A little-known legislative committee that oversees the rules created by Utah agencies and courts to govern their own operations wants to expand its power while becoming even more Republican — and Democrats are on board.
The 10-member Rules Review and General Oversight Committee has six lawmakers from the majority party, four from the minority and is split evenly between the House and Senate. An advancing bill would grow membership to 13, with most seats going to the House, and all newcomers would be Republicans.
Proposed by the two chairs of the committee — Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, and Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton — SB148 would also make it easier for the Senate president and House speaker to remove committee members.
Currently, the committee’s authority includes examining any rule made by an executive branch agency, as well as court rules before they’re adopted (a capability added in 2024). Lawmakers on the committee also draft an annual bill to reauthorize or strike administrative rules.
This session, the committee recommends reauthorizing all administrative rules.
Over the last year, the committee assessed rules pertaining to a wide range of issues, including how elections are conducted.
Under the bill from McCay and Lee, that oversight would widen to allow it to initiate legislative audits of government entities, delay the effective date of any proposed rule by 60 days and close meetings to discuss certain sensitive matters — including any issue that is the subject of a lawsuit, or “likely to be” tied up in one.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek, speaks before the Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee about SB136, a bill that looks to ban law enforcement, including federal immigration officers, from wearing face coverings in Utah, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026.
With its increased weight, the committee would be renamed the General Oversight Committee.
The name change “acknowledges this evolving role,” McCay told the Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee last month before it approved the bill 5-1 for consideration by the full Senate.
It moves forward largely unopposed by Democrats — the three Democrats present for the Rules Review and General Oversight Committee’s meeting earlier this month, including minority leaders for both chambers, voted to back the bill.
Spokespeople for minority caucuses in both the House and the Senate did not respond to questions about their position on the bill.
“Is that intentional?” Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Salt Lake City, asked about the proposed increase in Republicans during a hearing last week.
McCay said one reason for the change is to ensure enough members attend hearings to reach the legal requirement to proceed. That bar is now three representatives and three senators, but under SB148, a quorum would be four representatives and three senators.
Limiting growth to three members kept the committee from becoming “unwieldy,” McCay explained, but made it impossible to preserve the current partisan ratio. As the bill progresses, the senator added, he’s open to adjusting membership and party makeup.
“I don’t mind more minority-majority,” McCay said. “That didn’t make as much of a difference to me as much as getting some more people for quorum.”
Before the bill passed out of committee, Blouin said, “I checked in with members of my caucus, they said, ‘Oh yeah, we think it’s fine.’ I’m probably going to vote no, because I don’t like the optics of reducing our representation.”
The possible partisan shift in the legislative body overseeing administrative rulemaking comes a year after lawmakers approved a bill removing political affiliation guardrails on the membership of 19 boards and commissions in the state, clearing the way to add more Republicans. Many of those entities are tasked with creating administrative rules.