Reporting Back: The Final Week of Session 🏁

March 13, 2026 2026 Legislative Session

That’s it — after 45 days and 1,016 bills, the 2026 legislative session has adjourned sine die. It was a whirlwind final week, with bills quickly moving through both chambers and a number of last-minute attempts to sneak in otherwise unpopular policy.

Below you’ll find an overview of big bills discussed in the final week, as well as my list of top wins and losses now that the legislature has adjourned. Coming soon, I’ll do a deep dive on the bills I passed this session. Overall, I’m really proud of what we accomplished on the policy front.

THANK YOU for staying involved during the legislative session and for all your emails, text messages, and calls. I’ve really enjoyed hearing from you.

Big Bills Discussed in the Final Week

1. HB222: Limiting Legal Avenues for Civil or Criminal Liability on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

HB222, Limitation of Actions Amendments (Rep. Albrecht), would shield individuals and entities from civil or criminal liability related to damages caused by greenhouse gas emissions, unless explicitly related to a state or federal law.

I opposed this bill. Limiting legal avenues for challenging greenhouse gas emissions weakens an important tool in the fight for climate justice. Citizens should be able to hold bad polluters accountable. For these reasons, I voted no.

2.  SB86: Data Collection on the Firearm Safe Harbor Program

SB86, Firearm Safe Harbor Amendments (Sen. Wilson), would require law enforcement to collect data on the use of Utah’s firearm safe harbor storage program. Currently, Utah law allows an individual to voluntarily commit the firearm of another, provided the other individual poses an immediate threat to themself or others and if the reporting individual lives with the person posing the threat.

I voted yes on this bill. I think Utah’s safe harbor program is an important tool in reducing the risk of gun violence inside the home. I support measures that promote more data collection on the frequency and utility of this program, and hope the data can be used to support further expansion of our safe harbor program.

SB86 passed both chambers and is currently awaiting the governor’s signature or veto.

3. HB259: Parental Access to a Minor’s Medical Records

HB259, Parental Access to Children’s Medical Records Amendments (Rep. Mike Petersen), would require health care providers to give parents or guardians electronic access to their minor child’s medical records. Health care facilities who do not comply would be subject to a $1,000/day fine for each day they are out of compliance with the law.

I opposed HB259. I fear this bill will discourage young people from seeking care, especially for sensitive things like STI testing, contraceptive counseling, and mental health treatment. Research shows that protecting an adolescent’s confidentiality increases their willingness to seek care. I understand the arguments in favor of parents’ right and interest in these records, but don’t believe it should outweigh an adolescent’s right to privacy for medical care in every scenario.For these reasons, I voted no.

HB259 passed both chambers and is awaiting the governor’s signature or veto.

4. HB88 turned HB386: Denying Public Assistance to Undocumented Immigrants

HB88, a bill initially sponsored by Rep. Trevor Lee, would have prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing certain public assistance benefits, including soup kitchens, short-term shelters, vaccines, crisis counseling, and in-state tuition. The bill would have also imposed criminal penalties on individuals who do not verify a recipient’s lawful presence prior to providing such services. It was, in my opinion, the most cruel bill introduced this session.

After it appeared clear HB88 would not advance, Rep. Lee made a motion to add provisions from his bill into another bill, HB386 (Rep. Shepherd). Those changes included prohibiting undocumented immigrants from accessing state retirement funds, housing assistance, and in-state tuition. The substituted language passed on a narrow vote. The bill itself then also passed out of the House on another narrow vote.

Luckily, HB386 did not advance. No senator was willing to floor sponsor this bill in the Senate, and it therefore could not move forward.

I’m very glad to see this one die. It was a mean-spirited, inhumane bill, and certainly not reflective of who we are as Utahns. We are better as a community when we support and lift up those around us. Good riddance to HB88/HB386.

5. HB480: ‘Involuntary Abortion’ on Medical Records

HB480, Medical Record Amendments (Rep. Lisonbee), would introduce a new definition into statute regarding abortion care — “involuntary abortion” — and would allow individuals to request that their medical record reflect that they received an involuntary abortion as opposed to an elective abortion.

I opposed this legislation. The bill would unnecessarily regulate the medical profession and would introduce a term that is not medically appropriate and which could be used to further limit reproductive rights in the future.

The bill passed the House and was waiting for a vote in the Senate when it was circled (aka put on hold) on the Senate floor. Some shenanigans went down here (more on this soon), but ultimately because the bill was circled, it did not pass.

