- Lawmakers introduced 962 bills and passed 582 during the 2025 legislative session.
- Gov. Spencer Cox said this is “way too many” and could hurt the quality of legislation.
- Some states, like California, limit the number of bills introduced by each lawmaker.
Utah
Is Utah passing too many laws? Gov. Cox thinks so
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he will discuss changes with lawmakers to decrease the number of bills jammed into the state’s short legislative session.
The Beehive State has one of the shortest lawmaking periods in the entire country, coming in at a constitutionally mandated 45 days. In 2025, only one other state has a 45-day session, Virginia, most other states range from four months to yearlong.
Despite its abbreviated session, Utah has seen a steady increase in the number of bills introduced and passed by the House and Senate’s 104 members over the last decade, and especially in the last three years.
In 2025, the Legislature introduced 959 bills and resolutions — a new record. And it sent 582 bills to the governor’s desk — second only to 2024, which saw elected representatives write, debate and approve 591 pieces of legislation.
“I think we passed way too many bills,” Cox told reporters on the final night of the legislative session.
Cox touted the work of his administration collaborating with the legislative branch to fit so much into such a short time and complimented legislators’ “messy” “sausage-making” as having produced mostly good policy. But there is room to improve, he said.
Cox committed to talk with legislative leadership during the interim between sessions about ways to “ratchet” down the number of bills “so that we can have more process, so that we can get better outcomes.”
“The process really matters,” Cox said. “How we do things is almost as important as what we do.”
While legislators got to say goodbye to the Capitol late on March 7, the end of the session marked the beginning of an intensive 20-day window where Cox’s office will review each of the bills.
Cox refused to comment on whether he planned to veto any specific bills. In 2024, Cox used his veto power on seven bills to instruct the Legislature on which bills were unnecessary because they could have been solved with a “phone call.”
“There is a cost associated with each new piece of legislation, and I’m increasingly concerned that we’re not giving government administration adequate time to implement policy changes — both at the state and local levels,“ Cox told the Deseret News in a statement on Wednesday. ”With this recent trend of record-setting numbers of bills, it’s time to rethink our approach.”
Will lawmakers limit bills?
Over the last 15 years, the number of bills introduced each session has increased from the low 700s to the high 900s, according to data compiled by Adam Brown, an associate professor of political science at Brigham Young University.
The number of bills passed has similarly increased from around 480 to 580. As the number of bills has gone up, the time spent on the floor debating bills in both chambers has decreased from a median of around 14 minutes to 11 minutes, Brown’s analysis found.
“Lawmakers have a built-in incentive to introduce legislation, since passing more bills in their own name gives them something to highlight to voters,” Brown said. “But with only 45 days in the legislative session, more bills inevitably mean less time for thoughtful debate.”
Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Sandy, said during the last week of the session that the number of bills being passed at the state level might actually reflect positive differences between Utah and Washington, D.C.
Unlike Congress, where updates to code, small amendments and new provisions can all be added into federal statute in one giant “omnibus” bill, the Utah Legislature must consider each separate issue in state code in separate bills. A large portion of these bills are passed rapidly with a unanimous “consent” vote.
“We have the one subject rule,” Cullimore said. “Some of them are just tweaking things that we’ve done in years past, and it’s a line or two. At the federal level, you’d see that just merged into other bills.”
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, pushed back against policy changes to bring down the total number of bills.
While he would prefer there to be fewer bills, Adams said there is already a vigorous vetting process in place that winnows the initial number of around 1,500 bills that start being drafted, to less than 1,000 that are introduced, to less than 600 that are ultimately passed on the floor after committee consideration.
“We’re not going to limit the number of bills,” Adams said. “We’re not going to set a quota on it.”
How does Utah compare to other states?
Utah legislators actually introduce far fewer bills than legislators in other states — though this may have something to do with the truncated legislative session.
Over the 2023-24 legislative session, New York lawmakers introduced 24,284 bills, Massachusetts had 16,670 and Texas had 13,092, with many states hovering between 2,000 and 5,000.
Utah sat at the back of the pack, with Alaska introducing the fewest bills, at 812, and Wyoming, Idaho and the Dakotas joining Utah at around 1,000 introduced pieces of legislation.
Some states have placed a limit on the number of bills each lawmaker may introduce. California limits its lawmakers to 35 bills that they can introduce during each two-year session.
