GOP House members said that this summer the interim Legislative Process Committee, made up of House and Senate Republicans and Democrats, will study whether other changes should be made in when and how long the Utah Legislature meets.

Several GOP House members said they would like more days off during the 45-day session to attend to their private jobs, their families and to hold town meetings with constituents.

Various options were discussed, including starting the session in early February, taking one or more weeks off in the middle of the current session, in part to allow late-February revenue estimates to be studied, and the final budget put together in a more thoughtful process.

"There is one thing (GOP) leaders will not accept," said House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy. "We will not meet in session more than 45 days. Put that baby to rest right now."

Another bill, HB11, to create a commemorative day marking Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery, has been approved by the House but has yet to be heard by the Senate. Sponsor Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, had hoped that bill would have passed on the first day of the session.

During his opening remarks Valentine said, "We never were a slave state. We never were a state that had segregation. But instead, we were a state that has honored freedom and the fighters of freedom."

That's not true. Slavery was at one time legal in Utah, historians say, and while Utah's schools were never segregated many other aspects of life in in the state were.

"For this purpose we recognize the need for recognition for people who fought for freedom," Valentine continued. "Hence, we wanted to start the day after Martin Luther King Day, a freedom fighter, and recognize two of our greatest presidents, who were also freedom fighters."

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