S.B. 36 Transportation Commission Amendments

What this bill does

The bill directs the Utah Department of Transportation to study the Transportation Commission's structure and regions, along with the executive director's duties and qualifications. UDOT would review these issues with stakeholders and report back with recommendations, including whether any changes are needed.

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Every vote

• 24 yes, 0 no, 5 absentFinal Senate vote · Jan 20, 2026Who voted how
• 11 yes, 0 no, 1 absentHouse Transportation Committee: vote to approve it · Jan 28, 2026Who voted how
• 59 yes, 9 no, 7 absentFinal House vote · Feb 4, 2026Who voted how

Hearings and debates

• Jan 20, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (11 turns)

  1. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:40:32

     discussion on regions, the executive director, the Transportation Commission, and was decided we didn't have enough time. So this bill creates a study program to require the department transportation and other, uh, relevant stakeholders to look at the composition of the transportation Commission, the regions, and the, uh, qualifications for the executive director. After, uh, interim was over, it was, uh, brought to my attention that we left out two items. Uh, staff had forgot to put in a, uh, definitional phrase and that's why uh, there's, there's a new thing in the substitute bill. Plus there was an i, uh, clarification on a couple of the study items and with that, Mr. President, I'd move that we delete and title embody Senate bill 36 and replace with first substitute Senate Bill 36. Thank

  2. Senate President (presiding)1:41:26

     You. Discussion of the motion? Say none. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes now Back to the bill

  3. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:41:36

     So that this goes through And does the, uh, study for those three items as discussed in interim?

  4. Senate President (presiding)1:41:42

     Thank you. See no discussion. Senator Harper, I'll go to you for a motion. Thank

  5. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:41:47

     You. Under suspension of the rules, I move that first substitute Senate bill 36 pass.

  6. Senate President (presiding)1:41:52

     Thank you. And the question is, under suspension of the rule shall first substitute Senate Bill 36 pass Roll call vote.

  7. Senate clerk (roll call)1:41:58

     Senator Vickers Baldy Aye. Lewin Bramer bus A Colmore You Samia Fillmore Grover Harper Aye. Hankins Aye. Ipson Aye. Johnson Aye. Quan McKay? Aye. Mikel Milner. Musman Owens pitcher Aye. Plum rebe sandal Aye. Stevenson Aye. Aye. Stratton Aye. Vickers Aye. Weiler Aye. Wilson. Aye.

  8. Senate President (presiding)1:42:49

     Winterton President Adams Aye. First substitute Senate Bill 36, having received 23 yay votes, zero na votes, six being absent sent first substitute Senate bill 36.

  9. Senate President (presiding)1:43:12speaker not certain

     Having received Senator Fillmore, Oh, sorry. There we go. Thank you.

  10. Senate President (presiding)1:43:24

      Uh, now I'll call it, uh, first substitute Senate bill 36, having received 24 yay votes, zero nay votes, five being absent, passes his body and will be sent to the house for their consideration.

  11. Senate President (presiding)1:43:37

      We still have a number of bills to read in, so we'll we're gonna continue to read bills. So, uh, uh, let's go ahead. Senate Bill One, higher education based budget, Senator Millner, Senate Bill four, economic and community development based Budget. Senator Musselman, Senate Bill five,

• Jan 28, 2026 House Transportation Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (17 turns)

  1. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:12:04

     And, uh, so we'll go to your next bill, SB um, 36 Transportation Commission Amendments.

  2. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:12:16speaker not certain

     Thank you. And we are on the first sub, correct?

  3. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:12:19

     Okay. Uh, yes. Excuse me. First album. Okay.

