SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — The 2026 Utah Legislative Session is scheduled to begin this week, and lawmakers have put hundreds of bills up for consideration.
The legislative session will last 45 days, stretching from Jan. 20 to March 6. As of now, legislators have proposed over 430 bills, approximately half the number proposed the year prior.
In 2025, over 900 bills were put forward by lawmakers. At the time, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla said she worried that it would be hard to cover that number of bills in just 45 days.
This year, the hundreds of bills and dozens of resolutions cover a variety of topics, from Artificial Intelligence and gambling to judicial retention and term limits.
Here are a few bills to keep your eye on over the next six weeks.
Flag Bill Modifications
A 2025 debate over pride flags in government buildings and schools has returned for a proposed revision.
Last year, the legislature passed a bill banning most flags in government buildings and public schools. The bill prompted a response from Salt Lake City leaders, who created and sanctioned pride and Juneteenth flags with the city’s logo, bypassing the ban.
This year, H.B. 81 Flag Display Modifications proposes to limit the flag restrictions to schools only, allowing for flags to be flown and displayed on government property.
Open Carry Restrictions
A proposed bill would make it illegal to open carry a firearm within 500 feet of a large public gathering.
It is already illegal to carry a firearm into an airport or a house of worship where it’s prohibited, and H.B. 166 would add large public gatherings to the list.
This proposal comes after a peaceful protester was shot and killed by a safety volunteer in downtown Salt Lake City last summer. According to officials, the safety volunteer saw a man carrying a firearm and fired his weapon, injuring the armed protester and killing another protester in the area.
AI & Digital Literacy
Artificial Intelligence has boomed in popularity and usage over the last few years, prompting educators and lawmakers to make adjustments.
If passed, H.B. 218 Digital Literacy Amendments would require high school students take a half-credit course in digital literacy to graduate. This course would focus on social media and AI literacy.
The bill would also create a task force to oversee the integration of digital literacy throughout the K-12 education system.
Sex Designation Amendments
H.B. Sex Designation Amendments would replace the term gender with sex, along with making several other sex-based changes.
The bill would repeal provisions in housing, employment, and crime related to gender identity.
It would also ban transgender employees in education and health and human services from duties that require “prolonged contact with a child.”
Finally, the bill would require the court “to view a parent’s nonsupport of a child’s gender identity that conflicts with the child’s biological sex as a factor awarding custody to that parent.”
Judicial Retention
Several bills and resolutions have been proposed to make changes to Utah’s judicial elections.
H.B. 262 proposes to increase the threshold to retain a judge from a simple majority to 67% approval.
House Joint Resolution 13 seeks to amend the Utah Constitution to allow the legislature to put a judge up for a retention election if it deems that judge to be unfit, incompetent, or improper. This means that if lawmakers do not approve of a judge’s actions, they can force an early vote to determine if the judge stays in their position.
Another resolution, H.J.R. 5, would amend the state constitution to allow the governor to appoint any qualified judicial candidate to a vacant seat, regardless of whether they were nominated by the commission. It would also remove the existing authority of the Supreme Court Chief Justice to fill the vacancy if the governor is unable.
These proposals come in the middle of a lengthy legal battle between the Third District Court and the legislature regarding Proposition 4. The redistricting case dates back to 2018, when voters passed a ballot initiative to create a commission to redraw the congressional district boundaries. State legislators repealed the ballot initiative in 2020, prompting the lawsuit.
Purple Alerts
S.B. 128 would create an alert system for vulnerable adults, similar to AMBER Alerts for missing children and Silver Alerts for missing seniors with disabilities.
The Purple Alert would be to help notify the public of a missing vulnerable adult, defined as a dependent adult with “mental or physical impairment.”
In recent months, a man with autism went missing twice in Salt Lake City. His disappearance was widely publicized; however, because he is an adult, and not a child or senior, no alerts were sent out to the public.
Other Bills to Watch
Other bills to be aware of include H.B. 196 and H.B 266, which propose to change the names of roads in honor of Charlie Kirk and Sgt. Bill Hooser.
H.B. 243 sets out to clarify that proposition betting—which involves placing bets on specific events—would fall under gambling and, therefore, is banned in Utah. And Senate Joint Resolution 4 addresses the possibility of adding term limits on congressmembers.
With hundreds of bills up for debate, Utahns can keep track of the bills and their progress on the legislature’s website.
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