Take a problem, a concern, maybe just an issue. Look into it fully. Ask people with many different perspectives and interests on the matter what they think and what they need. Try to synthesize it all into a proposal that might work toward a solution, or maybe just an improvement.
That process, not just partisan score-settling or online rage-baiting, should be the norm for people who write our laws.
Utah lawmakers may do that more than we give them credit for, given that it’s the nasty red meat politics that tends to get most of the attention. And there is at least one instance where this careful kind of legislating appears to be happening.
Utah has developed a reputation, apparently deserved, for being a state where it is relatively easy for a woman who wants to place her unborn child for adoption to find adoptive parents who are eager to expand their families with the help of an adoption agency.
It means that some adoption agencies will pay for women who find themselves in a desperate situation to come here from one state, people eager to adopt will come from another, money changes hands, passing through the agency, and parental rights are irrevocably signed away.
It can be hard for people not directly involved to say when a mutually agreed arrangement crosses the line into exploitation, when rescuing a woman and a baby becomes “adoption tourism.”
Utah state Rep. Katy Hall, a Republican from South Ogden, has proposed a measure, House Bill 51, that would do many things that would help to ensure that women who want to place a child for adoption are cared for but not exploited, threatened or coerced, that their medical, travel and basic living expenses are covered but that they have neither been bribed nor promised large payments that may or may not materialize.
Key to all the other proposals is to require that adoption agencies in Utah become registered nonprofit organizations, so that their management and finances are open to public scrutiny.
The measure is supported by Utah adoption agencies and by advocates for birth mothers and adoptive parents. It has already won the bipartisan endorsement of the Legislature’s Judiciary Interim Committee and stands a good chance of becoming law during the current session.
This is legislation that seeks to solve a problem, or at least ameliorate one. It stands to make life better for a great many people, without drawing any partisan blood or winning its sponsors any Instagram anger points.
It is the kind of legislation that fulfills the call of House Speaker Mike Schultz issued on the session’s opening day.
“So, let us run bills for the next generation, not for the next news cycle,” the speaker said. “Let us accept that we may never see the full fruit of our labor — and be proud of that fact.”
As the Legislature proceeds with its work, let lawmakers consider the long-range implications of their bills. Ask experts, stakeholders, those affected, what they think.
Consider the opinions of judges when reforming the judiciary.
Talk to transgender people, or their parents, about what they are going through and how proposed legislation can make their lives better or worse.
Consider the opinion of doctors, teachers, law enforcement officers and others when seeking to exclude migrants and refugees from state programs and benefits, and what damage such barriers might do to public health and safety in general.
Let cities name their own streets.
As we have said before in this space, our Legislature has a lot of important issues before it. It would help if legislative leaders could set up a fair filtering system to reduce the number of bills considered each year.
Focusing on a few issues at a time, and making the effort to consider the needs and feelings of all of those potentially affected, will make lawmakers’ job easier, and the results better.
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible