The 2026 Utah Legislative Session: The Full Breakdown
Forty-Five Days, Nine Hundred Bills, and Several New Gray Hairs
It’s officially been one week since the legislative session ended. We meant to get this recap out sooner… but between the post-session fog, Gabi’s literal concussion fog, catching up on actual life, laundry, and sleep, and trying to remember what daylight looks like, that just didn’t happen.
So here we are — slightly rested, marginally hydrated, and finally ready to talk about what the hill just happened.
We’ve talked through the big themes, the drama, and the gossipy moments over on YouTube and the podcast. So this won’t be that. In fact, in consideration of word count, we haven’t included much commentary here. But many have asked for a comprehensive list of what passed and what didn’t. So, for those of you who like your politics with bill numbers attached (nerds), here’s the rundown of most of what went down this session or at least the big things we were tracking.
Win Wins: Good Bills That Passed
We know we didn’t give you a lot of good news during session. We feel bad about that because there are genuinely positive things that happen. But when you’re drowning in bad bills and chaotic hearings, it’s hard not to focus on the fires instead of the things quietly going right.
But that’s also part of the problem with politics and media. The bad stuff dominates the conversation, and the good work can disappear under the noise. We don’t want to fall into that trap either. So before we get back into the depressing stuff, here are the bills that actually made things better or sorta nudged Utah in a better direction.
SB0069 — School Device Revisions (”Bell-to-Bell Phone Ban”) | Sen. Lincoln Fillmore – Extends Utah’s school phone ban from “during instructional time” to the full school day — bell to bell instead of just during class. Kids can still have phones; they just can’t be on them all day at school.
HB0068 — Housing and Community Development Amendments | Rep. Calvin Roberts – Consolidates Utah’s fragmented housing programs into a single new Division of Housing inside the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, with one director accountable to the Governor. Housing advocates have been asking for this kind of coordination for years. It responds to actual audit findings about the lack of coordination.
HB0051 — Adoption Amendments | Rep. Katy Hall – Significant updates to Utah’s adoption laws: strengthens protections for birth parents, reduces coercive financial practices by agencies, increases transparency and public accountability, and improves oversight.
HB0075 — American Indian and Alaska Native Education Amendments | Rep. Christine Watkins – Reinforces Utah’s commitment to American Indian and Alaska Native students by updating existing law, formalizing the state education plan, and allowing grant funds to be used for essential learning materials.
HB0087 — Animal Crime Victim Amendments (”Biscuit’s Bill”) | Rep. Verona Mauga – Speeds up rescue and care for abused animals by allowing courts to transfer or forfeit them before a criminal case concludes so animals aren’t stuck in limbo for months while cases drag on. Also allows courts to make abusers pay sheltering and vet costs.
HB0122 — Pregnant and Postpartum Inmate Amendments | Rep. Candice Pierucci – Extends postpartum recovery protections for incarcerated people to 12 weeks, limits the use of restraints during that period, and extends access to social workers to help with childcare and reunification planning.
HB0290 — Child Tax Credit Amendments | Rep. Tracy Miller – Raises the income limits for Utah’s $1,000 per child tax credit phase-out, letting more middle-income families qualify for the full credit.
HB0329 — State Employee Maternity and Leave Amendments | Rep. Ariel Defay – Expands paid family leave for state employees and public school workers, increasing postpartum recovery leave from three weeks to nine weeks and creating new paid leave options for adoption and other family situations.
HB0390 — Veterans PTSD Clinical Research Amendments | Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost – Supports clinical research into innovative PTSD treatment options for veterans including emerging therapies that fall outside current standard-of-care pathways like psilocybin, MDMA, and DMT. Utah’s veteran community has been waiting for this kind of legislative backing for evidence-based solutions, and it’s genuinely good to see it pass.
HCR006 — Concurrent Resolution Regarding the Utah Housing Strategic Plan | Rep. Stephen Whyte – Formally endorses the state’s Utah Housing Strategic Plan and commits lawmakers and the governor to support and track its implementation.
