SENATOR

MIKE LEE
ANNUAL
REPORT

Published February 2020

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 CONTENTS
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OFFICES OF SENATOR MIKE LEE Committee Immigration Reform Talking with Utahns
Assignments
Salt Lake City Office St. George Office 26 46
Wallace Bennett Federal Building 196 E Tabernacle Street 08 Protecting the Casework
125 S State Street, Suite 4225 St George, UT 84770 Sponsored Legislation Constitution
Salt Lake City, UT 84138
(801) 524-5933 48
14 28 Academy Nominations
Ogden Office Washington, DC Office Making Life Affordable Public Lands
For Utah Families Roundtable
James V. Hansen Federal Building Russell Senate Building 50
324 25th Street, Suite 1410 Room 361A Intern Program
Ogden, UT 84401 Washington, DC 20510 18 34
(801) 392-9633 (202) 224-5444 Social Capital Project Flavors of Utah
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Intern Spotlight
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Rural Empowerment Mobile Offices
 The founders designed a legislative branch in which
U.S. Senators would be accountable to the states. Each
year during Utah’s legislative session, I deliver my
annual report to the Utah Legislature and people of
Utah. I take this responsibility seriously. This annual
report is intended to keep the Utah Legislature and
the people of Utah abreast of my efforts as I strive to
represent the values for which we stand in this great
state.

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 COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Judiciary Committee - The Senate Committee on the Judiciary oversees the Department
of Justice, considers executive nominations, and reviews pending legislation. Senator Lee has
served on this important committee since 2011.
• Chairman of Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights
• Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts
• Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights

Energy & Natural Resources Committee - The Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources oversees matters related to energy and nuclear waste policy, territorial policy,
and public lands. This committee is crucial for public lands issues facing Utah.
• Chairman of Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining
• Subcommittee on Energy
• Subcommittee on Water and Power

Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee - The Senate

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation oversees the Coast Guard and Merchant
Marine, interstate commerce, communications, the Internet, highways, aviation, rail, shipping,
transportation security, oceans, fisheries, climate change, natural disasters, science, sports,
tourism, consumer protection, economic development, technology, competitiveness, product
safety, insurance, and standards and measurement.
• Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard
• Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security
• Subcommittee on Communications Technology, Innovation, and the Internet
• Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance, and Data Security
• Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness

Joint Economic Committee - The Joint Economic Committee is responsible for

reporting and making suggestions to improve the United States economy. Senator Lee serves as
the Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee and oversees the Social Capital Project.