  4. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:12:22

     During the, uh, interim committee, there was some discussion as to, um, the structure of, uh, the Transportation Commission, the duties of the executive director, and what the geographical boundaries of a region should be. Currently, right now in udot, we have four regions. Those have not changed since 1993. There's some discussion with, uh, all of the growth in Southern Utah and all the new roads. They're going to the parks and having a single region headquartered in, in St. George. And really nothing other than road maintenance on the east side of the state. Should we actually have six regions? Is that more expensive? Is that, uh, better for management? Uh, maintenance of all the roads? The, uh, the Transportation Commission was organized in 1963 as the State Road Commission. We modified it, uh, and called it the Transportation Commission in 75 96. We moved from five to seven members and then, and they were all geographically based in 2009. We went from, uh, the seven members that are, you know, geographically based to four, one per region and three at large. Um, and there's, there was some discussion last two years really as to, is do we need to update this? So what this does is call for the call for uoc to get with all the stakeholders, review their history, review the needs of the different regions of the state, the areas, uh, taking into consideration population growth and, and, uh, lane miles and all that type of stuff. And find out, come back report to the interim committee, do we make a change? And if so, what it is, if not, are we fine? So that's what it, what it does.

  5. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:14:18

     Okay. Thank you. We'll go to the committee for comments or questions. Seeing none, we'll open it up for, uh, to the public for questions. Anybody online? No one online. And it looks like there's no questions, so we'll bring it back to the Committee for action. Representative Matthews,

  6. Rep. Ashlee Matthews1:14:54

     Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I apologize. Um, is the substitute already adopted?

  7. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:14:59

     I'm sorry, I couldn't hear that.

  8. Rep. Ashlee Matthews1:15:00

     Oh, no, we're good. Um, I make a motion that we pass out s sp 31st substitute SB 36.

  9. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:15:07

     Okay. That motion is in order. Um, just do you wanna comment? You want to No. Make a comment on that. Okay. We'll go to the committee for discussion to the motion. Seeing none, we'll take it back to the sponsor for summation. Thank

  10. Sen. Wayne A. Harper1:15:26

      You. Appreciate your attention to this, and stay tuned. We'll have lots of discussion over the interim.

  11. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:15:32

      All right. And back to the maker of the motion. Okay.

  12. Rep. Ashlee Matthews1:15:35

      Waive all. Thank you.

  13. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:15:37

      Those in favor of passing out is it first substitute SB 36 with, with the favorable recommendation, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Say No, Thank you. Okay, thank you. That passes unanimously.

  14. Unknown speaker1:15:57speaker not certain

      I appreciate that. Yeah.

  15. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:16:09

      All right. Uh, Representative Cutler is tied up in another committee for a minute, and so I'm gonna, I'm gonna rule that we'll saunter until he gets back, and maybe just check in at least five minutes and see, hopefully he'll be back in

  16. Unknown speaker1:17:21speaker not certain

      Will. Yeah, did that.

  17. Chair Christofferson (presiding)1:17:30

      So will, will unter, we, uh, stop swaging or Sering or whatever and, and we'll come back to order.

• Feb 4, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Meeting Clerk46:16

     Madam Meeting Clerk First substitute Senate bill 36 Transportation Commission Amendments by Senator Harper. This bill was heard in transportation with a vote of 11 0 1. The House sponsors Representative Christofferson. Representative Christofferson.

  2. Rep. Kay J. Christofferson46:33

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, this bill, uh, does a study on the Transportation Commission. We haven't looked at that for a long time. There are, uh, some regions, uh, over the years, uh, the growth and that has changed. And what we want to do is just have a study to evaluate if their responsibilities and their areas of, uh, that they, that they represent, um, meets the needs. So basically it's just to look at it, have a deep dive and then, uh, come back and, and make any recommendations, uh, next year. But, uh, it also looks at the uh, uh, director of udot and says, what are the responsibilities there? Uh, what are the requirements to become, to be a director? We wanna look at that as well. So with that, I'll answer any questions.

  3. Speaker (presiding)47:32

     Discussion to the bill. See none. Back to Representative Christofferson for summation. Thank

  4. Rep. Kay J. Christofferson47:40

     You. I'll

  5. Speaker (presiding)47:40

     Waive summation has been waived. Voting will now be open on first substitute. 36 Ucci Peterson. Representative Kohler voting now closed first substitute SB 36 passed this body with 59 yes votes, no nine no votes will be signed by the speaker and sent to the Senate for the signature of the president. They represented well. Let's see.