HB0296 — Water Commitment Amendments | Rep. Hoang Nguyen – Creates a pathway for conserved water to be directed to the Great Salt Lake rather than being automatically funneled toward future development and consumptive use. In a state watching the lake collapse in real time, this is a meaningful step.
HB0339 — Street Medicine Amendments | Rep. Tyler Clancy – Directs the University of Utah Health to study the creation of a formal street medicine program bringing medical care directly to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in Davis, Salt Lake, and Utah counties, and requires the state to develop statewide guidelines and best practices.
SB0244 — Cardiac Emergency Response Plans in Schools | Sen. Jerry Stevenson – Requires schools to develop cardiac emergency response plans, including proper placement of AEDs and training staff in CPR and first aid.
SB0051 — School Safety Modifications | Sen. Derrin Owens – Creates a statewide system for tracking and sharing information about students who have made credible threats of violence when they transfer districts, with privacy protections and legal immunity for staff who report in good faith. The goal is to help schools identify dangerous situations earlier and prevent violence.
The Dodged Bullets: Bad Bills That Died
Some of the best parts about this year’s session were the moments where bad bills died. Continuing on with good news… Here are the bad bills that didn’t become law.
HB0088 — Public Assistance Amendments | Rep. Trevor Lee – The central immigration bill of the session. Would have tightened verification of lawful presence to receive most public benefits — narrowing existing exceptions and restricting access to programs for undocumented Utahns including WIC, immunizations, and communicable disease treatment. It failed. Seven attempts across the session, including a resurrection through HB386 after the original died.
HB0386 — Immigration Amendments | Rep. Lisa Shepherd – After HB88 failed after multiple attempts, this bill was used as a vehicle to insert essentially the same language. No Senator wanted to attach their name and reputation to this poison pill.
HB0085 — State Sovereignty Amendments | Rep. Lisa Shepherd – Declared that the UN, WHO, and World Economic Forum have zero legal authority in Utah and blocked state and local officials from declaring emergencies based on those organizations’ declarations. Passed the House, failed in the Senate.
HB0095 — Public Employee Gender-specific Language Requirements | Rep. Nicholeen Peck – Would have protected public employees — including teachers — from discipline for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, as long as they claimed a religious or moral objection. Didn’t even make it through the first step.
HB0096 — Ivermectin Amendments | Rep. Trevor Lee – Would have allowed pharmacists to dispense ivermectin without a patient-specific prescription through a standing order system. Failed in committee.
HB0152 — Educational Vaccine Exemption Amendments | Rep. Trevor Lee – Would have made it easier to get a school vaccine exemption by eliminating the requirement that parents complete an education module or consult with a provider first — stripping out the exact “pause and learn” step designed to reduce misinformation. Failed in committee.
HB0156 — Blood Transfusion Amendments | Rep. Kristen Chevrier – Would have required hospitals to accept directed blood donations from patients’ chosen donors — rooted in vaccine misinformation — and shielded hospitals from liability when that blood caused harm. Passed the House, then failed in a Senate committee. Pour one out. Bring Your Own Blood is cancelled for the second year in a row.
HB0183 — Sex Designation Amendments | Rep. Mark Strong – Initially a bill run by Rep. Trevor Lee, but after his toxicity killed the rest of his bills, he tried to gift this to another legislator. Would have replaced “gender” with “sex” throughout state law, wiping out legal protections tied to gender identity in housing, employment, and more for transgender Utahns. It got slightly less bad and passed the House and then failed in the Senate.
HB0193 — Transgender Medical Procedures Amendments | Rep. Nicholeen Peck – Would have banned all public funding for gender-affirming medical care, including through Medicaid and public employee health plans. Failed in Senate committee. Nicholeen Peck is closely following Trevor Lee for toxic and unproductive legislators.