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 Sponsored Legislation
116th Congress
S.1325 Military Humanitarian Operations Act of 2019 - Requires the president
to obtain an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) from Congress before
using U.S. military forces for humanitarian purposes where hostilities are present or
anticipated.
S.985 Allied Burden Sharing Report Act of 2019 - Requires the Secretary of De-
fense to submit a report to Congress detailing annual defense spending to mini-
mize contribution limitations of U.S. allied nations.
S.Res.298 - Affirms the President’s decision to withdraw the United States from the
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
S.Res.137 - Expresses the sense of the Senate that the President should work with
the British Government to prepare for a future free trade agreement between the
United States and the United Kingdom.
S.Amdt.708 - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2020 to trans-
fer property from Hill Air Force Base to the state of Utah for a new western gate and
constructing a new interchange on I-15.
S.278 CBO Show Your Work Act - Requires the Congressional Budget Office to
make the data and economic models it uses to produce cost estimates available to
the public.
S.1284 Global Trade Accountability Act of 2019 - Requires congressional approv-
al for the president to increase barriers to international trade.
S.2996 Head Start Improvement Act - Gives states and parents greater flexibility
to meet the specific needs of low-income children.
S.2339 Higher Education Reform and Opportunity Act - Provides students with
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options that prepare them for the challenges and opportunities in today’s job mar-
ket.
S.2630 Davis-Bacon Repeal Act - Repeals 80-year-old wage subsidy law that drives
up federal project costs and hinders economic growth.
S.1043 Working Families Flexibility Act - Allows employers to give options for em-
ployees to choose either overtime pay or paid time off for overtime hours.
S.2709 Protecting American Jobs Act - Transfers the power to hear and adjudicate
NLRB complaints to the U.S. Court System.
S.Res. 20 Mexico City Policy Resolution - Expresses the sense of the Senate that
the Mexico City policy should be permanently established.
S.190 Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance Act - Bans federal funding from
going to overseas organizations that perform and promote abortions.
S.3137 Parental Right to Know Act - Ensures that parents have access to policies
regarding end-of-life treatment, especially related to parental involvement in care of
minors, from hospitals and organizations that use taxpayer funding.
S.3138 Parental Accessibility Rights for Emergency and Negligent Treatment
(PARENT) Act - Ensures that parents have information about policies on parental
access to the medical records of minors from hospitals and organizations that use
taxpayer funding.
S.3140 American Wild Game and Livestock Protection Act - Codifies a proposed
rule by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to delist the gray wolf and exempt
both the rule and bill from judicial review.
S.1870 Miracle Mountain Designation Act - Designates mountain upon which
sections of the Bald Mountain Fire stopped as “Miracle Mountain.”
S.1973 Early Action Against Ozone Act - Requires the EPA Administrator to estab-
lish a program under which he shall defer the designation of an area as a nonattain-
ment area for purposes of the 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard
if the area achieves and maintains certain standards under a voluntary early action
compact plan.
 S.1768 Native Species Protection Act - Clarifies that the federal government has no
regulatory jurisdiction over a single-state species.
S.1695 Human-Powered Travel in the Wilderness Act - Allows local land managers
to determine if trails in local wilderness areas are suitable for bicycle access and allow
for that access to be granted.
S.935 Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act of 2019 - Prevents checkoff pro-
grams from contracting with organizations that lobby on agricultural policy and en-
gaging in anticompetitive behavior; and requires transparency through publication
of checkoff program budgets and expenditures, as well as means for audits of compli-
ance.
S.934 Voluntary Checkoff Program Participation Act - Allows farmers and ranchers
to participate in checkoff programs if they desire, while ending the tax on producers
who would prefer not to participate.
S.90 Protect Utah’s Rural Economy Act - Prohibits the establishment of a new na-
tional monument in Utah except when authorized by Congress and consent has been
given by the governor and state legislature.
S.694 Open America’s Waters Act of 2019 - Repeals the Jones Act’s restrictions on
coastwise trade.
S.1322 Air Traffic Control Safe Operation and Readiness Act of 2019 (ATC SOAR)
- Requires the FAA to reform its air traffic controller hiring process by revising its en-
trance exam and that preference for open controller positions be given to veterans,
national guard members, individuals with previous controller experience, and AT-CTI
program graduates.
S.1407 Aviation Empowerment Act - Permits internet-based flight sharing so that a
pilot who wants to share flight expenses with passengers may do so over the internet
without being required to possess a commercial pilot’s license or be registered as a
commercial airline.
S.1626 Government Spectrum Valuation Act of 2019 - Requires the Department of
Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to
coordinate with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Office of Man-
agement and Budget (OMB) to estimate the value of federal spectrum allocations
between 3 kilohertz and 95 gigahertz for licensed or unlicensed spectrum uses.
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S.1873 Protecting Access to American Products Act - Creates a Jones Act waiver pro-
cess that allows an individual to receive a waiver from the Jones Act’s requirements: (1) if
there is no Jones Act vessel to carry a particular good, and (2) the individual made a good
faith effort to locate a Jones Act compliant vessel.
S.2607 Drone Integration and Zoning Act - Protects the airspace rights of a property
owner for drones operating below 200 feet; a state and local government’s authority to
manage drone operations under an altitude of 200 feet; and the zoning authority of state
and local governments to designate commercial drone take-off and landing zones.
S.3035 Elderly Home Detention Pilot Program Technical Corrections Act of 2019 -
Reduces prison term for an elderly offender to qualify for early release from prison and
placement in home detention.
S.2931 RE-ENTER Act - Establishes a process for obtaining a federal certificate of rehabil-
itation.
S.2878 Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act of 2019 - Limits the use of facial
recognition technology by federal agencies.
S.2863 E Visa Integrity Act of 2019 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to
modify the eligibility criteria for E visas.
S.2850 Smarter Sentencing Act of 2019 - Modifies sentencing for certain drug offenses.
S.2783 Responsibly Enhancing America’s Landscapes Act - Establishes a National Park
Service Legacy Restoration Fund to address the maintenance backlog of the National
Park Service.
S.2742 Federal Prisons Accountability Act of 2019 - Requires that the Director of the
Bureau of Prisons be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
S.2566 Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2019 - Amends 18 USC §
3661 to prohibit the consideration of acquitted conduct at sentencing.
S.1702 Due Process Guarantee Act - Clarifies that an Authorization for the Use of Mil-
itary Force (AUMF), a declaration of war, or any similar authority shall not authorize the
detention of a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States without charge
or trial.
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 S.1508 Thin Blue Line Act - Expands the list of statutory aggravating factors in death S.285 Sarah’s Law - Requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take into
penalty determinations to also include killing or targeting a law enforcement officer, custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted
firefighter, or other first responder. in the death or serious bodily injury of another person.

