Christine Watkins for House District 67
Representative Christine Watkins
Christine was born and raised in Cache Valley. Living in Lewiston she helped her Grandpa Hyer haul hay, thin and hoe sugar beets, and milk cows. She graduated from high school in California and quickly returned to Utah State University and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education.
Christine has a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from the U of U and three Special Education Endorsements from BYU. She taught school in Castle Dale for 20 years and then left to work for the Utah Education Association.
Christine has had the honor to serve rural Utah for eleven years in the legislature, with encouragement and support from her belated husband, John. She loves representing this part of the state and fights hard for our priorities and values. She supports our oil, gas and coal industries and understands the importance of rural economic development needed to preserve our way of life and combat the challenges we face now and in the future.
As a former educator, she supports our teachers and understands the importance of providing the highest quality education to rural Utah’s children.
Christine serves as the House Chair of the Business, Economic Development, and Labor Sub-appropriation Committee; House Chair of the Child Welfare Subcommittee; House Chair of the Native American Liaison Committee; and is a member of the House Judiciary and Natural Resources Standing Committees. She is a board member of the Castle View Hospital in Price.
Christine loves living in rural Utah and appreciates and values the lifestyle living here affords. She and her husband lived happily together for many years on 2.5 acres in Carbon County. She currently lives in the same home with a son and grandson. She loves her chickens and their eggs and enjoys planting, growing, and preserving her veggies.
“I love this part of Utah and want to keep working to create more opportunities for all of us to succeed. ”
Representative Christine Watkins
Issues that Matter
Rural Economic Development
As your Representative, I have worked to ensure the responsible appropriation of your tax dollars for our communities. Bringing nearly $5,000,000 back to District 67 in my time at the legislator, I understand the necessity and value of bringing state monies back to our communities where they are most impactful.
Oil, Gas and Coal
I fight to maintain our public lands for multiple use. As your representative, I work with county officials and industry stakeholders to support the extraction industry and the companies that support them. It is vital that public officials stand up and fight against government overreach that is trying to strangle these industries to death along with the coal miners, oil and gas field workers, and the communities that support them.
Public Education
As a former educator, I understand the importance of providing the highest quality education to Utah's children. I serve proudly on the House Education Committee and vote for common-sense bills supporting teachers and students. I have voted for increases in the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) and policies that attract the best and brightest teachers to Utah Schools.
Agriculture
Farmers and ranchers face an untold amount of challenges: drought and water shortages; inflated fuel, equipment, seed, and fertilizer prices; and volatile livestock prices to name a few. They need all of us in their corner right now. I support our local farmers and ranchers and work to protect multiple use of our public lands and fair use of water rights. Farmers and ranchers are our country's greatest conservationists. I fight to ensure their rights and way of life are protected.
2023 General Legislative Session
Purpose: Sets a base budget for the Business, Economic Development, and Labor Committee, which I co-chair. This ensures that all of the basic needs of our state are met so that we can then allocate funds to other entities that help enrich our economy.
Status: Passed
Purpose: Codifies the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act in Utah law, with state-specific modifications, to ensure that Native American children continue to be protected. This will both protect Native American children if the federal law is overturned and claim our state’s right to manage child welfare.
Status: Circled on the House Floor Third Reading Calendar. Failed to Pass.
Purpose: Bases the number of signatures needed to add a person to an election ballot on the district’s density, making the process more fair to rural districts.
Status: Failed to Pass in Committee.
Purpose: Designates the porcini mushroom as the state mushroom. The porcini is found in Utah’s higher elevations and is a sign of healthy biodiversity.
Status: Passed
Purpose: Requires jails to allow incarcerated individuals to continue Medical Treatment Programs while in the jail. This will save individuals who are actively fighting addictions from relapsing when released from jail.
Status: Passed
Purpose: Allows an individual to purchase a 365-day license to pursue or take bison that damage or trespass on their property. The bill maintains all other limitations of big game hunting licenses and will primarily be used to ward off bison, who learn to avoid areas where other bison have been hunted. Note: Involved parties found amenable solutions , and we expect the bison issue to be resolved without further pursuing the bill.
Status: Held in Committee. Failed to Pass
Purpose: Sets urine sample tests as the preferred method for drug testing in child welfare proceedings and makes exceptions for extreme cases where obtaining an undiluted urine sample is not possible.
Status: Passed
Purpose: Enacts a tax exemption for construction material used to open or expand a child care program.
Status: Introduced. Failed to Pass.
Purpose: Prohibits municipalities from regulating microenterprise home kitchens outside of the scope prescribed in the bill. This would prevent cities from over-regulating those kitchens and impeding their business.
Status: Failed to Pass in Committee.
Purpose: This bill allows judges to revisit past incompetency evaluations and requires them to more strictly evaluate whether a defendant is incompetent. The purpose of this bill is to stop the cycle of repeat criminal activity allowed by faulty incompetency evaluations.
Status: Passed.
Purpose: This bill protects individuals from search without a warrant and from having children removed from their homes inappropriately. It requires 1) that child welfare caseworkers must obtain a warrant before entering a private premises that belongs to an individual suspected of creating a certain situation if they are to obtain evidence and 2) that a child’s removal from their home is recorded.
Status: Introduced. Failed to Pass.
Purpose: This bill prevents accusations of abuse based on assumptions. It not longer automatically defines a child who lives with another neglected child as also neglected. It also redefines “threatened harm” by removing ambiguous language, such as “indicating”.
Status: Introduced. Failed to Pass.
The 2023 Utah Legislative General Session has Adjourned.
Summary of my legislation: I had 12 bills filed this session. 5 of those bills passed into law. 2 bills failed to pass in their committees. 1 bill was held in committee, and the issue was resolved without pursuing the bill. 1 bill was intentionally circled on the House Floor because I didn’t feel the amendments made were friendly to the purpose of the bill, so I intend to continue work on the bill during the interim. 3 bills were introduced but didn’t have time to make it to a committee, so I will continue to work on those bills.