HB0196 — Highway Designation Amendments | Rep. Trevor Lee – Would have let the Legislature override cities to rename local roads — and immediately used that power to designate Salt Lake City’s 900 South as “Charlie Kirk Boulevard.” Didn’t even see the light of day.
HB0210 — Tax Penalties Amendments | Rep. Melissa Ballard – This bill would have repealed Utah’s Earned Income Tax Credit — one of the most effective anti-poverty tools in the state’s toolkit, and a hard-won victory for working families. Failed in the House after being circled three times.
HB0232 — Medicaid Abortion Payment Amendments | Rep. Nicholeen Peck – Would have blocked abortion providers from qualifying as Medicaid providers, cutting off access for Medicaid patients who rely on those providers for reproductive care. Died without seeing the first step.
HB0244 — Employment Amendments | Rep. Lisa Shepherd – Would have prohibited employers from retaliating against employees who cooperate with law enforcement — including ICE agents. In practice: a bill designed to prevent employers from protecting their workers during immigration enforcement operations. Held in committee.
HB0256 — School District Elections Amendments | Rep. Jason Kyle – Would have made local school board races partisan, requiring candidates to run under party labels and through party primaries. This supercharges national culture-war politics in community-level governance and makes it dramatically easier for outside money and party machinery to take over local school boards. Didn’t go very far.
HB0262 — Judicial Election Amendments | Rep. Jason Kyle – Would have raised the threshold for judicial retention elections from a simple majority to 67%. One of the bigger judicial power grabs that didn’t survive.
HB0287 — Immigrant Driving Amendments | Rep. Trevor Lee – Would have repealed Utah’s driving privilege card program entirely, eliminating the legal pathway that allows undocumented Utahns to drive to work, school, and the doctor.
HB0294 — Employer Verification Amendments | Rep. Tiara Auxier – Would have lowered the threshold for mandatory E-Verify (immigration status) requirements from 150 employees to 50. Was amended and died in the Senate after passing the House. This is the second year in a row this legislation failed.
HB0315 — Human Development Instruction | Rep. Nicholeen Peck –Would have required schools to show a specific “baby Olivia/Oliver” video that has been criticized for inaccuracy and misinformation by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in grades 3 through 12.
HB0399 — Prohibition Against Student Character Tracking and Grading Systems | Rep. Trevor Lee – Broadly banned social-emotional learning, wellbeing frameworks, and character education in public schools — with financial penalties, state audits, public shaming dashboards, and a private right for parents to sue. Would have caused schools to gut student support programs to avoid liability.
HB0479 — Election Code Modifications | Rep. Jefferson Burton – Dramatically rolled back Utah’s vote-by-mail system, requiring most voters to return mail ballots in person with ID and restricting drop boxes to staffed locations with limited hours. Would have made voting significantly harder for working people, seniors, rural voters, and people with disabilities. This is a really big deal.
HB0569 — SNAP Funds Amendments | Rep. Kristen Chevrier – Would have required Utah to keep seeking federal waivers to block SNAP recipients from purchasing broadly defined “ultra-processed” foods, with mandatory checkout system reprogramming if approved. Policing how low-income families feed themselves, session after session.
HJR005 — Proposal to Amend Utah Constitution - Judicial Nominations | Rep. Jason Kyle – Would have rewritten the constitutional process for judicial selection to allow the governor to bypass the nominating commission when appointing judges. One of the biggest judicial power grabs of the session and it didn’t make it.
The Losses: Bad Bills That Passed
Here’s where it gets harder. Despite public testimony, professional objections, and real long-term consequences, these bills made it through. And these are the bills that captivated the most attention during session.
Of all of the coordinated attacks of this session, none were worse than the attacks on the judiciary. That being said, the Legislature entered this session with an aggressive judicial restructuring agenda, and not all of it survived. The constitutional amendment that would have let the governor bypass the judicial nominating commission (HJR005) died. The bill that would have raised judicial retention elections from a simple majority to 67% (HB0262) died. The bill to gerrymander judicial districts (SB0308) died.