S. 1506 A bill to amend title 18, United States Code, to permit certain individuals S.160 Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act - Establishes a new criminal of-
complying with State law to possess firearms - Amends 18 USC to permit certain fense for performing or attempting to perform an abortion if the probable post-fertil-
individuals complying with state law to possess firearms. ization age of the fetus is 20 weeks or more.

S. 1380 Due Process Protections Act - Requires a federal judge in criminal proceed- S.130 Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act - Establishes requirements for
ings to issue an order confirming the obligation of the prosecutor to disclose exculpa- the degree of care a health care practitioner must exercise in the event a child is born
tory evidence. alive following an abortion or attempted abortion.

S.909 Separation of Powers Restoration Act - Amends 5 USC with respect to the
judicial review of agency interpretations of statutory and regulatory provisions.

S.685 Inspector General Access Act of 2019 - Amends the Inspector General Act of
1978 relative to the investigative powers of the Department of Justice Inspector Gen-
eral.

S.556 Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act - Expands the E-Verify pro-
gram by requiring all employers to use it, and permanently reauthorizes the program.

S.370 NOPEC - Amends the Sherman Act to make oil-producing and exporting cartels
illegal.

S.386 Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act of 2019 - Increases the per-country
cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of such visas avail-
able that year to 15%, and eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant
visas. It also removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from
China.

S.350 Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2019 - Restores the application
of federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance to protect competition and
consumers.

S.297 Federal Courts Access Act of 2019 - Revises the statutory requirements for fed-
eral court jurisdiction in cases involving diversity of citizenship.

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 Making Life Affordable for
Utah Families
The American economy is thriving. The current economic expansion is the
longest in U.S. history, and Utah has been growing even faster than the nation
as a whole. At the start of 2020, the nation’s unemployment rate was 3.5% while
Utah’s rate was an even more impressive 2.3%, an all-time recorded low for the
state.

Yet, for many parents across this country, raising a family is harder and more
expensive than ever. The New York Times recently surveyed adults aged 20 to 45
who were parents or planned to be. One in four had fewer children – or expected
fewer children – than they considered ideal. Economic concerns were foremost
among the reasons that they fell short or believed they would.

It shouldn’t be this hard to raise a family. Senator Lee and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) introducing the CRADLE Act

There are some things we have already accomplished here in Washington that
are making life more affordable for Utah families. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of
2017 has cut taxes and raised incomes for many Utah families.
Specifically, the TCJA’s doubling of the child tax credit, along with an expansion
of the credit’s refundability, helped cut taxes for low-income families with two
children making about $36,000 by $1,404. Middle-class families with two children
making about $85,000 enjoyed a $2,420 tax cut. Most families with more children
experienced an even larger boost to their post-tax income.
Every dollar helps when parents are trying to raise a young family, and while
these lower tax bills did put more money in pockets of working families, there is
still more we can do.
That is why I teamed up with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) this year to introduce the Child
Rearing and Development Leave Empowerment (CRADLE) Act. This legislation
would allow both natural and adoptive parents to receive one, two or three
months of paid leave benefits. A few decades down the road, those parents
would then “pay” for the benefit themselves by delaying their own retirement for
two, four or six months.
While the specific parental leave benefit amount would depend on each
parent’s past earnings, a parent making $1,301 a month after taxes (that is the
current official poverty line) would receive a $960 monthly benefit, roughly a
74% wage replacement. Parents that earned more would receive more.
This completely voluntary program would make our existing social insurance
system much more family friendly by giving working parents more control of
their Social Security benefits.
Higher education costs are another major expense for both young parents
struggling to pay off their own student debt and more established families
looking to send their kids to college. Over the past 20 years, tuition at public
four-year institutions has increased more than 200%, far outpacing wage
growth. This is not sustainable.
That is why I introduced the Higher Education Reform Opportunity (HERO) Act,
a bill that would bring accountability, transparency and accountability to our
higher education system. Right now, a cartel of unaccountable accreditation
institutions is choking innovation in the higher education sector. HERO would

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 empower states to set their own accreditation standards, thus allowing federal
resources to support more alternative higher education models. The bill would
also force schools to be more transparent about the success of their students,
and it would hold schools accountable for failing to live up to their graduation
and employment promises.

Our rural communities face their own unique challenges in today’s changing
economy. We all have to deal with changing technologies and shifting
demographics. But communities in our state that find themselves surrounded
by federal land face an additional threat from the Antiquities Act, a law that
empowers the president to choke off most economic activity on any track of
federal land by declaring it a national monument.