6. HB242: Removing a Signature from an Initiative or Referendum

HB242, Initiative and Referendum Signature Gathering and Removal Amendments (Rep. Karen Peterson) started out as a bill that would add more clarity to the initiative signature removal process by providing a notice to voters that removing their signature may prevent the initiative from appearing on the ballot. However, in the last hour of the last night of session, Sen Brammer introduced a substitute that would prohibit an individual from removing their signature via pre-paid postage. This substitute passed, and the bill then passed on mostly party lines.

I voted no on this bill. This last-minute substitute was an obvious move to quash an effort by Better Boundaries to assist individuals in removing their signatures from the GOP’s referendum to repeal Prop 4. HB242 changes the rules midway through the process to benefit the legislative majority. The proposal received no public hearing and was introduced with no time for the public to weigh in at all. This is poor process and poor policy. I voted no.

The governor has already signed this one into law, and it’s effective immediately 🙄

7. SB2: Base Budget for Public Education

SB2, Public Education Budget Amendments (Sen. Balderree),  is the base budget bill that appropriates money to public education for the upcoming fiscal year and makes some modifications to funds already appropriated in the current fiscal year. Among them, SB2 changes the way in which teacher salaries are calculated. Instead of an increase that is equal to the percentage increase in the value of the WPU, salary adjustments would now be calculated based on the lesser of either: 1) the percentage increase of the value of the WPU, or 2) the percentage change in the value of the Consumer Price Index.

I voted no because this bill did not provide the types of increases that were expected for teacher salaries. This new mechanism for teacher salary calculations could lead to lower increases over time than what the status quo currently provides. Utah has the best educators in the country, but if we want to continue to attract and retain good teachers, we must prioritize teacher pay.

SB2 passed both chambers and is awaiting the governor’s signature or veto.

Overall: Important Victories

We achieved a number of good victories this legislative session. Here’s my list of the worst bills that failed, and a couple good ones that passed:

đŸš« HB479, Election Code Modifications (Rep. Burton) — would require Utahns to return their by-mail ballot to a polling place or a staffed drop box and show valid ID to have it accepted (costing counties $10M annually đŸ€Ż) — FAILED. I opposed because Utah’s vote-by-mail system is safe, reliable, and effective. We don’t need to fix something that isn’t broken.

đŸš« HB88, Public Assistance Amendments (Rep. Lee) — discussed above, this bill would have prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing public assistance benefits such as homeless shelters, vaccines, and in-state tuition — FAILED. I opposed because this was a mean-spirited, inhumane bill and I don’t support denying basic services to anyone, ever, regardless of their immigration status.

đŸš« HB452, Concealed Firearm Carry Access on Publicly Supported Entities(Rep. Pierucci) — would require large private venues that receive public funds to allow concealed carry on their property (e.g. the Delta Center) — FAILED. I opposed because this is reckless policy that infringes on the rights of private property owners and puts the public at risk.

đŸš« HB193, Transgender Medical Procedure Amendments (Rep. Peck) — would restrict publicly-funded Utah employers (the state, city governments, and school districts) from offering insurance that covers transgender surgical procedures or hormonal treatments — FAILED. I opposed because this bill unnecessarily targeted transgender Utahns and replaced a patient and doctor’s good judgement about ‘medically necessary care’ with political opinion.

đŸš« HB287, Immigrant Driving Amendments (Rep. Lee) — would have ended Utah’s driver privilege card program — FAILED. I opposed because the driver privilege card program allowed undocumented individuals the ability to drive on Utah roads and allows those individuals the ability to register their vehicles and obtain car insurance.

✅ SB252, Great Salt Lake Amendments (Sen. Pitcher) — would direct the state to select low water-use turf grass when replacing or installing new lawn or turf on state properties, and requires the state to routinely audit its irrigation systems to measure its distribution uniformity, determine whether the system is operating at or above 75% efficiency, and make recommendations for inefficient irrigation systems — PASSED. I ran this bill because the state should be lead by example and be a good steward of our water by implementing water-efficient landscaping practices.

đŸš« HB256, School District Elections Amendments (Rep. Kyle), would have made school board elections partisan — FAILED. I opposed because this would needlessly politicize Utah’s school boards and place more focus on partisan politics than the needs of our students.

✅ HB76, Data Center Water Privacy Amendments (Rep. Koford) — would require large data centers to report annually on projected and annual water use, their efforts to reduce water consumption, and efforts to protect the environment and the public from polluted water — PASSED. I support because water use efficiency and conservation planning ensures better stewardship of Utah’s waters.

đŸš« HB196, Highway Designation Amendments (Rep. Lee) — would have renamed Salt Lake City’s Harvey Milk Blvd to Charlie Kirk Blvd — FAILED. I opposed because Harvey Milk Boulevard is a defining symbol of hope and allyship in Salt Lake City. This street adds character, history, and charm. The proposal to rename it was silly, and likely an attempt at retribution for Salt Lake City’s new city flags.