Utah could follow California’s lead in setting a cap on the number of bills each lawmaker can introduce, Brown said, or the state could also consider extending the length of the session, letting lawmakers hire professional staff to help evaluate bills or setting earlier deadlines for lawmakers to draft, introduce and pass bills.
But, at Utah’s levels, an increasing number of new bill files might actually be a good thing, according to James Curry, a professor of political science at the University of Utah.
“One of the measures of a healthy legislature is members actively introducing policy ideas (rather than doing very little and letting unelected bureaucrats make policy),” Curry said. “We should want them trying to do more, not less.”
The more interesting question is why Utah legislators introduce so few bills, Curry said. The reasons could include the inertia of doing things as they have been done in the past or a desire from leadership to maintain more control over the process, Curry said.
Which lawmakers introduced the most bills?
The number of bills introduced by individual lawmakers vary dramatically.
Over the past four legislative sessions, a handful of lawmakers have consistently introduced two to four times the number of bills as the median lawmaker.
These lawmakers include: Sens. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville; Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan; and Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross; and House Rules Chair Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan.
In 2025, Weiler, Harper and Fillmore again topped the list, with Weiler requesting 33 bill files and Harper and Fillmore each requesting 26. Teuscher requested more than any other representative, with 19 bill requests.
Utah
911 recordings detail hours leading up to discovery of Utah girl, mother dead in Las Vegas
CONTENT WARNING: This report discusses suicide and includes descriptions of audio from 911 calls that some viewers may find disturbing.
LAS VEGAS — Exclusively obtained 911 recordings detail the hours leading up to the discovery of an 11-year-old Utah girl and her mother dead inside a Las Vegas hotel room in an apparent murder-suicide.
Addi Smith and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, lived in West Jordan and had traveled to Nevada for the JAMZ cheerleading competition.
The calls show a growing sense of urgency from family members and coaches, and several hours passing before relatives learned what happened.
MORE | Murder-Suicide
Below is a timeline of the key moments, according to dispatch records. All times are Pacific Time.
10:33 a.m. — Call 1
After Addi and her mother failed to appear at the cheerleading competition, Addi’s father and stepmother called dispatch for a welfare check.
Addi and her mother were staying at the Rio hotel. The father told dispatch that hotel security had already attempted contact.
“Security went up and knocked on the door. There’s no answer or response it doesn’t look like they checked out or anything…”
11:18 a.m. and 11:27 a.m. — Calls 2 and 3
As concern grew, Addi’s coach contacted the police two times within minutes.
“We think the child possibly is in imminent danger…”
11:26 a.m. — Call 4
Addi’s stepmother placed another call to dispatch, expressing escalating concern.
“We are extremely concerned we believe that something might have seriously happened.”
She said that Tawnia’s car was still at the hotel.
Police indicated officers were on the way.
2:26 p.m. — Call 5
Nearly three hours after the initial welfare check request, fire personnel were en route to the scene. It appeared they had been in contact with hotel security.
Fire told police that they were responding to a possible suicide.
“They found a note on the door.”
2:35 p.m. — Call 6
Emergency medical personnel at the scene told police they had located two victims.
“It’s going to be gunshot wound to the head for both patients with notes”
A dispatcher responded:
“Oh my goodness that’s not okay.”
2:36 p.m. — Call 7
Moments later, fire personnel relayed their assessment to law enforcement:
“It’s going to be a murder suicide, a juvenile and a mother.”
2:39 p.m. — Call 8
Unaware of what had been discovered, Addi’s father called dispatch again.
“I’m trying to file a missing persons report for my daughter.”
He repeats the details he knows for the second time.
3:13 p.m. — Call 9
Father and stepmother call again seeking information and continue to press for answers.
“We just need some information. There was a room check done around 3:00 we really don’t know where to start with all of this Can we have them call us back immediately?”
Dispatch responded:
“As soon as there’s a free officer, we’ll have them reach out to you.”
4:05 p.m. — Call 10
More than an hour later, Addi’s father was put in contact with the police on the scene. He pleaded for immediate action.
“I need someone there I need someone there looking in that room”
The officer confirmed that they had officers currently in the room.
Addi’s father asks again what they found, if Addi and her mother are there, and if their things were missing.
The officer, who was not on scene, said he had received limited information.
5:23 p.m. — Call 11
Nearly seven hours after the first welfare check request, Addi’s grandmother contacted police, describing conflicting information circulating within the family.