Since the 1940s, federal agencies have cut livestock grazing on Utah rangelands
by more than 50 percent — a trend greatly accelerated by monument
designations. Utah’s rural communities deserve protection from this abuse of
power. That is why I introduced the Protect Utah’s Rural Economy Act. This bill
would protect Utah from future abuses under the Antiquities Act by prohibiting
the president from establishing or expanding a national monument in Utah
unless the proposed monument has been authorized by an act of Congress and
the state Legislature.
Discussing the CRADLE Act with Utah business and community leaders

16 A ranch in Piute County Senator Lee addressing Utah’s rural land issues on the floor of the US Senate 17
 Senator Lee established the Social Capital Project within the Joint Economic Committee
in 2017, with an aim to study the state of the American social fabric and identify ways to
strengthen it. In the Project’s first year, staff published research on trends in attachment
to families, work, community, and religious practice, the opioids crisis, volunteering,
and other topics. The following year, the Project published research on related topics,
including trends in loneliness, disengaged male workers, and the numbers behind
Utah’s experience with the opioids crisis.

Over the past year the Project shifted toward a policy-solutions focus, releasing
papers on how policymakers can address problems identified in past research. On topics
ranging from “brain drain” to residential zoning to the charitable deduction, our papers
and posts generated attention from online platforms and traditional news media. Social
Capital Project research is regularly cited by national and state-level news outlets, Summeries of select 2019 Social Captial Project publications:
including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and Deseret News.
The Wealth of Strong Families, Communities, and Congregations: Utah as a Case
Study in Social Capital – February 2019
In the Social Capital Project’s Social Capital Index, a tool measuring the health of
associational life across the United States, Utah ranked as the state with the highest social
capital. This paper considered the causes of Utah’s robust associational life in more detail.

The Wealth of Relations: Expanding Opportunity by Strengthening Families,

Communities, and Civil Society – April 2019
For two years, the Social Capital Project has documented trends in associational life and
its distribution across the country. In this paper, the Project turns to the development of a
policy agenda intended to expand opportunity by strengthening families, communities,
and civil society.

The Space Between: Renewing the American Tradition of Civil Society – December
2019
Even in our twenty-first-century American society, associational life ought to be at the
center of thinking about our social order and public policy. This report lays out the nature
of our diminished civil society, documents trends in its decline, and charts a path to its
renewal through a variety of policy options.

The social capital index reveals the extent of social disrepair and varies considerably across the United States. The View these full reports and others at lee.senate.gov or scan this QR code.
index presents the geographic distribution of several subcomponents of social capital, including family unity, family
interaction, social support, community health, institutional health, collective efficacy, and philanthropic health. 19
 Rural Empowerment
Rural Utahns want what all Americans want: a dignified decent-paying job, a family
to love and support, and a healthy community whose future is determined by local
residents – not their self-styled betters thousands of miles away.

Unfortunately, a relic of presidential power from the Progressive Era has been
weaponized in recent years to threaten rural Utahns way of life.

Passed in 1906, the Antiquities Act authorizes the president to unilaterally designate
national monuments on federal lands with the intent of protecting historic landmarks
and archeological sites.

But what was once a narrowly targeted tool for preventing looting on federal lands
now poses a looming danger to our rural communities in Utah. It has instead become
a tool for Washington politicians to serve wealthy out-of-state special interests at the
expense of these communities, as we have seen in recent decades.
Rural Road - Emery County
In 1996, at the height of his re-election campaign, President Bill Clinton used
the Antiquities Act to create a 1.5 million-acre monument in southern Utah.
Environmental activists were on hand for Clinton’s announcement in Arizona, but no
one from Utah’s state government or federal delegation was notified beforehand. It
was a complete surprise.

Then, in 2016, after an extensive campaign by well-funded out-of-state

environmental activists, President Barack Obama created the 1.3 million-acre Bears
Ears National Monument.

And for locals, this “protection” of these lands has come at a high cost, in the form of
restrictions on travel, recreation and economic opportunities.

Reduced grazing access is particularly harmful to Utah’s communities. Utah’s rural

economy is built on the agriculture industry, and livestock is the state’s single largest
source of farm income. Since the 1940s, federal agencies have cut livestock grazing on
Utah rangelands by more than 50 percent — a trend only accelerated by monument
designations.

