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Utah Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, was elevated Friday to president-elect of the National Conference of State Legislatures, setting him up to become the president next year.
NCSL is a bipartisan organization that acts as a policy clearinghouse and research center, sharing information with 7,383 state lawmakers nationwide and their 20,000 staff members.
Bramble served as vice president of the organization during the past year. He now succeeds Debbie Smith, a Democrat from Nevada, who becomes the group's president. NCSL alternates leadership between the two parties each year.
"This is such an exciting time for NCSL, and I'm happy to be a part of this great organization," Bramble said in a statement. "NCSL provides us with tools to become better leaders in our home states and helps to advocate for issues facing the states in Washington."
Bramble, a CPA who was elected to the Senate in 2000, is a past majority leader there. He is the current chairman of the Senate Business and Labor Committee, and co-chairman of the Legislative Information Technology Steering Committee.
Part of the work of that IT steering committee is to oversee the Legislature's website — le.utah.gov — which this week won the NCSL's Online Democracy Award as best in the nation. Judges praised it for simple, intuitive navigation that eases public access to the Legislature.
The website offers such things as recordings and live audio or video of committees, calendars, text of bills and votes on them.
About the award, Utah Senate President Wayne Niederhauser said, "Online democracy is a giant leap in the evolution of local self-governance and human freedom."
This is the second time Utah won the award.