So it wasn’t as bad as it could have been but kinda bad is still bad — and three judicial power bills did pass and are now law.
SB0134 — Court Amendments | Sen. Chris Wilson – Plain and simple court packing. And signed by the governor within days of passing. Expands the Utah Supreme Court from five justices to seven and the Court of Appeals from seven to nine, at a cost of nearly $6.5 million — with no request from the court itself and active opposition from the Utah State Bar. The only part of this bill the judiciary actually asked for was the lower court funding, which the legislature used as cover to pass the expansion nobody needed. The timing — right after the legislature lost major cases on redistricting — was not subtle.
HB0392 — District Court Amendments | Rep. Matt MacPherson – The story of this bill is almost the story of the session in miniature. It started as an unambiguously terrible bill: a new statewide constitutional court with judges hand-selected by the governor and exclusive jurisdiction over challenges to state laws — a structure no other state has ever attempted. Under pressure, the bill got amended. Judges would now be randomly selected from existing district court judges across the state. That was an improvement. But the core problem stayed: only the attorney general, the governor, or the Legislature can invoke the three-judge panel — and that invocation cannot be challenged or reviewed. So when the bill passed and was signed, the AG’s office immediately started using it to yank pending cases — redistricting, the Great Salt Lake, the abortion ban — out of the hands of their assigned judges and into the new panel. Plaintiffs filed for restraining orders. Lawsuits piled up so fast that the Legislature had to pass an emergency same-session patch, HB366, opening the panel to any litigant (not just the Gov, legislature, and AG). They think the fix will put them in a better place for the litigation but the fact that they needed it says everything. This bill is still being litigated and will be for some time.
SB0233 — Judicial Performance Evaluation Amendments | Sen. Brady Brammer – Expands judicial performance surveys to include plaintiffs and other parties, and asks those individuals to evaluate a judge’s “legal competence” — including their understanding of constitutional law. Framed as transparency. Functions as a mechanism to build a public record against judges who rule against the legislature.
And for the non-judiciary bad bills that passed….
HB0209 — Voting Amendments | Rep. Cory Maloy – Creates a two-tier voting system in Utah. People who can’t provide documentary proof of citizenship — even if they are U.S. citizens — can register and vote only in federal races, not state or local ones. It also expands voter roll investigations and shifts the burden of proof onto voters on short timelines. A solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, creating a real problem for voters who do.
HB0136 — Unlicensed Driver Amendments | Rep. Matt MacPherson – Escalates driving without a license or driving privilege card from an infraction to a misdemeanor. In practice, an immigration enforcement tool, targeting the undocumented Utahns who can’t obtain standard licenses and who depend on driving privilege cards to get to work.
SB0174 — Exercise of Religious Beliefs and Conscience Amendments | Sen. Keven Stratton – Creates a broad “right of conscience” for healthcare providers, hospitals, and insurers to refuse to provide, participate in, or pay for any healthcare service that violates their religious or moral beliefs — with no requirement to refer patients elsewhere.
HB0174 — Sex Characteristic Change Treatment Amendments | Rep. Rex Shipp – Strengthens Utah’s existing ban on gender-affirming hormones for minors by removing the grandfathering provision that allowed kids already in treatment to continue, and requiring them to taper off within six months. Young people who have been on treatment for years now face forced medical transition.
HB0274 — Sentencing Amendments | Rep. Mike Schultz (the Speaker) – Removes most defense attorneys from the Utah Sentencing Commission and replaces them with more law enforcement. It got marginally less bad during the process — the three defense attorneys were restored — but it still removes the juvenile defender and indigent defender from a body that determines how Utah punishes people. The Speaker sponsoring a bill that weakens defense representation on sentencing policy is not subtle.