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Colorado River - Grand County
 Public land in Kane County

Well-meaning environmental activists have suggested that Utah’s rural
communities embrace the tourist economy that comes with monument
designations. But while tourism has contributed much to rural Western
economies, communities can’t survive on tourism alone. Tourism is at best a
complement to — not a substitute for — broader economic development. And
we ought not limit the job opportunities in our rural regions to just one industry.
We as Utahns are not powerless to stop these attacks on our rural communities
and lands. And there is no one better suited to protect them than the very
people who live closest to them and rely on them for their livelihoods.
in public land management while also maintaining the president’s power to
protect these lands. And in fact, Congress has twice granted similar protections
to other states.
Congress first prohibited future monument designations in the state of
Wyoming in 1950. Then, more than 30 years later, Congress passed another law
requiring congressional approval for any monument designation in Alaska larger
than 5,000 acres. At a bare minimum, Utahns deserve the same protections from
the Antiquities Act that the people of Alaska and Wyoming enjoy. The PURE Act
would give them that protection.

That is why Sen. Lee introduced the Protect Utah’s Rural Economy, or PURE, Act
this year. This bill would protect Utah from future abuses under the Antiquities
Act by prohibiting the president from establishing or expanding a national
monument in Utah unless the proposed monument has been authorized by an
act of Congress and the state Legislature.

In other words, it would empower our local communities to give them a voice

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 make in their home countries.

Second, under previous administrations migrants knew that if they could just
overwhelm a section of the border with numbers, then our immigration law
enforcement agencies would simply release them into the country where they would
eventually qualify for the next amnesty.

President Trump has stemmed the tide of this flow with his “Remain in Mexico” policy,
which returns migrants to Mexico to wait for resolution of their asylum claims. Without
the promise of easy release into the United States, the flow of migrants has slowed to a
trickle.

But this is not a permanent solution to our immigration problem. In fact, there are many
other problems to our immigration system and they all need permanent legislative fixes
from Congress that can’t be undone by the next president.

Unfortunately, too many people in Washington insist on making the perfect the enemy
Senator Lee at the US-Mexico Border with Vice President Mike Pence and his fellow senators of the good. They demand that any legislative reform to our immigration system must
fix every problem or be rejected entirely.

Immigration Reform
It is exactly this thinking that has prevented the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants Act
from becoming law. This bipartisan bill which Sen. Lee has introduced in every Congress
since he came to Washington, eliminates the antiquated per-country caps on green card
allocations that are trapping many immigrants in low-paying jobs and also driving down
This summer at the height of the migrant crisis, Sen. Lee traveled to the U.S.-Mexico
American wages by enabling companies to exploit these workers who are essentially
border to study the crisis first hand.
tied to one employer as long as they don’t have their green card.
He talked to one Guatemalan couple in their late 20s who had travelled more than
This legislation passed the House of Representatives early in 2019, but then immigration
1,000 miles through Mexico with their two children. He saw an overflowing facility
activists who insist that any immigration reform, no matter how small, must include
of single adult males with no room to sleep and no privacy to use the bathroom.
a comprehensive amnesty for everyone who is in the country illegally, convinced one
And he talked to a ten-year old girl who said she had spent the last two months
senator to block the bill in the Senate.
walking with her family from Ecuador.
Immigration is always a tricky issue. And any policy change will help some people more
None of the journeys these families made were cheap, safe, or easy. And yet tens of
than others. But the Fairness for High Skilled Immigrants bill is bipartisan commonsense
thousands of families are making this journey every month. Why?
immigration reform that helps U.S. citizens and most immigrant populations who are
already here in the United States.
Two reasons.
Sen. Lee will continue to push for this common sense reform, and other immigration
First, the migrants know they can make for more money here. According to the
reform measures in 2020.
Institute for Defense Analysis, people migrating illegally from Guatemala and
Honduras can make about 13 to 14 times more in the United States than what they

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 Protecting the Constitution
One of the reasons our nation is so divided today is that we have let too much
power accumulate in the executive branch. Our nation’s politics has become
a winner-take-all contest in which every issue is controlled by one man: the
president. Given the stakes of this one election, no wonder our national politics
has become so divisive.

This is not the way our nation’s Founders designed the Constitution. They
specifically designed our founding document to spread power both vertically
and horizontally so that no one person would become so important.

Vertically, the Constitution spread power between the federal and state
governments. The federal government would be in charge of truly national
issues like defense, immigration, and trade. State government would then be
empowered to govern more local issues like education, health, and public safety. Senator Lee and his colleagues holding a press conference on U.S. involvment in Yemen

