8 issues Democratic lawmakers will focus on this session

As the Utah Legislature’s 2025 general session begins, Utah’s Democratic lawmakers plan to oppose the Utah Fits All education voucher program, as well as making sure students in higher education are getting what they need, providing affordable energy and standing up for the safety and rights of everyone in Utah.

On Tuesday, the first day of Utah’s legislative session, the House minority leadership held a press conference to announce their priorities for the session. Later in the day the Senate minority caucus held their own press conference to share their focuses for the session.

The House minority caucus has divided their priorities into five issue areas: sustainability, health and well-being, education, good governance, and inclusion and representation.

The Senate Democrats used the tagline “back to basic” to introduce their session priorities. Their focuses divided into three different unique categories: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The House Minority Caucus opposes the Utah Fits All voucher program

Rep. Sahara Hayes, D-Salt Lake City, emphasized opposing the Utah Fits All voucher program as one of the caucus’ top focuses for education during this session.

“We do not believe that public dollars should be ever used to fund private businesses, particularly when it’s a lot of money,” Hayes said. We’ve put $80 million into that program so far, and there’s no accountability metrics built in.”

She said this is especially a problem when that money could go to bolstering public education. The representative shared that she sat with a group of teachers earlier this month who were pleading for better resources.

“They do not have the tools that they need right now to support their students, and it is hard for them, and it is hard for the students, and they need an increased (weighted pupil unit) in order to do the job that they are given,” Hayes said.

Sen. Kathleen A. Riebe, D-Salt Lake City, when speaking about the Senate minority’s focus on the pursuit of happiness, said that the schools in Utah are some of the happiest places in the state. But, she said teachers are struggling and work needs to be done to make sure that schools can be a better and happier place.

The House Democrats concerns over cutting higher education funding

The legislators shared their concerns with the majority party’s plan for 10% across the board cuts to higher education funding.

Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, said there is value in looking into programs at universities to see what can be changed. But, she said, it is most important to keep students’ needs at the center.

“At the end of the day, we need to focus on what’s best for students, and the fact that higher education is a critical place for students to learn critical thinking skills to make them ready, not just for the workforce, but to take on the world in general,” Dailey-Provost said.

House Minority Leader Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, added that while we do need to open additional seats in programs like nursing and mental health, it is important that the state still allows students to have their own academic freedom to study whatever they want for however long they want.

“So I’m just really, really, really concerned about what is the true agenda?” Romero said.

The Senate minority caucus wants to keep energy clean, reliable and affordable for everyone

Sen. Nathan Blouin, D-Millcreek said “As we talk about how everyone is benefiting from these policies, we need to be thinking about everyone, not just these big corporations, as we talk about providing data centers and artificial intelligence the energy they need, we need to keep energy clean, reliable and affordable for everyone.”

When asked about the majority party’s push for Nuclear energy, Blouin said it really comes down to cost.

He said that these nuclear energy projects need to be proven to be technologically and commercially feasible. He also emphasized that until nuclear power plants can be built at an affordable rate on a time frame that actually works, it shouldn’t be a focus.

The state is talking about putting $20 million into nuclear energy initiatives, but Blouin said with how expensive nuclear is that’s just a “tiny little drop in the bucket”.

House Democrats will work on LGBTQ+ issues in Utah

When asked about the caucus’ strategy to approaching proposed restrictions to the LGBTQ+ community, Hayes said they are focused on stopping bills as they come up, but that often does not work. The next step is to talk “with the speaker, with the sponsors, trying to convey why there are problems with the bill or problematic language.”

Romero emphasized that the caucus is going to stand up and fight for the rights and protections of everyone in Utah.

“We’re not going to discriminate against somebody because of who they are,” Romero said.

House Democrats are concerned about the tone used when talking about immigration

Romero said she is concerned because from a national level and on a state level as well, immigration is being equated with public safety.

The caucus is concerned about public safety and believes in holding criminals accountable for the crimes they commit. But, Romero said, they don’t care what their immigration status is, if they’re committing crimes they need to be held accountable no matter what.

Concerns about public safety should not justify criminalizing an entire community, Romero said.

“There is a tenor to the conversation that seems to insinuate that immigration and criminal behavior is the same thing, and they are not,” Dailey-Provost said.

As a part of the House minority caucus’ focus on health and well-being they will work in improve housing in Utah

“One of the critical ways that health and safety manifests is being safely housed and having a home,” Dailey-Provost said.

The caucus wants to make sure that all individuals and families in the state have access to housing.

To do this and to address the state’s growing homelessness crisis the caucus is working with partners to decrease building costs, increase housing supply, implementing common sense density policies and address issues with institutional investors which contribute to increasing home prices.

The representatives will also work to protect unsheltered people from being targeted by organized crime.

“By providing safe housing, mental health support and addiction services, we can reduce their vulnerability and improve their safety,” Dailey-Provost said.

Senate Democrats say homelessness is a statewide issue

Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, spoke about the plans and policies being made in Salt Lake City around homelessness, but said that there also needs to be plans made for the whole state.

“Homelessness is not a Salt Lake City issue, Escamilla said. ”It’s a state issue.”

She said that individuals are experiencing homelessness all around the state of Utah, so it should be a shared responsibility to make sure resources are available across the whole state.

Affordable health care and mental health care services is a focus of Senate Democrats

Part of the Senate minority caucus’ focus on life is prioritizing health for those around the state. This includes helping communities and individuals be healthier, protecting their health and encouraging their health.

An element of this is to guarantee affordable healthcare and mental health care services and resources.

“I think it’s really important that we focus on not going back. We’ve made some strides on providing care and services to community members,” said Sen. Jen Plumb, D-Salt Lake City. “It’s very important to us that we protect those and we don’t go backwards.”

She also said she wants to focus on food security, making sure that everyone in the state, especially children, has access to nutritious meals.