“Some people are telling us that they were able to get in, and they were not in the hotel room, and other people saying they were not able to get in the hotel room, and we need to know”
She repeated the details of the case. Dispatch said officers will call her back once they have more information.
Around 8:00 p.m. — Press Conference
Later that evening, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police held a news conference confirming that Addi and her mother, Tawnia McGeehan, were found dead inside the hotel room.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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Utah
Ban on AI glasses in Utah classrooms inches closer to passing
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — AI glasses could allow you to get answers, snap photos, access audio and take phone calls—and now a proposal moving through the legislature would ban the glasses from Utah school classrooms.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Kizzy Guyton Murphy, a mother who accompanied her child’s class on a field trip to the state Capitol on Wednesday. “You can’t see inside what the student is looking at, and it’s just grounds for cheating.”
Mom Tristan Davies Seamons also sees trouble with AI glasses.
“I don’t think they should have any more technology in schools than they currently have,” she said.
Her twin daughters, fourth graders Finley and Grayson, don’t have cell phones yet.
“Not until we’re like 14,” said Grayson, adding they do have Chromebooks in school.
2News sent questions to the Utah State Board of Education:
- Does it have reports of students using AI glasses?
- Does it see cheating and privacy as major concerns?
- Does it support a ban from classrooms?
Matt Winters, USBE AI specialist, said the board has not received reports from school districts of students with AI glasses.
“Local Education Agencies (school districts) have local control over these decisions based on current law and code,” said Winters. “The Board has not taken a position on AI glasses.
MORE | Utah State Legislature:
Some districts across the country have reportedly put restrictions on the glasses in schools.
“I think it should be up to the teachers,” said Briauna Later, another mother who is all for preventing cheating, but senses a ban could leave administrators with tired eyes.
“It’s one more thing for the administration to have to keep track of,” said Later.
The proposal, HB 42, passed the House and cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday.
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Utah
Kalshi sues Utah over efforts to stop prop betting in the state
SALT LAKE CITY — A prediction market is suing Utah over plans to regulate proposition betting that it says would run afoul of federal regulations.
Kalshi is a New York-based prediction market that allows users to place “event contracts” on future outcomes and earn a payout if they are correct. Those transactions are regulated through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, the company said Utah has plans to prevent the company from offering contracts in the state and asked the courts to block any enforcement that “interferes with the operation and function of plaintiffs’ futures market.”
“Plaintiff KalshiEX LLC believes the governor of Utah and the Attorney General’s Office of Utah will imminently bring an enforcement action against Kalshi with the intent to prevent Kalshi from offering event contracts for trading on its federally regulated exchange,” the complaint states. “Defendants have repeatedly represented that they believe Kalshi is operating unlawfully under Utah anti-gambling laws.”
The lawsuit points to a couple of posts from Gov. Spencer Cox and an op-ed written by Attorney General Derek Brown in the Deseret News on Sunday. After Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Mike Selig announced that his agency would “defend its exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets last week, Cox took to X calling the markets “gambling — pure and simple.”
“They are destroying the lives of families and countless Americans, especially young men,” he wrote. “They have no place in Utah. Let me be clear, I will use every resource within my disposal as governor of the sovereign state of Utah, and under the Constitution of the United States to beat you in court.”
He followed that up last Thursday, saying Utah is “ready to defend our laws in court and protect Utahns from companies that drive addiction, isolation and serious financial harm.”
In his op-ed, Brown argued that prediction markets are “the newest iteration of gambling” and said he didn’t see a difference between betting and trading futures.
“Although traditional sports betting apps are illegal under Utah law, these platforms argue that they merely allow users to hedge their risk,” he wrote. “But what is the real risk to hedge when you are simply predicting whether LeBron James will score more or less than another player? It’s simply a bet, dressed up in different clothing.”
The lawsuit also comes as the state Legislature is advancing a bill that would clarify that proposition betting — or betting placed on specific players or events during games — falls under the state’s definition of gambling, which is prohibited by the Utah Constitution. HB243 has passed the House and a Senate committee and is awaiting consideration on the Senate floor.
But Kalshi says its contracts are lawful thanks to a carveout in Utah’s anti-gambling laws that allows for “lawful business.” Its lawsuit claims Kalshi’s attorneys made “multiple attempts” to contact Brown about potential action against the company but were “met with silence, even though the Utah AG had previously been willing to communicate with counsel.”
Asked about the lawsuit on Tuesday, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said he is “standing with the governor on this one.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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