Horizantally, the Constitution spread power at the federal level between the
three branches of government, with Congress making the law, the Executive
enforcing the law, and the Judiciary interpreting the law.
Unfortunately, starting with the progressive movement in the early 1900s,
Congress has steadily given away their law-making power to the executive
branch, thus upsetting the balance of power the Founders had envisioned.
Few issues inspire Sen. Lee more than restoring the balance of power between
Congress and the executive branch.
That is why Sen. Lee partnered with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to use the War
Powers Act to force a vote to end the United States involvement in Saudi
Arabia’s war on Yemen this year. The Yemeni war has claimed the lives of tens
of thousands of people, including innocent civilians. It has created countless
refugees, orphans, and widows; and displaced countless families.
military, including midair refueling, surveillance, reconnaissance information,
and target selection assistance. But Congress never voted to authorize this use
of force against Yemen.
Bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate came together to defend
Congress’s war powers and end U.S. involvement in the war in Yemen, but the
president vetoed the resolution. Nonetheless, Sen. Lee will continue to fight to
protect Congress’s war power.
Sen. Lee also voted to limit the president’s use of the National Emergencies Act,
a bill that Sen. Lee believes gives unconstitutionally broad legislative powers to
the executive branch.
These were tough votes to take. But at the end of the day, Sen. Lee believes
executive branch power must be limited as the Constitution originally laid out.

Our military has been providing logistical and intelligence support to the Saudi

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Public Lands Roundtable
This past October, Senator Lee had the honor of welcoming Senator Lisa
Murkowski to our beautiful state to host a roundtable for the U.S. Senate
Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining in the city of Moab. With an
abundance of natural landmarks and scenic vistas, this was the perfect place to
hold this discussion.
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Dead Horse Point State Park
The roundtable discussion included many officials from both the state and
federal government. Joining Senator Lee and Senator Murkowski were members
of Utah’s congressional delegation, members of the Utah legislature, Forest
Service officials, the Directors of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration, and members of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordination
Office. Many issues were discussed, including the management of trust lands in
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Senator Lee and his colleagues with Gov. Herbert and acting
director of BLM, William Perry Pendley

“The best way to ensure these

national treasures are protected
- and recreation is available - is Senator Lee and Senator Murkowski chairing the roundtable discussion.
to empower our states and local
communities, who understand and
appreciate their backyards the best.”

-Senator Mike Lee

30 Left to Right: Moab Mayor Emily Niehaus, Rep. John Curtis, Rep. Paul Gosar, Rep. Rob Bishop, San Juan County
Going over the maps of Utah’s public lands with Senator Murkowski 31
Commissioner Bruce Adams, Senator Mike Lee, Senator Lisa Murkowski.
 Senator Lee and his colleagues had the opportunity to visit
Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park. During
these visits, they were able to learn firsthand about the Senator Lee at Dead Horse Point with his colleagues: Rep. Rob Bishop, Rep. John Curtis, and Rep. Gosar
unique challenges involved with maintaining and operating
these parks, as well as the differences in how both parks are
operated.

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Park Manager Dillon Hoyt briefing the group on how Dead Horse State Park is managed and maintained
 In July, Senator Lee and his team hosted their third annual celebration of Pioneer
Day, Flavors of Utah.

A few years ago, Senator Lee had the idea to share Utah’s Pioneer Day celebration
with his colleagues in Washington over Jell-O and a batch of homebrewed root
beer. Since then, it has grown to be the largest Pioneer Day celebration east of the
Mississippi, with a large sampling of Beehive State foods and over 500 people in
attendance.

A semi-tractor trailer full of Utah products left from the State Capitol and trekked
across the entire country to deliver the goods for the event. 24 Utah-based ven-
dors and businesses flew out to showcase their products and meet directly with
policymakers and the Washington, D.C. community.

We were also lucky to have a Salt Lake-based duet, Oskar and Julia, provide live
music for the event.

Flavors of Utah highlighted the talent, industriousness, and pioneering spirit of

the food industry in our state.

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 Mobile Offices
Since he took office in 2011, Senator Lee has emphasized the importance of making
his office accessible to everyone in the state. His staff has now held over 1,000 mobile
offices, visiting every corner of the state each year.

Senator Lee’s mobile office program provides a unique opportunity for Senate staff to
engage with Utahns in their local communities. It serves as a resource for constituents
who might not otherwise be able to meet with casework officers or other staff in the
Salt Lake and St. George offices.

In 2018, Senator Lee’s staff held mobile offices in over 100 communities in all 29 coun-
ties of Utah. They also held a mobile office at the state capitol each day of Utah’s legis-
lative session.

Senator Lee’s staff will continue to hold mobile offices throughout the state to give
Utahns an opportunity to receive the assistance they need. To view the upcoming
schedule and learn more, please visit lee.senate.gov

For information on upcoming mobile offices, scan this QR Code

with your cell phone camera or visit www.lee.senate.gov

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 Talking with Utahns
As your representative in the United States Senate, Senator Lee is eager to hear
the feedback and concerns about the issues facing your families, businesses, and
communities – whether in person, or by letter, email, or phone.

