Hatch voices views to Utah lawmakers

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told state senators Wednesday that there's no need for legislation that would allow lawmakers to request U.S. senators report back to them on certain issues.

"Frankly, I am not a supporter of that," Hatch said in response to a question from state Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, who is sponsoring a bill to require such reports.

Hatch, who acknowledged that he had not yet read SB202, said he already was willing to listen to state lawmakers on a regular basis "to iron out any differences that might arise. ... I don't think you need legislation to do that."

Utah's senior senator said he respected state lawmakers and was "certainly not going to ignore what you have to say." But U.S. senators represent the nation, not just the state, Hatch said, and besides, state lawmakers wouldn't want local government leaders telling them what to do.

The bill formalizes the relationship between the Legislature and Congress, but doesn't go as far as Stephenson originally wanted when he first introduced legislation on the issue last year.

Then, he sought a "soft repeal" of the 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which calls for popular elections of U.S. senators, as well as for state lawmakers to "direct" U.S. senators and force them to report back on their actions. Those same lawmakers would have chosen their party's candidates for the U.S. Senate.

That effort failed, and now, Stephenson said his intent is to keep Utah's U.S. senators updated on the Legislature's positions on various issues including immigration. "We get a lot of unfunded mandates," Stephenson said. "I think it would be useful for you to know the degree to which we would like Congress to deal with issues."

Hatch spoke about immigration during his presentation to the Utah Senate, telling senators that "we're a nation of laws but we're also a nation of immigrants." He said laws must be enforced but added, "I'm not sure Congress is going to do a very good job of doing that."

In the House, Hatch said he expects a good immigration bill to pass before the end of the year. "But so far everything is wrapped up in Iraq."

Hatch then spoke at some length about the evils of pornography, both on the Internet and elsewhere. He said that he knows of LDS Church missionaries whose lives have been ruined by porn, and marriages destroyed by porn.

Hatch spoke about a speech he gave in Hollywood to the directors guild, in which he said Hollywood defends some of the poor sexually-oriented films as "art."

"It may be art, but it is immoral art," said Hatch, who added he's been disappointed in U.S. Supreme Court rulings overturning laws that try to control pornography.

Hatch also recounted how Warren Beattie came up to talk with him afterwards, asking him to run for president. "I said, 'I've already done that"' and wouldn't again.

Hatch said he asked to meet Beattie's wife, actress Annette Benning, and Beattie said no way, and they both had a good laugh about that.

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