HB0214 — Firearms Liability Amendments | Rep. Jordan Teuscher – Makes it harder to sue gun manufacturers and sellers in Utah by narrowing the circumstances under which lawsuits can proceed, blocking claims based on consumer protection or public nuisance law unless those laws explicitly regulate firearms, and creating an extremely narrow standard for negligent marketing claims. Fewer legal tools for communities harmed by gun violence.
HB0404 — Sex-Designated Housing Amendments | Rep. David Shallenberger – Creates an exemption in the Utah Fair Housing Act that lets landlords designate certain shared living spaces as single-sex based on biological sex at birth.
HB0222 — Limitation of Actions Amendments | Rep. Carl Albrecht – Grants fossil fuel companies special legal immunity that no other industry enjoys, preemptively blocking courts from holding them accountable for climate-related harms. Utah families bear the real costs of climate change — wildfire smoke, drought, extreme heat — while this bill removes one of the remaining legal tools available to seek accountability. Sets a dangerous precedent by taking certain claims off the table before courts can even evaluate them.
HB0060 — Water Rights Amendments | Rep. David Shallenberger – Makes it significantly harder for the public to challenge new water rights by limiting who has standing to protest. Also removes the requirement that the state engineer consider whether a new water right would harm public welfare, recreation, or the natural stream environment.
HB0495 — Capital Felony Case Amendments | Rep. Candice Pierucci – Overhauls Utah’s death penalty process to prioritize speed over fairness — weakening protections for intellectually disabled defendants, limiting court review, and restricting appeals. The stakes of getting this wrong are about as high as they get.
HB0545 — Budgetary Modifications | Rep. Val Peterson – Removes the State Auditor’s ability to access emergency funds when she needs them to investigate the Legislature. The body that controls the Auditor’s budget is cutting off the Auditor’s ability to investigate the body that controls the budget. There is not a more concise description of what this session was about.
SB0242 — Transportation Amendments | Sen. Wayne Harper – A state takeover of Salt Lake City’s streets. Strips the city of meaningful control over major road decisions and hands veto power to UDOT, requiring freeway-style standards like 12-foot lane widths for city streets.
SB0295 — Intellectual Diversity in Education and Government | Sen. John Johnson – An anti-DEI omnibus expanding and hardening Utah’s existing bans on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across K–12, higher ed, and state government.
The Most Painful: Good Bills That Died
These are the ones that sting. Every session, we spend weeks watching good people fight for legislation that would actually improve lives and then watch it die quietly in a committee room or on a floor vote. Most of these ideas are common sense. And most of them died not because they were bad policy, but because a supermajority that controls every gate in the process chose to let them. When good bills die it usually isn’t because the policy was weak. It’s because someone with power decided it wasn’t worth their time, or that it conflicted with a donor priority, or simply that the clock ran out (which is also a choice).
That’s part of what we try to do here — make sure the losses get named, too. Because the people who worked on these bills deserve that, and so do the Utahns who would have benefited from them.
HB0080 — Firearm Storage Requirements | Rep. Andrew Stoddard – Would have created a misdemeanor when an adult leaves a loaded gun unsecured, a child under 16 accesses it, and carries or uses it unlawfully. One of the most evidence-backed interventions for reducing gun deaths by suicide and accidental shooting, especially involving children.
HB0029 — Unfair and Deceptive Pricing Amendments (”Ban Hidden Fees”) | Rep. Tyler Clancy – Required businesses to show the total price upfront — no more bait-and-switch where mandatory fees appear at checkout. Passed the House with only 3 opposed. Never made it to a Senate committee. All-in pricing. What a concept.
SB0180 — School Nutrition Amendments | Sen. Luz Escamilla – Expanded access to free school meals for families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level using existing liquor tax revenue. Passed the Senate unanimously, in committee and on the floor. Got held in a House committee.
