LEGISLATIVE UPDATE AIA Utah Legislative Efforts: Making the Sausage BY SHAWN BENJAMIN What is sausage, anyway? You can’t really pin it down to one size, shape or flavor. There’s not really a specific style, origin or benefit that everyone appears to be able to agree on. It seems to be a composite of ingredients that keeps everyone from loving or hating it too much — satisfying some, while offending certain sensibilities of others. For the record, there are vegetarian varieties, but it seems like a bit of an oxymoron to say out loud. Now just replace the word “sausage” with “lawmaking” and reread this paragraph. Well, maybe not the vegetarian part — unless we introduce political affiliation into the mix. The AIA Government Affairs Committee (GAC) has the charge “to promote and enhance the health and safety of all Utahans in the built environment through relationship-building and lobbying of government officials.” AKA, the sausage … lawmaking process. For the past several months, the Government Affairs Committee has been working hand in hand with industry professionals, various organizations, lobbyists, and lawmakers to improve the professional ecosystem and enhance the lives of friends, family, and strangers alike. Where they are able, they carefully evaluate proposed legislation and debate the merits in the hope of contributing to positive outcomes for our state and our communities. Leading up to the 2023 session, the GAC tracked past legislation, trending issues, and technical subject matters related to the built environment. They looked for potential pitfalls as well as opportunities to raise the proverbial bar in our industry and, as a result, our communities. All that effort led to this year’s legislative beginnings. Lawmakers started with a humble list of draft bills but ended with nearly a thousand House and Senate bills and resolutions to be debated. Most of these fade into the background when more politically charged bills make the evening news. Some derive from personal experiences, others from community clamor. Concerns for the future on every front make their way through committee after committee, draft after draft, substitution after substitution. The process can be daunting, but the GAC has a “particular set of skills.” Well, lobbyists … we have lobbyists. We actually have amazing and very well-respected lobbyists. Our efforts within the industry, combined with their efforts behind the scenes, have proven to be a very effective approach to this process. 10 REFLEXION
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