One of the privileges of Senator Lee’s job is meeting with Utahns from all walks of life,
in both his Washington, D.C. office and throughout the state.
Town hall with citizens of Salina
In 2019 he also held 4 townhalls across Utah; and when the Senate was in session
and Senator Lee was fulfilling his duties away from Utah, he hosted monthly tele-
townhalls. These “access live” events give Utahns the opportunity to ask questions,
voice their concerns, and learn more about what the Senator is working on; and allow
him to reach and stay connected with thousands of Utahns. To sign up for future tele-
townhalls, visit lee.senate.gov/live

If you are visiting our nation’s capital, you can attend “Jell-O with Senator Lee” every
Wednesday at 3:30pm when the Senate is in session. These events allow Senator Lee
to personally greet many of the Utahns who visit Washington, D.C. each year.

You can also call into both the Washington, D.C. and Utah offices to speak with
Answering constituent questions during an Access Live Event Taking questions from students at UVU
Senator Lee’s staff and leave a message for the Senator; send physical mail to the
offices; or send him questions and concerns online at https://www.lee.senate.gov/
public/index.cfm/contact

Talking with Utahns – through all different means – is one of Senator Lee’s most
important duties, and one of the highlights of his job.

33,000 Email, letters, and fax responses sent

16,661 Phone calls answered from constituents

1,270 Cups of Jell-O served

38 Meeting with Utah high school students at the US Capitol 39

 Town Hall with citizens of Castle Dale

Meeting with Utah students in DC

Employee town hall at US Synthetic

Discussing issues over breakfast in Helper

Town Hall with citizens of Nephi Speaking with young students in Lehi

40 Meeting with employees at ProSteel Security Products 41

 Participating in the Freedom Festival Flag Retirement
Attending a Veterans Day event at Timpview High School
Ceremony

“Thank you to every brave

soldier, sailor, airman, marine,
and coast guardsman who
pledged themselves to defend
our nation and Constitution”

-Senator Mike Lee

Senator Lee and members of his staff attending an aerial refueling
demonstration with the Utah Air National Guard

42 Senator Lee during an aerial refueling flight 43

Senator Lee with members of Utah’s congressional delegation and service members of the Utah Air National Guard
 Meeting the leadership at Sarcos

“I recognize that business, not

government, is the driving force of our
economy. It is my job to make it easier,
not harder for you to conduct your
business and provide the jobs that help
drive our economy.”

-Senator Mike Lee

Meeting with the leadership at MountainLand Supply

44 Speaking to a group at Northrop Grumman 45

Experiencing the latest in robotics at Sarcos Senator Lee at the 2019 Flavors of Utah event with Kodiak Cakes
 Constituent Casework
The federal government can be an intimidating and confusing organization
to deal with. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) wants all Utahns to know that his office
stands ready to help.
Members of the joint casework team meeting to discuss constituent cases
The most common types of casework we handle are Veterans Affairs
assistance, visa issues, and Social Security related problems. But our office

Stories
is able to help with just about any issue where a constituent has a pending
case with a federal agency. If you have a problem with a federal agency,
give our office a call. There is a good chance we can help!

Not only is Sen. Lee committed to doing his best to help every Utahn that
has an issue with the federal government, but Sen. Lee has also been an
innovator in casework. Starting in 2019, Sen. Lee teamed up with Sen. Mitt
Romney (R-UT) to create the only joint casework team in the United States
Senate.
Besides saving taxpayers money on overhead and staff, the joint casework
team can be more effective than a single senator working together because
whenever they send a letter to a government agency asking for help, it has
the signatures of two United States senators, not just one.
Utahns may call, email, or visit one of the senate offices to request
assistance. Referrals are also often made from the governor’s office, state
and local elected officials, and local businesses and nonprofit organizations.
In 2019 our combined staff helped over 500 Utahns solve their problem
with the federal government. We can do the same for you.
We worked with a homeless veteran, whose VA benefits claim had not
been processed in over two years. It was a complicated situation that
needed many documents and over time the case had fallen through
the cracks. We helped connect the VA with homeless service pro-
viders. They helped the veteran file a waiver and she was eventually
awarded her 100% disability, in addition to her 2.5 years of back pay.
She is now looking at putting a down payment on a small house.
A Utah couple found out, after returning home from an international
religious mission, that their Medicare premiums had continued to be
charged, even though they had submitted paperwork to terminate
their benefits. They had been trying to get their money back for 2 ½
years. An inquiry was made and within a few weeks, they were re-
funded the premiums.

Need assistance with a federal agency or federal program?