đŸš« HB197, School Materials Amendments (Rep. Peck) — would have expanded on Utah’s ‘sensitive materials’ law by requiring schools to use automated filters in screening databases and other online content and to immediately ban access to materials upon a “plausible” complaint — FAILED. I opposed because this bill replaces a school district’s judgment on school materials for that of the legislature’s, and schools already have robust safeguards in place to ensure kids have access to appropriate content.

Presenting SB252 on the Senate floor

Overall: The Disappointing Losses

There were also a number of bad bills that passed this session. Here’s my list of the ones that disappointed me the most:

đŸš« SB134, Court Amendments (Sen Wilson) — adds two new justices to the Utah Supreme Court — PASSED. I opposed because this was not an identified need by the judiciary and I believe the real motive in expanding the Supreme Court is to sway the Court’s ideology ahead of further redistricting litigation.

đŸš« HB209, Voting Amendments (Rep. Maloy) — establishes a two-tier ballot based on proof of U.S. citizenship — PASSED. I opposed because this bill imposes barriers to voting, is confusing, and could lead to uneven or discriminatory enforcement.

đŸš« HB60, Water Rights Amendments (Rep. Shallenberger) – reduces the ability for the state engineer to consider a protest to a water rights application and the grounds upon which an application can be approved or rejected — PASSED. I opposed because this reduces opportunities for Utahns to contest new water rights applications and defend/protect Utah’s waters.

đŸš« HB392, Constitutional Court Amendments (Rep. MacPherson) — creates a new ‘Constitutional Court’ comprised of a panel of three rotating judges to hear constitutional challenges to state law — PASSED. I opposed because this bill centralizes constitutional challenges into one statewide trial court and limits local courts’ ability to block unconstitutional laws through injunctions.

đŸš« HB174, Sex Characteristic Change Treatment Amendments (Rep. Shipp) — bans health care providers from prescribing hormonal transgender treatments to all minor patients — PASSED. I opposed because banning gender-affirming care just pushes that care underground and would have significant impacts on the mental health of our youth who are experiencing gender dysphoria.

Snapshots from Week 7

Intern Corner

Hi everyone!

The final two weeks of session absolutely flew by. As expected, the speed of the Capitol increased exponentially as more bills moved through the process. We had several late-night floor times (this is the norm for the last week)! Sen. Pitcher was in multiple places at the same time, presenting multiple bills in different committees, meeting with stakeholders, and finding support for her bills from her colleagues. It feels so cathartic after watching all the behind-the-scenes work Sen. Pitcher puts in to sit in the gallery and watch her legislation pass out of the Senate. 

The last week marks the time when legislators can rank their legislation as a priority or what can “die” in the Rules committee. Due to the volume of bills introduced (we reached the thousands), all of which have to go through the Rules committee, leadership uses ranking: each legislator submits a list of their top-priority bills. A high rank from a sponsor (often combined with support from caucus leadership) acts as a “fast-pass,” pulling that specific legislation out whatever bottleneck it might be in and onto the active reading calendar. Without a high priority rank, even a bill with unanimous committee support can remain stuck or fail to advance as the clock runs out and strikes midnight on the last day. 

Now that the session has come to a close, I want to thank you for tracking bills with me and staying up to date on the latest at the state legislature. If there was a specific bill you were watching that wasn’t mentioned, hit reply and let me know!

Some interesting things that happened as an intern in the final week were: 

  1. Lots of time spent working in the gallery as the Senate debated on the floor. 
     
  2. Lots of funny quotes from Senators during committee and floor time that have made my quote board. 
     
  3. UVU interns were able to meet Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson and ask her some quick questions about her time in both the Senate and as Lt. Governor. 
     
  4. To celebrate the day before the last week, the interns (specifically the women) decided to all wear a tie! I did not know how to tie a tie previously. 

Here are some fun pictures from the last week:

A Note on the Future ICE Detention Facility in Utah

I am horrified by yesterday’s announcement of a future ICE detention facility in Utah. Utah is a place for family, community, and connection, not mass incarceration or policies based in fear. This is not who we are as Utahns, and it is not what the majority of Utahns want. I strongly condemn this move and will do everything I can to protect the constitutional and human rights of all Utahns, regardless of immigration status.

Let’s Connect

Serving in the state legislature is an incredible responsibility, and I have been proud to take our community values to the Utah senate. Whether you reached out this session to share concerns, support legislation, or simply ask questions, your engagement improves the process and helps make our democracy stronger.

While the session may be over, my work representing you continues year-round. Please reach out with your thoughts on the issues that matter to you and what policies you think our state legislature should be focusing on moving forward.

Thank you for staying engaged and for your advocacy this session.

Talk soon,

Stephanie

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