SB0248 — Childcare Amendments | Sen. Luz Escamilla – Created a public-private partnership to retrofit obsolete state buildings into childcare facilities leased to employer sponsors. State employees get childcare access, the state gets lease revenue, employers can actually help workers afford care. Made it all the way to the final step and died on the House floor.
HB0245 — Construction Wage Standard Act | Rep. Tyler Clancy – Reestablished prevailing wage standards for state construction projects, ensuring workers on publicly funded projects get paid fairly. Died on the House floor after passing committee.
SB0176 — Landscaping Procurement Amendments | Sen. Stephanie Pitcher – Required state agencies to buy electric-powered landscaping equipment for smaller state properties in urban counties. Cuts emissions, protects workers from noise and pollution, saves money. Made it all the way to the House floor and died by a single vote. One vote.
SB0215 — Eviction Record Amendments | Sen. Stephanie Pitcher – Shortened the waiting period for automatic expungement of dismissed eviction cases. Right now, even a dismissed eviction follows renters for years, locking them out of housing, jobs, and credit.
SB0076 — Residential Rental Payment Reporting Amendments | Sen. Jen Plumb – Would have required large landlords to offer renters the option to have on-time rent payments reported to credit bureaus. Rent is often a household’s largest monthly expense but rarely helps build credit. Held in Senate committee.
SB0253 — Library Materials Amendments | Sen. Mike McKell – Required clear public policies for how library materials are selected and challenged, limited repeat challenges to once every four years per title, kept materials available while under review, and prevented removal solely due to partisan, ideological, or religious disapproval. Written in collaboration with librarians and affected communities.
HB0104 — State Holiday Amendments | Rep. Ryan D. Wilcox – Would have made Election Day an official state holiday. Failed on the House floor 33-39. A bipartisan idea — sponsored by a Republican — that somehow couldn’t get bipartisan support.
HB0106 — School Attendance Changes | Rep. Andrew Stoddard – Would have established chronic absenteeism data requirements and a study to better understand and address the problem.
HB0184 — Small Lots and Starter Homes Amendments | Rep. Raymond Ward – Created a fast-track process allowing property owners to override local zoning for starter homes, smaller lots, and ADUs, with automatic approval if a city didn’t act within 30 days. A market-friendly approach to the housing crisis that died in rules.
SB0056 — Citizenship Education Amendments | Sen. Kathleen Riebe – Would have required a specific civics curriculum for 10th graders covering voting rights, jury duty, tax responsibilities, employment rights, and interactions with law enforcement.
SB0136 — Enforcement Activities Amendments | Sen. Nate Blouin – The “ICE Out” bill. Would have prohibited state and local law enforcement from assisting ICE in operations at churches, hospitals, libraries, courthouses, and other sensitive locations, and required federal immigration agents to remove face coverings during enforcement.
SB0177 — Product Pricing Amendments | Sen. Stephanie Pitcher – Would have required businesses to clearly disclose when a price was set by an algorithm using a customer’s personal data.
HB0596 — Homelessness Amendments | Rep. Steve Eliason – A sweeping homelessness services bill that would have taken shelter capacity limits away from cities and given them to the state Office of Homeless Services, created a “Code Red” emergency alert system for extreme heat mirroring the existing Code Blue for extreme cold, and made other significant improvements to how Utah coordinates homelessness services.
What’s Next
The session is over. But we definitely don’t stop here.
We have a lot planned. Over the coming weeks we’ll be publishing deeper dives into the things that didn’t fit here. And all the other exciting things happening in Utah politics.
We also want to give a shoutout to Ben Winslow at Fox13 for his incredibly comprehensive and complete recaps on the session. Also check out this week’s RadioWest episode (you might hear some familiar voices).
Finally: we are genuinely, deeply grateful for everyone who followed along this session. Everyone who contacted their legislator, showed up to Hill Talk, shared a post, sent an email, made a call, or just read this far into a very long Substack. You have no idea what it means to us to not be doing this alone. Utah is worth fighting for. You prove that every time you show up.
We’ll see you out there.