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. 

This year, for instance, the GAC had several key pieces of legislation for which they were able to focus and affect change. Here are just a few:

• H.B. 118 — Education False Claims Amendments (Not Passed)
  The unintended consequence of creating civil right of action against design professionals and contractors for “fraudulent” billing where, perhaps, only invoicing mistakes were made.
• H.B. 409 — State Construction and Fire Code Amendments (Passed)
  Updated specific code sections in anticipation of the 2021 code adoption via H.B. 532
• H.B. 532 — Building Code Revisions (Passed)
  With a lot of behind-the-scenes work, the industry largely came together to encourage and help pass the late adoption of the 2021 ICC commercial and residential codes (with the exception of the residential portions of the IECC — which continues to be a hot topic for future legislation).
• S.B. 36 — Professional Licensing Amendments (Passed)
  This opened the door a little wider for those with international licenses to pursue reciprocity in certain circumstances and with DOPL approval. 
• S.B. 168 — State Agency Capital Development Fund (Passed)
  The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: $2.4 billion in funding for 46 new state projects and over $200 million in capital improvement funds

In addition to and in concert with our lobbying efforts, the GAC sponsored “Legislative Day” on the hill during the session. With the help of our lobbyists, there was a tremendous turnout from both the professional and lawmaker perspectives. As a community of sorts, we were able to discuss the concerns and opportunities our industry faces with (a little local name-dropping) Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, Senate President Stuart Adams, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, DOPL Executive Director Mark Steinagel, Representative Jennifer Dailey-Provost, and Representative Tom Peterson (former Chair of Utah Code Commission and current state code official).

In the end, the legislature passed 575 bills and resolutions. While only a few of these may have a direct effect on the built environment, they all impact us as citizens of this state in one way or another — but I suppose “sausage” can have that effect. 

Special thanks to all our GAC members/volunteers and our fantastic lobbyists for all their efforts!

If you’re interested in perusing the bills that did pass, please visit https://le.utah.gov/asp/passedbills/passedbills.asp.