Call our office at: (801) 524-5933
46 47
 Military Academy Nominations

Since he began serving in Congress, Senator Lee has had the honor of nominating
outstanding young Utahns to our nation’s service academies: Air Force Academy,
Merchant Marine Academy, Military Academy at West Point, and the Naval Academy.

This year, Senator Lee invited Senator Romney to join him in simplifying the appli-
cation process for Utahns. The new joint online application allows students to apply
through both Senate offices using one application, and the combined academy
interviews allow applicants traveling from around the state to only have to come to
Salt Lake City for one day.

To better inform prospective applicants about the process, Senator Lee’s staff trav-
elled throughout the state attending academy nights to explain the congressional
nomination process through the Senate offices. They also sent out helpful infor-
mation to young Utahns interested in applying in the future, so that they can plan
ahead and best position themselves for a future nomination.

This year, we had 77 total applicants who completed a total of 129 interviews with
members of the Senator’s staff and representatives from the military academies.

During these interviews, Senator Lee and his staff look for applicants who demon-
strate a desire to serve our country and be leaders in the U.S. Armed Forces. Suc-
cessful applicants have shown they can handle the rigorous academic and physical
requirements of the academies while maintaining involvement and interest in their
local communities. Senator Lee had the pleasure of personally nominating 29 young
Utahns to the service academies this past year.

If you or someone you know wants to apply to a service academy, you can find
information about the academy nomination process on Senator Lee’s website at
https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/academy-nominations.

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 Senate Internship Program
Senator Lee’s internship program provides college students an opportunity to
enhance their studies by applying academic concepts in a real-world setting. The
internship provides invaluable, one-of-a-kind experience seeing the inner workings
of Congress and the legislative process.

A limited number of internships are available each year for Senator Lee’s
Washington, D.C. and Utah offices. Preference is given to college students who are
attending a Utah university or college, and residents from Utah who are attending
out-of-state schools.

Utah Internships
State internships are available in our Salt Lake City office. State interns perform a
variety of important tasks, including constituent outreach, casework assistance,
processing mail, answering constituent calls, and other projects as needed.

In addition to full-time state internships, there are part-time options available which
allow you to attend school while completing the internship.

Washington, DC Internships
Washington, DC interns are responsible for a variety of tasks in the office such as
completing legislative research projects, answering phone calls from constituents,
giving tours of the United States Capitol Building, attending hearings, preparing
memos, assisting with weekly constituent events, processing mail, and performing
a variety of other tasks as needed. Working in the Washington, DC office allows for
students to have an up-close look at the legislative process, and a better under-
standing of how policy is created and passed through Congress.

50 51
 Intern Spotlight
We interviewed Brecken Denler, who interned in the D.C. office in Spring of 2019, about
his experience of the internship. Here’s what he had to say.

Describe a typical day as an intern.

There was no typical day in my internship. While there are daily and weekly tasks
such as constituent phone calls and Jell-O on Wednesday, the topic of phone
conversations or the assignments from my legislative team were constantly
changing. The internship was a fantastic opportunity to gain experience working in
an office on a set schedule with changing tasks and topics.

What kind of projects and assignments did you have?

I was assigned to the money portfolio in the office. This includes foreign trade,
economics, budget, finance, and appropriations legislation. My legislative team
had me work on everything from staff memos to constituent correspondence on
these topics. I would write, with help from the legislative team, documents that
Senator Lee and the staff would read. As a special project, I helped the team write
a resolution that Senator Lee proposed encouraging a free trade deal between the
United States and the United Kingdom. Each project was different and exciting in
its own way.

What was a highlight/favorite story of the internship?

Senator Lee chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy
and Consumer Rights. For one Subcommittee hearing, the committee staff needed
someone to help run the timer for senators and speakers to limit their remarks.
It was an incredible opportunity to watch the proceedings from right behind the
senators as they asked their questions.

How do you think the internship will help you on your career path/exploring
your interests?
I have always wanted to work in politics and government. This internship helped
give me my first taste of a congressional office and helped me learn up-close what
politics really is. I loved the experience and would recommend interning in Senator
Lee’s office to anyone who has interest or curiosity in Congress or politics.

52 53
Important Links:
Federal Case Work, Mobile Offices, Town Hall Meetings
lee.senate.gov/public/utah-first

Legislation and Voting Record

lee.senate.gov/public/sponsored-legislation

The Social Capital Project Reports

lee.senate.gov/public/socialcapitalproject

Academy Nominations, Tour Requests, Internships, etc

lee.senate.gov/public/constituent-services

Facebook: /SenatorMikeLee

Twitter: @SenMikeLee

Instagram: @SenMikeLee

Youtube: www.youtube.com/senatormikelee

Newsletter: https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/the-laudable-pursuit