House votes to override governor's veto on bill to require five‑day state office access

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah House of Representatives voted to override Governor Gary R.'s veto of House Bill 328 on Friday, sending the measure to the Senate for consideration after a floor debate that turned on constitutional authority and practical access to state services.

The chamber voted 50 in favor, 18 opposed and 7 absent, the Chief Clerk announced after closing the roll. The override will be transmitted to the Senate for its consideration.

"What this bill does is it takes us back to a period of time before the executive order ... when we had an energy crisis," said Representative Noel, the bill sponsor, summarizing the measure's purpose and its legislative history. He and other proponents said constituent complaints and a legislative audit showed the four-day, ten-hour schedule did not produce the savings once anticipated and left many residents without services on Fridays.

Representative Christiansen urged colleagues to consider the constitutional stakes, saying the governor "exceeded his authority" with an executive order that effectively restructured state work schedules and warning against setting a precedent that expands executive power. "If we are napping, if we are asleep at the wheel, if we let executive order just grow and creep," he said, "there is no limit."

Opponents framed the issue differently. Representative Nielsen said operational decisions such as work hours fall under executive authority, noting the Utah Constitution vests executive power in the governor and arguing the veto should be respected. "Executive power is the power to carry those out," Nielsen said in explaining his vote against the override.

Other backers stressed practical access for residents. Representative Greenwood described constituents who drove to state offices only to find them closed on the day state offices were not operating and said the bill would not usurp managers' ability to schedule staff. "All it is doing is simply saying that that office is going to be open and the service is going to be there," Greenwood said.

Supporters also pointed to specifics raised during debate: a legislative audit that questioned the claimed savings from a four-day schedule, an estimate in an earlier memo of about $14,000,000 in savings that supporters said the audit found suspect, and the fact that emergency authority used to justify the original executive order had been intended by statute to be limited to 60 days unless extended by joint resolution.

Representative Noel concluded by saying supervisors would retain flexibility to manage work schedules and that the legislature could amend the law later if implementation problems emerged. "If we find that that's a problem, we can come back and we can modify this bill," he said.

With the House having met the constitutional threshold for an override, the clerk recorded the result and informed members the outcome would be transmitted to the Senate. The Senate was simultaneously considering Senate Bill 229 at the time the House completed its business.

The House debate and vote underscore a continuing tension between elected branches over the scope of executive orders and the legislature's role in setting workplace rules for state offices.

Next step: the Senate will receive the transmitted override and may vote to sustain or reject the House action according to its own procedures.