of bills but slightly improved vetting time

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Adam Brown

We’re not back to the good old days of 2007-2008, but legislators definitely did better this year at getting their bills out earlier Back in January, I heard a lot of chatter that this would be one of the busiest sessions ever. … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The 2017 Utah Legislature passed a record number of bills but slightly improved vetting time

Who missed the most votes in the 2016 Utah Legislature?

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Adam Brown

The perfect attendance award goes to Rep. Michael Kennedy, the only legislator to miss zero votes. Utah Legislators had only 45 days to consider 819 bills, passing 475 of them. The Legislature moves at such a breakneck pace that falling ill … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Who missed the most votes in the 2016 Utah Legislature?

The 2016 Legislature: Slowing down while speeding up

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Adam Brown

Legislators introduced 177 bills in the session’s final three weeks. Despite being limited to only 45 lawmaking days, Utah’s Legislature sure passes a lot of bills–2 to 3 times as many bills per year as Congress. After last year’s record … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The 2016 Legislature: Slowing down while speeding up

Recap: The 2015 Utah Legislature

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Adam Brown

Last Thursday, the Utah Legislature concluded its seven-week annual lawmaking session. The state’s major newspapers have already published several excellent recaps of the major policy changes coming out of the session. So now I’ll give my annual recap of the session’s trends … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Recap: The 2015 Utah Legislature

Which legislators missed the most votes in 2015?

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Adam Brown

When it comes to healthy legislators, Greg Hughes set a new record this year for missing votes Utah Legislators considered 831 bills during the seven-week 2015 General Session, passing 528 of them. Debating so many bills in so little time … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The 2015 Legislature passed 528 bills in 45 days

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Adam Brown

Though there were 87 more bills introduced in 2015 than 2008 overall, there were 84 fewer introductions within the first two weeks. By the time the Utah Legislature concluded its seven-week General Session last Thursday, legislators had passed 528 bills (including resolutions). I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Recap: The 2014 Utah Legislature

Posted on March 19, 2014 by Adam Brown

I’ve just posted several items about the recently concluded legislative session. Here’s a quick overview: The 2014 Legislature: Slow out of the gate, frantic in the stretch. Legislators considered 786 bills, but a procedural change caused a major crunch in … Continue reading →

Posted in Everything | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Recap: The 2014 Utah Legislature